Concrete Cows
Milton Keynes’ most famous residents are always a popular attraction for our visitors and they have a long and important association with us – the museum was their ‘place of birth’.
Milton Keynes artist-in-residence, Canadian creative Liz Leyh produced the concrete bovines at the museum with local schoolchildren back in 1978.
The five-strong herd have enjoyed pastures new over the decades; they were originally based in parkland at Bancroft where they became super-moos and achieved their iconic status.
Over the years the family have been painted, dressed up and appeared on record sleeves, and sadly one was even the subject of a kidnapping.
The cows are more fragile than they may look – and are definitely not for sitting on – and so the original herd was moved from Bancroft to the National Hockey Stadium where they spent some time.
Two of the beautiful beasts even went on holiday – appearing at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2014.
Later, the cows spent time grazing beneath the gaze of shoppers at Intu Milton Keynes.
They were returned to the green, green grass of home by their custodians The Parks Trust back in 2016, and now rest contentedly beneath one of our beautiful mature trees.
The concrete cows are an important part of the story of Milton Keynes, and their moo-ve home means that they have again taken their place alongside other great iconic moments, stories, people and organisations that make this new town truly unique.
A replica family of concrete cows now occupy the Bancroft site. They were made by the late MK artist Bill Billings, and it’s not unusual to find caring visitors wrapping them up in scarves or popping bobble hats on the bovines at the museum during the cold winter months!