Heart of England Forest Garden of Heroes and Villains sculptures

Sometimes social media can be quite useful when places you’d never heard of pop up with days out opportunities. The Garden of Heroes & Villains open day at The Heart of England Forest was one such day.  As a private garden, it seems they only open for these charity days on occasion, so I was pleased to spot one and get tickets.

The Heart of England Forecast is a private garden, founded by the late Felix Dennis. Originally a wheat field, Dennis bought it in 1989, and turned it into a display of specimen trees, a series of ponds, a yew maz, a meditation garden, a restored brick barn and more. 

The Garden of Heroes and Villains is a collection of life size bronze sculptures, of renowned people, characters and mythical beasts through history. The sculptures have been made by 28 sculptures, and are quite a collection to be able to view.

It was easy to find by car, with signs in the village of Dorsington, and there’s plenty of car parking with only a short walk to the gates. Of course I was a bit early (and they didn’t seem ready until after opening time). But it was easy enough to get through the ticket checking, pick up a map (yay, I wish more places still did paper maps), and start my walk.

As well as self guided walking around the site, there were additional activities available. Lots for children to do not far from the entrance. Plus there were various walking tours and talks you could join. Just check at the entrance if you need to sign up for those.

There are toilets near the beginning of the sculpture trail, and although there’s no cafe on site, there were a coffee van and street food seller if you wanted refreshments.

I was glad I arrived early because it did get busy quite fast, so I definitely got the pick of taking photos before everyone arrived en masse.

As well as the map showing where each of the sculptures was located, there was also an insert about each sculpture because the glass display stands weren’t easily readable in the sun.

The sculptures were great, from pop culture of The Beatles, Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan, to inventors and scientists like Brunel, Einstein and Hawking.

The arts and literature are well represented by the likes of William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Rupert Brooke, Leonardo de Vinci and Van Gogh.

Then sports are represented by Mohammed Ali and Sir Roger Bannister.

Mythical creatures and characters included King Kong, Ulysses, the Minotaur, Captain Jack Aubrey and Alice in Wonderland.

Women are also fairly well represented with Billie Holiday, Ada Lovelace (and her amazing skirt coloured differently in the sun), and Josephine Baker.

And not forgetting politics, war and journalism, where sculptures included Lawrence of Arabia, Sir Winston Churchill and The Few, RAF Fighter Pilots of the Battle of Britain.

There were also some less well known people like the Oz Defendants in the middle of the maze who were magazine editors on trial in the 70s. Joseph Bazalgette responsible for Central London Sewers, and John Snow who proved that a cholera outbreak in Soho was due to sewage polluted water from one public pump. I remember studying the latter case in my Medical Geography module in my degree.

I did struggle to find some of the sculptures with where they’d had them on the map, but ended up seeing them all.

It was also interesting to see the Shard Garden which was Felix Dennis’ last commission. A field of poetry (presumably his own?) all etched onto different shapes and sizes of ‘shards in the ground, lead to a figure of himself and his dog in the centre. It’s quite a special place to enjoy the peace and quiet.

There were plenty of people enjoying their drinks in the seated area in the garden, but I ordered my pink iced lemonade to take away as it was getting a bit too warm for me. There was also a picnic area near the parking for those who preferred to bring there own. Nothing there was in the shade though, so bring parasols or be prepared with sun lotion on a hot day if you’re planning to sit out there.

I was first in and probably first out, but had spent nearly an hour and a half walking round. The drive out was past the arboretum and other areas of the forest, and it was interesting to see such a new creation and imagine how it might look once it’s all grown decades down the line.

If you see any of The Heart of England Forest charity days advertised, or any of their other events and live nearby, do look out for them, as they’re worth a visit.