Do Think This Weather Vane Would Be Accepted?
AScarletSabre-PGO
Posts: 754 ✭✭✭✭✭
There was some discussion about weather vanes the other day and it reminded me of an interesting one near me that had yet to be nominated for review. Here it is. What do you think? I provided sources for my description in the supplemental information.
Best Answers
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oscarc1-ING
Posts: 366 ✭✭✭✭✭
This is a very cultural point. I know in Canada/America they argue for them, in Australia they are not utilised as much and nobody submits them.
The objects are common and mass-produced, can be purchased from any hardware or home store for quite cheap. They have no historic or cultural relevance. They can tell you the wind direction, but so can grass and trees and wind socks. Are they visually unique to be considered a point of interest? Not really, it's just generic infrastructure on top of a building.
To me they just seem like extremely poor nominations made out of desperation just to make AnOtHeR PoKeStOp.
If there is a famous wind vane with actual historic merit or significance, then that should be able to pass on its own merit. If it's just a standard generic looking wind vane, then no.
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Faversham71-ING
Posts: 937 ✭✭✭✭✭
There's been a rash of small supermarkets and mini-shopping developments being built with generic weather vanes or mini clocktowers over the last few years. To be honest, for me, this one doesn't stand out from the crowd as particularly special artistically or have a special relevance to the area (other than being generic agricultural). I wouldn't 1* it, but couldn't rate highly.
Answers
This is a very cultural point. I know in Canada/America they argue for them, in Australia they are not utilised as much and nobody submits them.
The objects are common and mass-produced, can be purchased from any hardware or home store for quite cheap. They have no historic or cultural relevance. They can tell you the wind direction, but so can grass and trees and wind socks. Are they visually unique to be considered a point of interest? Not really, it's just generic infrastructure on top of a building.
To me they just seem like extremely poor nominations made out of desperation just to make AnOtHeR PoKeStOp.
If there is a famous wind vane with actual historic merit or significance, then that should be able to pass on its own merit. If it's just a standard generic looking wind vane, then no.
@oscarc1-ING I hardly know of any weather vanes in britain, so any one thays still around would have some sort of story, similar to this one, so personally if theres an effort p in in the uk ones, and theres supplements tary information to back the good description, I'd accept it as a r 4 star
I very rarely see weather vanes around, and in my experience at least, no two weather vanes are exactly alike (maybe I've not look hard enough). Whilst I can appreciate some weather vanes are mass produced objects, this one is on public land and I've seen one or two other weather vanes of varying designs as Wayspots in villages near me (for example a prancing house, which is another symbol of the county, and a golden elephant). I've tried to explain the meaning behind this particular design and hope that people will agree with me that it should be a Wayspot.
It really depends on the artistry of the weather vane (i.e. a cool piece of art) and whether it has pedestrian access. In the case of your example, it has neither.
I agree with the first part of the statement about artistic for a weather vane to be eligible. However the Pedestrian access, as long as the building can be physically touched the actual weather vane does not need to be.
November 2019
Q53: Regarding the policy that you must be able to reach out and touch a wayspot for it to be safe, does this disqualify objects/paintings on the outside of buildings that are too high to reach from the ground?
A53: The policy page says “Regardless of any other criteria, if a nomination doesn’t have pedestrian access it is not eligible.” Height is not something that is explicitly considered. If you can safely reach the wall a mural is painted on, but the mural is 20 feet off the ground, that is fine.
How did you determine it has no pedestrian access? I can psychically touch the building it's on from the public footpath along the street. The cupola for the weather vane sits atop of an kind of archway, so I can even go underneath the weather vane, as the path leaders to a car park. I cannot touch most clock faces so does that mean they don't have safe pedestrian access?
If you consider it to be bad nomination that's fair enough but there's no denying there's safe pedestrian access. I can literally position myself underneath my nomination (this will be seen in the Google Street View). It's perfectly safe to reach.
Perhaps a better photograph would have shown it better but I'm not going to go climbing on a roof for a nomination photograph. There's plenty of Wayspots in the area, so if it gets rejected I won't feel too sad. I personally thought that it looked nice and if others disagree then so be it; I won't try a second time.
There's been a rash of small supermarkets and mini-shopping developments being built with generic weather vanes or mini clocktowers over the last few years. To be honest, for me, this one doesn't stand out from the crowd as particularly special artistically or have a special relevance to the area (other than being generic agricultural). I wouldn't 1* it, but couldn't rate highly.
I was really certain I settled that nonsense. I love that it's the first thing I encounter when I came to give the forums a try again. Ugh!
One day I saw this weather vane on top of a tower. I thought it was super cool because it had an image of a ship, so I definitely appreciated this because of a) the historical relevance that it was placed on, b) the fact that it was also part of a historical site that referenced the First Fleet.
The difference between this weather vane and this "****'s Scythe" weather vane is that the scythe looks like it's just a piece of cut metal put up for a Halloween, and then just left there indefinitely. And just doing a quick Google search of "The Farmer and his Scythe Weather Vane", I get a store page to purchase one for $319. Ornamental yes, but still easily mass-produced.