The Concrete Cows in Milton Keynes, England are an iconic work of sculpture, created in 1978 by the American artist Liz Leyh. [1] [2] There are three cows and three calves, approximately half life size.
The Cows are constructed from scrap, skinned with fibre glass reinforced concrete donated by a local builder. [3]
The artist was an "artist-in-residence" in the early days of Milton Keynes and part of her role was to lead community participation in art. The Cows was one of a number of pieces created during her stay. [3] Other examples of her work here include The Owl and The Pussy Cat at Netherfield and a concrete mural near the leisure centre at Stantonbury. They were originally constructed at Stacey Hill Farm near Wolverton, where she had set up her studio. The base armatures were metal, with chicken wire used to create the general shape, then stuffed with newspaper. The original colouring of the cows was achieved using dyes. Some cows were brown. It is only through the council painting the cows that the uniform black and white has appeared. The artist also ensured that each cow had a heart shape used as part of the pattern on the cow skin.
Later commentators have interpreted it as an example of conceptual art: the artist poking fun at the preconceived notion of the new city, held by commentators who had never seen the place, that it would consist entirely of concrete pavements where once there were fields, and where its deprived children would need models to know how real cows once looked. [4] The reality of course was different: Milton Keynes Development Corporation was building "a city in the forest", with substantially more open green space than found in traditional cities. Furthermore, there are real farms with real cows within 2 miles (3 km) of the site, and the cows are currently located in a real field.
On their site in a public park, the Cows have been vandalised and modified. Sometimes they have simply been damaged, [5] while at other times they have been painted pink, become zebras, [6] become skeletal, [7] had pyjama bottoms added, [8] have been beheaded [8] in the style of Damien Hirst, have acquired BSE (mad cow disease) graffiti, [8] had one of the calves kidnapped (with ransom notes to the local papers). [6] One of the Cows briefly enjoyed the services of a papier-mâché bull.[ citation needed ] When UK Culture Minister Kim Howells referred to modern art trends as "conceptual bullshit", [9] the Cows acquired concrete cow-pats.[ citation needed ]
In a programme, The Sculpture 100, made for Sky Television in December 2005, the Concrete Cows were included in a list of the 100 most influential works of twentieth-century open-air sculpture in England. [4] The list also includes another piece in Milton Keynes: Triple Starhead by Paul Neagu (in Furzton). [4]
Two of the Cows featured at the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2014). [10]
The home supporters stand at Milton Keynes Dons F.C. is known as "The Cowshed", while its home stadium was briefly nicknamed 'The Moo Camp' [11] (after FC Barcelona's Nou Camp). The team mascots are two pantomime-style cows named "Donny" and "Mooie".
Actor Russell Crowe joked about the cows in 2007 while promoting the movie 3:10 to Yuma . [12] The cows appear in Charles Stross' story The Concrete Jungle , and in Mark Wallington's Destination Lapland, where he marked seeing them as a highlight of his passing visit.
The Cows were made at Stacey Hill Farm, now the site of the Milton Keynes Museum. [6] and originally located at a parkland site in Bancroft. They have subsequently resided at the National Hockey Stadium and Midsummer Place, beside the Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre. [13] In spring 2016 they were moved to MK Museum – which is where they originally started out as a temporary exhibit. [6] [13]
However the replicas (made by Bill Billings) in Bancroft are perhaps better known and are sited next to the A422 (Monks Way) between V5 Great Monks St. and V6 Grafton St.) where it passes under the West Coast Main Line, near its junction with the A5. Direct access on foot or by bike is possible by redway. The nearest rail stations for Bancroft or the MK Museum are Milton Keynes Central and Wolverton. Buses for Bancroft include Arriva buses 5 and 6 between Bletchley, Central Milton Keynes and Wolverton which call at near-by bus stops on each side of Monks Way near the junction with H3's northern carriageway and Octavian Drive. If approaching on foot or by bike from these stops, a stream separates the cows from the eastern (Octavian Rd) side of H3. There is a bridge over the stream next to the southern carriageway of H3, and an underpass links this bridge to the cows' field.
Milton Keynes is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about 50 miles (80 km) north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms the northern boundary of the urban area; a tributary, the River Ouzel, meanders through its linear parks and balancing lakes. Approximately 25% of the urban area is parkland or woodland and includes two Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).
The City of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority area with both borough and city status, in Buckinghamshire. It is the northernmost district of the South East England Region. The borough abuts Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and the remainder of Buckinghamshire.
Bradwell is an ancient village and modern district in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, situated approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) north-west of Central Milton Keynes. It has also given its name to a modern civil parish that is part of the City of Milton Keynes. The village was adjacent to Bradwell Abbey, a Benedictine priory, founded in 1155 and dissolved in about 1540, but the abbey and its immediate environs were always a separate ecclesiastical parish.
