We would like to thank Capt James Potter (Rtd) for agreeing to share his story of the ‘Eastbury Flight Sculpture’ with us.
Eastbury’s ‘Flight’ Sculpture
The concord flight sculpture in Eastbury is a memorial to Captain Ken Potter (1930-1977)
My father was an airline pilot with BOAC (latterly BA) and flew Britannias, VC10s and the B747 (the Jumbo Jet). The family moved to Eastbury in 1970, taking advantage of the imminent opening of the M4 motorway for access to London Heathrow. Ken and his wife, Jill, quickly became involved in village life and loved it here very much. A car accident in 1974 put him in a coma and he subsequently died in hospital 3 years later.
The family planted a Redwood tree in his memory, opposite the Pub in Eastbury, on land then owned by Eastbury Manor.
The iconic Christmas tree was lit for many years in the 90s after a family tale was retold in the Pub one night (Our previous house in Maidenhead had a 70 ft Redwood tree in it’s garden and dad always used to tell us, when we were young, that he’d put Christmas lights on it – of course he never did as it was far too large!)
The Redwood tree was felled in 2012 by new owners of the land. Luckily, we were able to keep the trunk and this forms the basis of the sculpture you see now. The idea was to keep a memorial to my father and a ‘Flight’ sculpture seems the obvious choice. Simon Hedger, a brilliant chainsaw carver from Wales, was commissioned to do the carving.
The Concord shape was used for simplicity of carving and longevity (underwing engines and empennage would tend to break easily). The contrail behind is representative of the water vapour trails you see in the sky under certain atmospheric conditions.
The whole sculpture points West as if on take-off from Heathrow and is aligned with the main airway to the East Coast USA destinations which my father often flew.
The lighting of the ‘Flight’ sculpture at Christmas is a nod to the previous Redwood tree lighting.
After the death of my father I also became an airline pilot, living back in Eastbury since 1993 and retiring after 32 years of flying around the world with B.Cal and BA.
Captain James Potter (Rtd)
Sincere thanks to James Potter for sharing this sad but nostalgic story.
Liz Beard
Thank you for the acknowledgment for my photo, it is a tremendous sculpture and a fitting memorial.
Thanks for the use of it Sean, it fits in well with the piece.
I have driven past this so many times and always wondered what it was and what it represented. it always looks extra special at Christmas when it is lit. It was with such excitement that I came across this story when looking on the web for something very different in Lambourn. I had not noticed the arrow head was in fact a sculpture of Concorde. I will enjoy driving past even more now. Thank you.