Old Ladies Curse Sculpture

A former Warwickshire mayor has criticised a 25-ft iron sculpture of a navigational instrument installed on a major roundabout in Stratford. The £100,000 work of art on the junction of Trinity Road and Banbury Road has apparently caused uproar among townsfolk. The structure takes the form of a partially buried giant armillary sphere - a structure comprising seven interlocking rings with the sun at its centre - and was inspired by the 16th-century navigational tool its designers saw at the Royal Observatory, in Greenwich, London. The former mayor called the piece a "horrendous mess of rusty steel" and said it would be more at home in a city with naval links like Plymouth or a steel city like Sheffield. He said: "It should come with a health warning. Dozens of residents have complained and people have come up to me in the street complaining about it. Nice ladies have been swearing about it." A spokeswoman for Stratford District Council said: "Nobody has actually complained to us about it." (For full source and article click the Headline). Irish Art