''Sentinel'' () is a

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

Tim Tolkien Tim Tolkien (born October 1962) is an English sculptor who has designed several monumental sculptures, including the award-winning ''Sentinel (sculpture), Sentinel''. He has a metal sculpture and public Art business at Cradley Heath, West Mid ...

, installed upon Spitfire Island, a roundabout at the intersection of the Chester Road and the A47 Fort Parkway at the entrance to the

Castle Vale Castle Vale is a housing estate located between Erdington, Minworth and Castle Bromwich. Currently Castle Vale makes up the Castle Vale Ward of Birmingham City Council which is part of Erdington constituency (having previously been part of Hod ...

estate in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is near Junction 5 of the

M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at ...

and the present day Jaguar Cars plant (the former

Castle Bromwich Castle Bromwich () is a large suburban village situated within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of the West Midlands. It is bordered by the rest of the borough to the south east; also Sutton Coldfield to the east and ...

aircraft factory). It shows three Supermarine Spitfires peeling off up into the air in different directions. The half-scale Spitfires are made of aluminium, with curving steel supporting beams which act as vapour trails. It captures the dynamics of the Spitfire in flight and commemorates the nearby Castle Bromwich factory where most of Britain's wartime Spitfires were built. There are proposals to move the sculpture to a new site, near its current location, to allow for road widening.

History

The award-winning project began in 1997 as part of the regeneration of Castle Vale estate. Using National Lottery funding, Tolkien was appointed as artist in residence. He consulted with

residents about an art feature and found that they were inspired above all else by the area's air history, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and favoured a sculpture featuring Spitfires. The sculpture was opened on 14 November 2000. The sculptor is the great-nephew of J. R. R. Tolkien (the author of ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...

,'' who grew up in

). The main commercial sponsors of the spitfire sculpture were from Jaguar, Rubery Owen Holdings and Cincinnati. Both Cincinnati and Rubery Owen Holdings made component parts for the Spitfires which were assembled by Jaguar at their factory, the former Castle Bromwich Spitfire and Avro Lancaster bomber factory. The Castle Bromwich Aerodrome Factory was built in 1940 to produce planes for the war effort. These were mostly Spitfires (almost 12,000 were made there, from 1940 to 1945) and Lancaster bombers. Over 37,000 test flights were made from Castle Bromwich Aerodrome, the planes being towed across the road from the factory to the Aerodrome when completed. The Chief Test Pilot throughout this period, Alex Henshaw, unveiled the sculpture. The aerodrome site and the adjacent British Industries Fair site (forerunner of the nearby National Exhibition Centre) are now wholly taken up by the Castle Vale estate.

References

External links

''Sentinel'' Spitfire website

Google Maps Street View of the Sculpture
{{coord, 52.5134, -1.7981, display=title, region:GB-BIR_type:landmark Outdoor sculptures in England History of Birmingham, West Midlands Transport in Birmingham, West Midlands 2000 sculptures Steel sculptures in England Aluminium sculptures in the United Kingdom Sculptures in Birmingham, West Midlands Aviation art