A SPECTACULAR six-metre high bicycle-powered puppet is preparing to set off on a six-day journey from the West Midlands to Waltham Abbey.
The huge Lady Godiva puppet will leave Coventry on Monday, travelling via Rugby, Northampton, Milton Keynes, Luton and Hatfield on a huge horse driven by 100 cyclists.
The 19ft creation – built by artists, mechanics, puppeteers and engineers from Coventry-based Imagineer Productions – will arrive in Waltham Abbey on Saturday (August 4) at 4pm.
She will be greeted by town mayor Elizabeth Webster at the Abbey Church at 4.30pm, before roaming down High Bridge, Church Street, Sun Street and into Market Square.
Town council clerk Kathryn Richmond has been to see Godiva and her makers in Coventry.
She said: “She’s just coming for a visit. There will be a little welcome ceremony outside the Abbey Church and I think the town mayor is going to provide her with a gift.
“When she arrives, she’ll be put onto her walking rig, on which she’ll reach her full height. You can imagine walking down Sun Street she’s going to look huge.
“Something we didn’t know until it was arranged is that Lady Godiva was King Harold’s grandmother-in-law, the grandmother of the woman he legally married. So it’s like welcoming one of the family back.”
Lady Godiva will spend the night in a secret location in Waltham Abbey, before journeying on to Chigwell and Walthamstow.
The Godiva project was commissioned as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad and has been two-and-a-half years in the making.
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