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''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
Designed by
In pictures: ''Northumberlandia'' - the reclining lady
BBC, 30 August 2012
Banks Group – Shotten/Northumberlandia
Satellite view
{{Coord, 55, 5, 18.2, N, 1, 37, 41.1, W, type:landmark, display=title Landscape architecture Outdoor sculptures in England Monuments and memorials in Northumberland Land art Geoglyphs Sculptures of women in the United Kingdom Cramlington
''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
Shotton Surface Mine was an open cast coal mine located on the estate of Blagdon Hall, Northumberland, UK, operated by Banks Group. The mine was granted permission by the government in 2007, despite being refused permission by Blyth Valley Council ...
, it is high and long, set in a public park. Its creators claim that it is the largest land sculpture in female form in the world.
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. It was officially opened by Anne, Princess Royal on 29 August 2012. A day-long Community Opening Event on 20 October 2012 marked the park becoming fully open to the public.
Development
Designed by American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
landscape architect Charles Jencks,
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''.
The £2.5 million cost was borne by the Blagdon Estate and the Banks Group
The Banks Group is a family owned business headquartered in Durham, but working across Scotland and the North of England, established in 1976. Banks develops and operates in a variety of business areas including property development, renewables ...
, who carried out the construction work. The construction is part of the development of an adjacent open-cast
Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow.
This form of mining ...
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
*Sleeping Lady
The Sleeping Woman is a name or nickname for certain mountain formations located in different places in the world that are said to look like a reclining or deceased woman in the local tradition.
Ranges by the name of "The Sleeping Lady"
*Western ...
References
External links
*In pictures: ''Northumberlandia'' - the reclining lady
BBC, 30 August 2012
Banks Group – Shotten/Northumberlandia
Satellite view
{{Coord, 55, 5, 18.2, N, 1, 37, 41.1, W, type:landmark, display=title Landscape architecture Outdoor sculptures in England Monuments and memorials in Northumberland Land art Geoglyphs Sculptures of women in the United Kingdom Cramlington