The quiet English countryside of Cheshire has been recently reverberating to the harsh metallic cries of
Exterminate all humans! Fortunately for the local population this isn’t a presage of (yet another) Dalek invasion but of celebrations to come in November. To mark the 50th anniversary of the BBC Science Fiction show
Doctor Who, his greatest adversary has been lovingly recreated in straw and steel – and it’s 35 feet high!
The owners of
Snugbury’s, a farm-based ice-cream store which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to taste their splendid treats, decided to mark this anniversary with something special. Visitors are used to their yearly straw sculpture displays but this year they have outdone themselves with this amazing homage to one of the world’s favorite and most long-lived TV shows.
Of course, it didn’t take long for the Dalek to be rechristened the DaLICK (ice-cream store, do you see what they did there?). The fabrication of the steel frame and the packing of the straw took over 700 working hours to complete – no wonder when you realise that it was created from 5 tons of steel and 6 of straw. Plus – bliss – for the first time the farm has given the world a straw sculpture with moving parts. Take a look at the video below to see the DaLICK moving!
As a casual reader you may find it difficult to get excited about a giant straw Dalek, no matter how big or how many moving parts. Yet for fans of the show the Snugbury’s DaLICK has already become a place of pilgrimage where they can gape in awe and in a state of general fangasm at this fabulous homage to fifty years of Doctor Who.
Image Credit Flickr User Terry Hughes
Image Credit Flickr User Bruce Stokes
The farm has lost no time in creating a DaLICK cone, with a percentage of the sales going this year to Cancer Research UK. Who would have thought that a dalek would ever have helped to eradicate one of the most terrible diseases known to humanity?
Image Credit Flickr User Joseph Swan
Image Credit Flickr User Bruce Stokes
Image Credit Flickr User Paolo Camera
To learn more about Snugbury's or to plan a visit, please visit
their website.
First Image Credit Flickr User Joseph Swan
