Artist puts megalithic memorial on wheels

Submitted by Andy B on Monday, 03 December 2001 Page Views: 2075

Widower Roger Franklin is determined not to be put off by planners - and has built an obelisk on wheels.

He upset some of his neighbours and planners last January when he put up a 43ft obelisk in his back garden in memory of his late wife Yvonne, without planning permission.

Now he has designed and built a temporary copy of
the needle, which is mounted on wheels.

He will try it out on different parts of Clements Farm
in Great Rissington so neighbours can comment.

Then he intends to apply to Cotswold District Council for planning permission to build a permanent stone obelisk.

Planners said the original was a blot on the landscape, and ordered him to take it down. Mr Franklin appealed to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. But the weather sorted the problem out - the obelisk blew over in a gale last December.

His new 37ft creation is mounted on a trailer and swivels with the aid of a sail. Mr Franklin said: "It's called Zorro - Zero Orientation Rapid Response Obelisk. It's made out of fibre glass and hinged so it won't blow over.

"I intend it to be a temporary structure. It's a model to see how it looks in various positions and study its environmental impact.

"I still hope to get planning permission for a permanent obelisk. But one of the things that grated with people before was that nobody was consulted and I was criticised for being rather impetuous."

Mr Franklin has displayed the mobile obelisk on a field near the turning to Great Rissington, close to the military airfield. His friends and residents of Great Rissington gathered at a special showing.

Jax Culpepper, 47, of Stow-onthe-Wold, said: "It's great to see it up again. It's a particularly wonderful piece of work."

His son Matt, 27, a musician, said: "I would like it to be the centrepiece of a video I'm working on. It's unique."

Nigel Wade, 55, of Great Rissington also approved. He said: "It's a really bold statement. It combines art, engineering and sentiment. It's unusual and different, it's a work of genius."

Mr Franklin has sealed up the plinth of the original obelisk, which stood over the elaborately-decorated stone tomb of his wife. She died in 1996, aged 39. He spent two years sculpting a figure of her on top of the tomb. Around it are the words of poet Edward Fitzgerald's epic The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

District council planning officer John Longmuir said: "We need to look into whether the mobile obelisk needs planning permission. It's quite possible it will. Myself and the enforcement officers are keeping our eyes open."

Source

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