Barnsley – Dickie Bird Statue

I don’t know much about cricket, but I have heard of Dickie Bird (1933-), one of the country’s most infamous umpires. This statue in Barnsley was sculpted by Graham Ibbeson, a local man, and unveiled on 30 June 2009. Wikipedia tells me that his cricketing autobiography sold over one million copies, which I’d say is some considerable achievement in itself.

There’s the slight danger that this will end up like the statue in Glasgow which permanently has a traffic cone on its head. It has become commonplace for the locals to hang random items, some perhaps more suitable than others, on the finger of the statue. Dickie Bird himself has been seen removing the items himself, although apparently he isn’t annoyed at that situation (although I would be) and they’ve even elevated the statue onto a pedestal to try and stop locals doing it (they haven’t stopped). I’m not convinced that it’ll work, but for the moment at least, the statue isn’t adorned with anything it shouldn’t be.