{"id":226522,"date":"2026-01-10T09:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T09:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/226522\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T09:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T09:28:07","slug":"sculpture-trail-set-to-link-new-and-old-watlington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/226522\/","title":{"rendered":"Sculpture trail set to link new and old Watlington"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Watlington Parish councillor Steve Bolingbroke, who leads on the project, said the new housing developments in the west of the town would increase its size &#8220;substantially&#8221;, by 40%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said developers were required to provide funds for public art, so now the local authority has about \u00a3125,000 to spend solely for that purpose.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bolingbroke said Hillier&#8217;s busts would reflect the built architecture of Watlington, which is largely brick. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;They are about a metre-high human head busts, mounted on steel plinths.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Hillier said each of them explored a different aspect of &#8220;this unique place&#8221;, from the chalk stream to the diverse habitats of the yew forests on Watlington Hill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The artist, who is currently working on the pieces in his studio in Northumberland, said he had mostly been inspired by &#8220;the rich intertwined communities that make Watlington the warm and welcoming place I have found&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He added the sculptures were due to be installed in the summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bolingbroke said one of them showed the moon shining through beechwoods, &#8220;which are characteristic of the Chilterns&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said the pieces by the two artists would be reflecting other aspects of the town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watlington Parish councillor Steve Bolingbroke, who leads on the project, said the new housing developments in the west&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-226522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}