Stantonbury is a district and civil parish of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, situated roughly 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Central Milton Keynes. The toponym Stanton is derived from an Old English term for "stone-built farmstead" and the bury element from the French family Barri who held it in 1235. The original Stantonbury is a deserted medieval village now known as Stanton Low; the Stantonbury name has been reused for the modern district at the heart of the civil parish.
Wolverton is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, England. It is located in the north-west of the city, beside the West Coast Main Line, the Grand Union Canal and the river Great Ouse. It is the administrative seat of Wolverton and Greenleys civil parish.
Events from the year 1978 in art.
Wolverton railway station serves Wolverton, a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The station is on the West Coast Main Line, about 52 miles (84 km) from Euston, between Milton Keynes Central and Northampton. The station is one of the seven stations serving the Milton Keynes urban area.
Wolverton railway works, known locally as Wolverton Works or just The Works, was established in Wolverton, Buckinghamshire, by the London and Birmingham Railway Company in 1838 at the midpoint of the 112-mile-long (180-kilometre) route from London to Birmingham. The line was developed by Robert Stephenson following the great success of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway line.
New Bradwell is (mainly) an Edwardian era village, modern district and civil parish in north-west Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north-west of Central Milton Keynes. Together with Wolverton, it was built primarily to house the workers on the Wolverton railway works.
Bradwell Abbey or Bradwell Priory is a Scheduled Monument, urban studies site, district and former civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The site was once the location of a Benedictine priory, founded in 1155.
The A422 is an "A" road for east–west journeys in south central England, connecting the county towns of Bedford and Worcester by way of Milton Keynes, Buckingham, Banbury and Stratford-upon-Avon. For most of its length, it is a narrow single carriageway.
Milton Keynes North is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since the 2019 United Kingdom general election by Ben Everitt, a Conservative.
The Central Milton Keynes shopping area is a regional shopping centre located in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England which is about 50 miles (80 km) north-west of London. It comprises two adjacent shopping centres, the grade II listed building thecentre:mk which opened in 1979, and Midsummer Place opened in 2000. The centre:mk is anchored by John Lewis and Marks & Spencer. The complex is the 14th largest shopping centre in the UK, with the size of 120,773 sq metres.
This history of Milton Keynes details its development from the earliest human settlements, through the plans for a 'new city' for 250,000 people in northern Southeast England, its subsequent urban design and development, to the present day. Milton Keynes, founded in 1967, is the largest settlement and only city in Buckinghamshire. At the 2021 census, the population of its urban area was estimated to have exceeded 256,000.
Milton Keynes in England has a collection of modern art, primarily sculpture, in its public buildings and open spaces.
The Milton Keynes grid road system is a network of predominantly national speed limit, fully landscaped routes that form the top layer of the street hierarchy for both private and public transport in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. The system is unique in the United Kingdom for its innovative use of street hierarchy principles: the grid roads run in between districts rather than through them. This arrangement permits higher speed limits due to the absence of buildings close to the roads – although more recently some have been limited in part to 40 mph (64 km/h). The grid road system also serves an important purpose of discouraging through-traffic from travelling through neighborhoods and thus reduces traffic noise and pollution in pedestrian areas. Motor traffic is segregated from pedestrian and leisure cycling traffic, which uses the alternative Milton Keynes redway system. Almost all grid junctions are roundabouts, and the absence of traffic lights enables free and efficient movement of traffic.
Wolverton Urban District was a local government district in Buckinghamshire, England, from 1920 to 1974, covering the town of Wolverton and its environs, including the town of Stony Stratford. A district covering this area existed from 1894 to 1974, but was initially a rural district called Stratford and Wolverton Rural District. It was redesignated an urban district in 1919, briefly being called Stratford and Wolverton Urban District before being renamed Wolverton Urban District in 1920.
Milton Keynes City Council is the local authority for the City of Milton Keynes, a unitary authority in Buckinghamshire, England. Until 1 April 1997 it was a non-metropolitan district.
Whitehouse is a neighbourhood and civil parish that covers a large new development area on the western flank of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. As the first tier of Local Government, its community council is responsible for the people, living and working in this area of Milton Keynes.
Liz Leyh is an artist, maker and community arts activist currently active in the UK. She was born and raised in Utica, a city located between New York and the Canadian border, to parents who were factory workers of Polish immigrant stock.
Visitors to the British Pavilion are greeted by a pair of concrete cows on loan from Milton Keynes. The cows were originally produced by the artist Liz Leyh shortly after the post-war town was created in the late-seventies.