Our Sculpture

How could we remind the public of the importance of Scouting in our community? Well perhaps by a piece of art.

In January 2002, local artist the late Malcolm Pollard brought 12 young scouts together to get them involved in art and find a way of communicating their skills to others. The scouts were taught the strength of structures and the freedom of the mind to allow innovative thinking. A month later, Malcolm produced a model of these collective ideas and the project was born. The theme ‘communication’.

It took three long years to assemble the funding but on 19th June 2005 the Scout Sculpture was unveiled.
The twenty-six, 6 metre tall, 75mm diameter stainless steel tubes are bolted to mild steel bases secured to a smooth finish concrete base. High on the tubes are dots and dashes, which convey a well-known scouting message – “Be Prepared”. There are numerous other aspects of communication within the structure.

Whilst scouting has no national boundaries it is believed that this type of art promotion is unique in Britain.
We would like to thank our major sponsor Northampton Borough Council for their site, professional skills and funding. However, the project would not have been possible without sponsorship and skills of numerous parties including Northamptonshire County Council, Brooks Engineering, Wollaston Motors, P & D Kingston, Rotary of Northampton Becket, Easyrider Company, D K Jones, Val Sabin Productions, Mr & Mrs Hunt, Clayson Country Homes, Komcept Solutions, J E Matthews & Sons and John Ward. Finally the ambition of Northampton District Scouts and a small band of dedicated adults who made the idea reality