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Spitfire Island

Spitfire Island is next to the factory where Spitfires were built, now the Jaguar Factory, at Castle Bromwich just off Junction 5 of the M6. The sculpture on the island celebrates the Spitfire and is called "Sentinel Spitfire". It makes little attempt to mimic the aerodynamic shape of a Spitfire, the Spitfires being aluminium cut-outs, but captures the essence of the plane - with a tryptych of Spitfires fanning out into the sky. The steel support structure rises up from the ground to the soaring planes above; a perfect way of illustrating how this area was the place where 11,989 Spitfires were built and rose up from the ground to defend the country from fascism.

The sculpture was designed by J.R.R. Tolkien’s great grandson Tim Tolkien; who is now attempting to get an Ent installed in another area of Birmingham.