Explore the Sculpture Collection

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail

Made from steel, People is inspired by the reflection of two figures walking together in a river. The sculpture reflects the movement around it, from gentle walkers to busy commuters passing through the space, and is designed to change over time as it oxidises and shifts in colour.

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail

Made from found metal objects and recycled materials, Cormorant captures the form and movement of a large water bird often seen around Nene Park’s rivers and lakes. The sculpture depicts the bird paused with wings outstretched, proudly holding its catch as it perches within the Sculpture Trail.

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail

Carved from a single block of Clipsham stone, this abstract sculpture combines hand carving and mechanical sawing to create its distinctive form. Its shifting shapes change depending on the viewpoint, revealing different forms as you move around it.

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail

Festival Boat was commissioned from the artist as part of the final ‘Festival of Sculpture’ in 1989 which marked the end of the Development Corporation in Peterborough. This large scale artwork rests on the bank of the River Nene in Thorpe Meadows and takes as its inspiration from its location and the festival boats used ceremonially in the artist’s native Nigeria.

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail

The four large wooden elements resemble giant acorns that reflect the nature and materials of their surroundings. Originally located in Werrington Shopping Centre, Odd Oaks is located at Thorpe Meadows. It was decommissioned from the collection in 2011 but left in situ to allow nature to take its course.

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail 

Formed of three abstract sculptures hand-carved from limestone, the stones resemble archaeological remains, perhaps from a drowned civilisation. The sculpture resonates with the rich history of the city including the traces of Iron Age and Roman settlements nearby. The sculptures also create a connection to the nearby River Nene.

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail 

Sitting within the landscape at Thorpe Meadows, a series of hinged sections act like doorways from one view to another.  To create the steel sculpture Miles Davies utilised a technique of cutting the plate steel with lasers in a water tank, which allowed him to create the intricate shapes of the sculpture.

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail

This stone sculpture made in 1987 responds to the movement of the sun and marks the passage of time with the carved sphere at the top of Helios perhaps representing a globe. Lined up with the meridian, it was created to celebrate the summer solstice and only at this time is the face of the sculpture fully illuminated by the sun.

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail

This steel sculpture made in 1985 represents the children’s story of the same name by Antoine de Saint Exupery. The story follows a young prince who visits various planets in space, including Earth and refers to the themes of loneliness, friendship, love and loss.

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail

This limestone sculpture created in 1987 depicts a wolf-like creature emerging out of the stone block from which its carved. The material and figure relate to the heritage of the landscape with wolves populating the British landscape until the 15th Century. The wolf now protects Thorpe Meadows.

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail

One of Peterborough’s most iconic sculptures, Peterborough Arch stands proudly alongside the Parkway road in Thorpe Meadows, and was created specifically for this location in 1987. Made from Oroko wood, the sculpture aligns with, and appears to be striding towards, the front of Peterborough Cathedral in the city centre.

Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail

This steel sculpture is sited on the hill above the rowing lake and can also be viewed from the busy Longthope Parkway. It is structured like a series of interlocking doors, mirroring the shape of the rowing lake and the changing colours of nature through the seasons.

Lynch Wood, Ferry Meadows

Lynch Wood Seats were commissioned by Peterborough Environmental City Trust (PECT) in 1999 and were made by students from Thomas Deacon Academy during the summer of 2000 under the supervision of technology teacher, Lee Mawby.

Ferry Meadows

John Maine’s large work ‘Pyramid’ stands to the north of Gunwade Lake at Ferry Meadows. His many travels, especially to Mexico, greatly influence his work exploring themes of landscape, land forms, ancient sites, mathematical systems and surface planes. Pyramid creates a powerful marker in the landscape and reflects the heritage of the Park as a quarry – providing the building materials for the modern city, and represents the hard work and labour that contributed to the rapid growth of the city.

Ferry Meadows

Created in 2000, this sculpture appears to soar across the sky next to Overton Lake. This dynamic sculpture reflects the diversity of birdlife that visits both the Park and the fens that surround Peterborough. Bob Dawson’s work links to his memories of his childhood growing up in Wales and his relationship to nature and the cycle of birth, decline, death and rebirth.

Ferry Meadows

Created in 2003 from a standing dead tree that was sadly killed by Dutch Elm disease. Jason Thomson’s sculpture stands proudly beside the road entrance to Ferry Meadows. The design of the piece reflects the heritage of the Park and the thousands of years of human influence on the land. It includes a Roman soldier, machinery used to extract gravel from the lakes in the 1970s, as well as some of the wildlife found in the Park.

Ferry Meadows

Created in 1999, this sculpture represents a site in Bluebell Wood in Ferry Meadows that many visitors might overlook. This beautiful wooden sculpture of a shepherd and his sheep, sits at the site of a pool of water next to the River Nene that used to be used for sheepwashing from the 15th – 19th Centuries.  Many hundreds of sheep, owned by the nearby Milton Estate, were grazed in the nearby flood meadows and brought to the sheep wash each year.

Ferry Meadows

Created in 2017, this sculpture provides a wayfinding point along the footpath between Orton Mere and Overton Station on Ham Lane or North towards Goldie Meadows and Ham Mere.  The sculpture was made specifically for this location and the design responds to the rich habitats of the nearby meadows and meres with an intricate design featuring herons, dragonflies and foxgloves.

Peterborough City Hospital (outside the main entrance)

The dynamic shape of the sculpture provides a direction for visitors, but also creates an important social space for patients, visitors and staff at the hospital pause. The towering ‘stems’ of the sculpture reach 16m from ground level, and at the base, a shape similar to a plough blade appears to break up the ground, as if preparing the ground for seeds to be sown. The plough shape also represents an open book and the sharing of knowledge.

Key Theatre, Peterborough

Made from mild steel in 1987, this sculpture is constructed with large-scale interlocked industrial forms – bolted and welded together to create different shapes and shadows in space. Mounted onto the pavement, Lagoon invites you to look under, through and around it, exploring the different angles and viewpoints.

Created to celebrate the new millennium, the opening of the Sustrans cycle network, and the contribution made by Perkins Caterpillar engines to the local community. Perkins Engines have been an important manufacturer and employer in the city since 1932 and the heritage of engineering in the City linked with Robert Erskine’s background in and passion for design, engineering, industry and nature, inspired this monumental sculpture.

Peterborough City Centre

This sculpture involves three life-size standing figures located on three different buildings around Cathedral Square in the city centre. As with many of Antony Gormley’s artworks, the sculptures are made from casts of his own body.  One figure is shielding their eyes from the sun – as though watching over us and taking in the view of the city, one figure has their arms by their sides, and one figure has their arms outstretched – embracing the sky and their surroundings.

A605 roundabout outside Ikea 

Artists Renn and Thacker visited Peterborough during the construction of the Ikea distribution building and were inspired by the flat landscape, the expanse of sky and land, and how this was broken up and linked by the scattering of church spires along the horizon. It is this space between the buildings in the landscape that interested the sculptors.

Burghley House Sculpture Garden

This sculpture uses form and colour to represent the dancing flames of a fire.  Fire was acquired by the Peterborough Development Corporation for the Orton Centre in 1980. This dynamic piece, made of welded steel, is now on long term loan to Burghley Sculpture Gardens.