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LicenseKinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kinetic sculpture, A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley, a railway-themed automaton designed by Rowland Emett, 1984. The last and largest of his works, it was built for a shopping centre in Basildon, but never installed.
It comprises eight separate automota, each representing a scene on a journey on Emett’s fictional Far Tottering & Oyster Creek Railway.
Made of various materials including wood, polychrome wood, fibreglass, motors and electrical wiring, textile, metal, rubber, copper, lead, lightbulbs, plastic.
A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley was the last and largest of the automata created by Rowland Emett, one of Britain’s foremost artists in the field of kinetic sculpture. it was built in 1984 for a shopping centre in Basildon, but never installed.
Born in London in 1906, Emmet studied at the Birmingham School of Arts & Crafts, before working as a commercial artist and then for the Air Ministry during the Second World War. He began producing cartoons for Punch in 1939, eventually becoming the magazine’s cartoon editor. His intricate drawings were inspired by the wonders of Victorian engineering and often featured unusual trains hauled by engines with elongated boilers and tall chimneys, carrying an eccentric range of passengers.
In 1951 Emett designed a real-life version of his Far Twittering & Oyster Creek Railway for the Festival of Britain, at which it carried over 2 million passengers. He also designed the inventions of Caractacus Potts for the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and his working sculptures were exhibited at venues around the world. Emett died in 1990.
A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley comprises eight separate automota, each representing a scene on a journey on Emett’s fictional Far Tottering & Oyster Creek Railway. The passenger train, pulled by a locomotive named Wild Goose, runs on a raised railway. At Cow Parsley meadow, cows nod their heads as a farmer plays to them on his harp, and at Far Tottering a water wheel revolves. A fisherman hauls a mermaid into his net at Shrimphaven, while at Wisteria Halt a clock is positioned at the top of a flowering tree. An ornithologist, disguised as a bush, cycles past Twittering Woods, with a bird nesting in his bicycle lamp. An elderly gentleman in a Victorian swimsuit dives from a bathing machine at Oyster Creek, and the journey ends with a Wishing Well.
The clock at Wisteria Halt is designed to strike on the quarter hour, at which point all the automata come to life for a few minutes.
Train set comprising locomotive ‘Wild Goose’ with detachable chimney, carriage with grandmother and grandson, grandson’s butterfly net, wagon, two sections of track, level crossing gates, a buffer, and separate small fisherman.
Locomotive with driver, “Wild Goose”, driver turns at the waist and is toasting teacakes which rotate, pistons move up and down and locomotive moves back and forth on track
First class carriage, yellow and green with curtains and glass chandelier, with grandmother seated and grandson leaning out of carriage window, carriage moves back and forth on track
Grey flatbed wagon with man and blue gramophone, man rotates on his chair and gramophone record spins, wagon moves back and forth on track in time with carriage
Part of track with large green wheel and motor
Second part of track
Locomotive chimney with cloud of “steam”, moves up and down (can be removed from locomotive for movement and storage)
Buffer for end of track layout
Level Crossing gates and red signal with light, with sign reading “Trains Cross Here. So THERE” and small section of track
Small fisherman who sits by the side of the tracks of the railway
Grandson’s butterfly net with small bird attached
“Cow Parsley Meadow” with farmer playing a harp, cow parsley on stalks, and three cows with bobbing heads on base, small milking stool and upturned bucket fixed to base
Water wheel assembly, “Far Tottering” comprising water wheel with copper paddles and one saucepan, base with trough, weather vane, and green support poles
Water wheel with copper paddles, spins
Base for water wheel with trough and copper fixtures
Weather vane for top of water wheel
Support for water wheel, green pole with wooden fleur-de-lis top and metal sconce
Tree and clock, “Wisteria Halt” comprising base with squirrel and stove, large tree section with pink flowers, clock with four faces, umbrella, and picnic basket with tea set and cakes
Tree base with squirrel and copper stove, stove lights up, sign reading “Picnic Dell”
Main part of tree with pink flowers and multiple branches
Gold clock assembly for top of tree, four faces each telling different time
Red umbrella for top of Wisteria Halt tree assembly
Picnic basket with ceramic tea set and knitted cakes, for base of tree assembly
Fisherman and boat, “Nellie”, with mermaid trapped in fishing net
Fisherman and boat, “Nellie”, with union jack ensign and red sail, mermaid is trapped in fishing net
Seagull on pole, sits atop the boat’s mast
Ornithologist on bicycle, “Twittering Wood” with trees, birds, and flowers
Ornithologist, man on bicycle holding a teacake, wearing blue suit, hat, and glasses. Bicycle fixed to base, front wheel steers and back wheel turns, base features trees, birds, and flowers, copper water feature at front
Top of tree branch for Twittering Wood with yellow flowers and birds, rotates
Bathing machine on wheels, blue and white stripes, “Wm Hake Lobsters Bathing & Smuggling” with diver, section of water, and ‘Shrimphaven Sands’ sign
Bathing machine with integral diver on mechanism, blue and white stripes and “Wm Hake Lobsters Bathing & Smuggling” written on side, with wheels, and lobster baskets to rear
Section of water for diver, blue wooden board with space for diver to fit through. Four white detachable legs hold the board up
Sign for “Shrimphaven Sands” attached to tall pole with finial on top
Wishing Well, large circular well with cupola (roof) and bucket
Wishing well basin, blue circular well with yellow border, three poles to support roof in centre
Roof (cupola) for wishing well, green with pink wheel mechanism for raising bucket
Metal bucket for wishing well, bucket is lifted up and down
