‘We need someone with a steely determination to save the Willow Man’

The 40ft tall willow sculpture, which stands in a field close to junction 23 of the M5 motorway, has fallen into a sad state of disrepair, ravaged over years by the weather and (I’m told) birds, who steal the willow for their nests!

Drive past now and you’ll see he’s missing his arms and his head.

Attempts have been made to fund repairs but sufficient money has not been forthcoming. And there have been concerns that merely replacing the willow is just a short term solution.

Yet I hear a more radical solution is now being suggested – build a new one from steel.

Last year the Highways Agency gave a grant of £35,000 to Somerset Council to fund a study on what to do with Willow Man. And one of the suggestions was, forget the willow and build a completely new one from recycled steel.

A two-metre tall scale model of Somerset’s Angel of the North has already been produced (although no-one is prepared to send me a picture). But here’s the six million dollar question: If it is to be built full scale, who will pay for it? Goodness knows how much it will cost!

Clinton Rogers. (Image: Supplied)

The money certainly won’t be coming from the public purse. While Somerset Council may have been prepared to oversee the feasibility study, right now their coffers are empty.

A spokesman for the council told me: “Thanks to funding from the Highways Agency, a feasibility study has been carried out by consultants and we’re considering the resulting reports.

“As we have said throughout, any potential project looking to repair, enhance or relocate the sculpture would be subject to another significant funding bid, or bids. The council is unfortunately not in a position to pay.”

And to me that is understandable. A council that is closing public toilets and struggling to repair potholes, perhaps shouldn’t be funding huge public art, no matter how worthy.

Yet how sad is it to see Willow Man in its current state. When it was constructed in 2000 by local artist Serena de la Hay it rapidly became a Somerset icon, admired by millions of motorists driving up and down the M5.

Over time the Willow Man image was used by numerous companies and organisations on their logos and in their marketing materials. Willowdown School in Bridgwater took its name from the sculpture.

The problem is that repairs are expensive – and only ever temporary. That is the nature of willow. So the steel alternative seems a good one.

Yet here we are back to the cost. If not the council, who will pay? Is anyone, or any company, interested enough to dig into pockets to come up with the cash? And how deep will those pockets need to be?

It does seem a shame to me that we have spent this amount of time – not to mention £35,000 – for the project to grind to a halt now.

So to all those companies out there (the huge Morrisons distributions warehouse is right next door!), I say: How about it? Think of the public exposure.

I would suggest crowd funding, but I think that’s already been tried. We need someone with a steely determination to come forward. Forgive the pun!

If you wish to contact Clinton, you can email him at clinton.rogers@countygazette.co.uk.