LEON DINOSAUR – that was how it was known but I like to call it Leonasaurus

LEON DINOSAUR – that was how it was known but I like to call it Leonasaurus: 

The erection of a dinosaur at the bottom of the field at Leon School was my project but the idea of Headmaster Bruce Abbott. He came to me and told me to make it happen. Originally Bruce’s idea was t o have a series of giant Easter Island type heads running along the length of the school field, statues which could be seen from trains passing the school many times each hour. He wanted this feature to be the first thing passengers saw from trains entering Milton Keynes from London. He wanted it to become a Milton Keynes icon and to put Leon School on the map.

Great idea Headmaster Abbott but ambitious. I managed to persuade him to go for a single statue and for that to be a life size dinosaur.

Once the Boss had agreed it was over to me to make it happen. I had to make a planning application, the council put the proposal to local residents and I crossed my fingers they would support the idea. They did !  I remember clearly standing in the corner of the empty school field with a film crew from ITV News talking about the project which was great advance publicity. Strange the crew never came back when Leonasaurus was complete !

It was Headmaster Bruce Abbott’s idea, I was charged with making it happen but the important construction, the all-important construction was in the hands of Leon School students, I call them Leonites, and community artist Bill Billings.

In the early days of Milton Keynes, in the 1970's, lorry driver Brian Billings came from London

to work on the building sites of the New City.

It was far, far more than houses Brian, better known as Bill, had a hand in building. In 1980 his work was recognised with an honory degree from The Open University, itself a Milton Keynes icon and landmark. In 2000 he was awarded an MBE by HM Queen Elizabeth II. Sadly, Bill left us on Boxing Day 2007 but his work is a legend and will remain so for decades to come. Milton Keynes would not be Milton Keynes without Bill Billings.

Bill gave us the Peartree Bridge Dinosaur, he gave us the replacement concrete cows which are in their field adjacent to Monks Way. The original cows are now in a museum. Bill also gave us Leonasaurus.

Students who worked with Bill tell me they put a time capsule into the construction. I have no personal recollection of this happening but obviously happen it did. I contacted the present day school management asking if we could run a metal detector over the ground at the bottom of the field in an attempt to find the capsule but the school failed to reply !  Now I am told by some who Leonites who worked with bill that the capsule is inside the dinosaur’s stomach. That makes sense.

Bruce Abbott’s ambition for the dinosaur to be the first thing train passengers from London saw as they entered the new city happened big time and Leonasaurus became an icon.

Sadly, the then dinosaur management of Leon School some time ago expelled our dinosaur from its carefully chosen location and had it moved to the Warren Adventure Playground where it now happily resides.

In 1991, the same time as the dinosaur was being built, I engaged my Leonites in a project IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS within which we reunited the family with its ancestral home at Bletchley Park. I am now engaged in a project IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SAMMY LEON and want to include the dinosaur in the text.

 

I am thinking the dinosaur is now in the care of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council, I am in the process of checking this. I do not want the history of this icon to be lost, I want to preserve its heritage. My thinking is to have a small plaque placed at the site explaining the work of Bill and his team of Leonites. I am in contact with many of those Leonites and would love it if they and Bill’s son could unveil such a plaque.

 

Sammy Leon had long departed by the time Leonasaurus emerged from Headmaster Bruce Abbott’s thinking but it  does take his name. It  had been my intention to share the project with the present day Leon Family, via facebook I am in contact with Sir John Leon, 4^th Baronet of Bletchley Park. But thinking has moved on a bit from that.

 

Attending the firing of Fenny Poppers in Leon Recreation Ground on Saint Martin’s Day 11^th November 2021 I wanted to find out if Sammy Leon had ever fired a popper but records of who fired and when do not exist.  I suggested to Fenny Poppers Custodian Peter White that a representative of the Leon

family be invited to fire a popper next year. Now I am wondering if this could be combined with the family being taken on a guided tour of the heritage sites Sir Herbert SAMMY Leon gave to cour community.

 

Watch this space !

 

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David Ashford

Writing under the pen-name of Max Robinson

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