Northumberlandia

Northumberlandia under construction in August 2011
The head pictured from below showing lips, nostrils, eyes and forehead

Northumberlandia (the "Lady of the North") is a huge land sculpture in the shape of a reclining female figure, which was completed in 2012, near Cramlington, Northumberland, northern England.

Made of 1.5 million tonnes of earth from neighbouring Shotton Surface Mine, it is 34 metres (112 feet) high and 400 metres (1,300 feet) long, set in a 19 hectares (47 acres) public park. Its creators claim that it is the largest land sculpture in female form in the world.[1]

It is intended to be a major tourist attraction with the developers hoping that it will attract an additional 200,000 visitors a year to Northumberland.[2] It was officially opened by Anne, Princess Royal on 29 August 2012.[3] A day-long Community Opening Event on 20 October 2012 marked the park becoming fully open to the public.[1]

It has been nicknamed "Slag Alice" by some, a pun on Slack Alice, a local disparaging term for women, and slag, mining waste.[4]

Development

A map of Northumberlandia.

Designed by American landscape architect Charles Jencks,[5] the sculpture was built on the Blagdon Estate, owned by Matt Ridley, a journalist, businessman and author of The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature.[4]

The £2.5 million cost was borne by the Blagdon Estate and the Banks Group, who carried out the construction work. The construction is part of the development of an adjacent open-cast coal mine at Shotton. For this project, it was decided to use part of the excavated material to make a land sculpture rather than return it all to the surface mine, as is normally done at the end of such operations.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Northumberlandia: The naked lady of Cramlington". BBC News. 1 September 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  2. ↑ "Work begins on 'Goddess of the North' in Northumberland". BBC News website. 8 April 2010. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  3. ↑ "Northumberlandia: Princess Royal opens naked sculpture". BBC News. 2012-09-03. Retrieved 2012-09-03.
  4. 1 2 "'Slag Alice' is set to rival Angel of the North". Mail Online website. 22 May 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  5. ↑ Gilbert, Jonathan (17 June 2011). "Coming to the UK -- a half-mile long woman's body". Reuters website. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
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Coordinates: 55°5′18.2″N 1°37′41.1″W / 55.088389°N 1.628083°W / 55.088389; -1.628083

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