Reflections on concrete cows
Hear me out: you cannot help chuckling when you see these cows in person. They make me smile just looking at these pictures again. They’re bizarre, totally out of proportion and I don’t know what happened to the one with the eyes because that cow has SEEN things. When we first told people in the UK that we were staying in Milton Keynes (MK) every person asked if we had seen these cows yet. So we set out to find them on our first weekend released from quarantine and they did not disappoint.
For those that don’t know (aka me before I got here), MK is one of England’s newest “towns,” founded in 1967. But by “town” I mean its borough has a population of 269,457, it’s got a University campus and the only municipal tree cathedral in the country. It also has the 16th largest shopping center, indoor skydiving, indoor skiing, 130+ roundabouts, the first multiplex cinema to open in Britain and was a host for the Rugby World Cup in 2015. And last but not least, it’s home to over 230 public artworks and 6,000 acres of park land. It’s safe to say it’s the largest “town” I’ve ever been in! Anyway, for reasons that don’t make sense to this American, Milton Keynes is not a city because the queen hasn’t said so and that’s the end of that.
Which brings us back to the cows. They were made by Liz Leyh in 1978 as part of a public art initiative to get people into community art. Made out of concrete and fiberglass, the original cows have been moved to a museum. The pictures that I have here are of the replicas. Apparently, the original cows were vandalized quite a bit – getting turned pink, into zebras, skeletons and have gotten pajama bottoms added. One was even taken and held for ransom! They’ve become a symbol of all the “newness” of Milton Keynes.
Now that I’ve moved to London I understand why people give Milton Keynes a hard time. It’s definitely made for cars and not for people, there’s not a nightlife, theater or music scene, and there aren’t interesting small shops like what is dotted around my new neighborhood. The surrounding smaller towns have even less going on in them, even if they do have the cute one-off shops. It’s a very good place to settle down with kids or if you’re a big outdoorsy person who’s not looking for mountains to hike. Or if you’re a badminton player – the national badminton center is located just outside MK. It’s a city that’s not a city in the middle of the country that was built in the 70s.
It’s basically these concrete cows. Quirky, weird, a total mashup of “city” and “country,” soulless but also somehow charming. I really enjoyed being there for our first month! I think it was because we were in a small village that had so much parkland available. We walked for miles and miles the month we lived there! I’m curious what it will be like as the city ages and more people move out there to escape London living prices. Will it start to develop some sort of scene? Will it stay strangely empty except for the shopping areas? Or will it start to relax and find some genuine quirkiness again? We’ve got friends who live outside MK, so I’ll update again if anything changes!
