Statue taken down in 1980s
Damaged work of art removed from front of Burbage school
QUITE a bit of interest has been shown in the statue which used to be on the side of Hastings High School in Burbage.
However, it was removed at some point in time and a reader wrote in recently to ask why and what happened to it.
Another reader, June Taylor, has been in touch to supply a couple of fabulous pictures of it which are on this page.
And she has attached some details she found out about it.
According to the information she discovered, the statue was called Girl Releasing Dove and it was commissioned in 1956 by the director of education Stewart Mason.
It was part of a programme to get living sculptors to help provide works of art for school buildings.
Apparently, by the 1980s, the statue had started to crack due to the weather.
Restoration was decided to be too expensive so the decision was taken to remove it in 1983. The concrete outer casing had become cracked allowing water to enter inside and cause problems to the internal metal. Apparently, many of the works of art commissioned at this time suffered in the same way.
The sculpture was made by Ben Franklin and a similar one was also on Stone Hill High School in Leicester.