Unveiling of the Final Sculpture in the Maidenhead Memories Sculpture Trail

On Saturday 13th May, visitors to Waterside Quarter enjoyed a fun free fairground inspired event to celebrate the installation of the final piece of artwork in the Maidenhead Memories Sculpture Trail, a traditional fairground horse.

The horse, traditionally known as a ‘galloper’ horse pays homage to Maidenhead based Carters Steam Fair.  Founded in 1977 by John and Anna Carter they travelled the country with its range of vintage funfair rides for 45 years before announcing retirement from travelling late in 2022.

Well-known artist Gordon Young, who designed the artwork for the Sculpture Trail, cast a fibreglass galloper horses in bronze before being decorated by the talented team at Carters who are leading experts on signwriting, fancy lettering and fairground art.

As is tradition with fairground horses, each one has its own name painted onto its neck. Towards the beginning of the year we invited children aged 5-12 years living in the Royal Borough to enter our exciting colouring competition to have a name chosen by them painted onto the horse.

Our competition winner, 7-year-old Rose from Maidenhead, joined us on Saturday alongside Joby Cater of Carters Steam Fair and Shanly Homes (Thames Valley) Managing Director, Jason Seymour, to unveil the fairground horse and announce its name, Galipa.

The fairground horse now completes the series of sculpture installations dotted around the three phases of our waterside development, and a fun new kid’s trail map can be picked up from the Shanly Homes Marketing Suite or downloaded from our website.