King Bladud’s Pigs of Bath – Summer 2008

“The King Bladud’s Pigs were one of the best boosts to tourism that I have experienced.”
Charles Curnock - Administrator, Bath Abbey

Lions of Bath – Summer 2010

Amy Williams

Midge Ure

In 2010, a hundred Lions of Bath took pride of place around the city to celebrate the royal history of Bath

Lord Bath

Danny Grewcock and Lee Mears

Lord Bath

Amy Williams, Danny Grewcock, The Stig

Peter Gabriel

King of Fudge

The trail increased footfall, generated international media coverage and increased overnight stays

Fashion Designer and BBC’s ‘The Clothes Show’ Presenter Jeff Banks with FloraLeo

Lions took pride of place across the city

Thousands of residents & visitors spent the summer tracking down the pride

Whooo’s involved?

The Organisers of the Minerva's Owls of Bath 2018 event are:

Gitte Dawson, a B&NES councillor until 2007 who came up with the original King Bladud’s Pigs of Bath project and

Megan Witty, previously a producer/director at ITV in London and the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, who has organised a wide range of national and West Country events including the Pigs and Lions of Bath, Swans of Wells and the annual '24 Hours in Bristol' photo competition.

Find out about the rest of the Minerva’s Owls Project Team

The King Bladud’s Pigs 2008 sculpture trail – A colourful trail of 100 cheeky pig sculptures captivated Bath’s residents and visitors. The Royal Crescent preview weekend attracted 16,000 people and the charity auction raised £200,000 for the Two Tunnels cycle path project.

The Lions of Bath 2010 public art event - a trail of 100 life-size lion sculptures to celebrate the royal history of Bath, which increased footfall to the city and raised over £65,000 for local charities.

The Swans of Wells 2012 sculpture trail. The 60 giant swan sculptures displayed around England’s smallest city were referred to as the best thing to have happened in Wells for decades. The charity auction raised over £100,000.

The ‘24 Hours in Bristol’ photographic competition. Now in its 5th year, the event attracts entrants from across Europe, generates 10,000 new photographs of the city each year and results in a major exhibition of winning images.

Sculpture trails – Economic Impact

Sculpture trails not only raise millions of pounds for local charities, but also have a significant city-wide economic impact.

The ‘Great North Snowdogs’ trail in Tyne and Wear, attracted 676,000 visitors over the 10 weeks of the project, contributing an additional £7.2m to the local economy. 25% of visitors took in the entire trail and 35% spent six or more days completing it. 64% visited somewhere new in the city whilst following the trail.

Birmingham’s Great Western Mall saw a 25% increase in visitor numbers compared to the previous year.

During the Norwich elephant trail, Pret a Manger reported a 16% increase in sales, based on their sponsorship of an elephant.

On the first day of Pride of Northampton, an additional 25,211 visitors were recorded in the main shopping street, compared to the same day the previous year.

Sainsbury’s Colchester saw dwell time double while shoppers and visitors looked for giraffes.

‘Gromit Unleashed’ saw 1.18m visitors over the 10-week display period, of which 900,000 visited specifically to see the Gromit sculptures.

Footfall to Bristol’s Museums doubled.

The main Northampton shopping centre recorded an 18% increase in footfall during the lion sculpture trail and other local business reported an increased turnover of 14%.

A 20% increase in sales was reported by Jarrolds Department Store in Norwich, attributed to people visiting their sponsored sculpture.