User:Hh123456789/SurreyStag

The Surrey Stag is the Allan Sly sculpture commissioned by the University of Surrey to stand at the entrance to their Stag Hill campus.

Measuring five metres from hoof to antler and over 6.5 when mounted to its granite base the stainless steel sculpture stands at the main entrance to their Guildford campus. Unveiled on the 25 February 2009 by HRH The Duke of Kent KG and Prof. Christopher Snowden who are the chancellor and vice chancellor respectively. The sculpture is a representation of the university logo (a stag and a key) which is derived from the University coat of arms where the stag denotes the medieval royal hunting park on which the main campus is built (stag hill) and the key a heraldic symbol of learning.

Construction
The sculpture was engineer and fabricated by Craufurd Technology out of sheets of stainless steel, however they were specially folded to give the sculpture a 'thickness and a dimension'. Foundry workers tested it rigorously to make sure it was strong enough to carry any over-enthusiastic students keen to ride it, see pranks.

Transportation of the stag from the workshop to the campus was done by removing the antlers and placing the sculpture on a trailer, this which still only gave seven inches of clearance under some of the bridges en route (of the M25 and A3). Upon reaching the site it was craned into place, the lighting fitted and then fixed.

Pranks
The Surrey Stag has been a target of many pranks. Many people climb the stag which, especially after the consumption of alcohol does raise safety worries.

During the autumn (fall) of 2009 some of the letters of "University of Surrey" were stolen over a period of several weeks. These have since been replaced.

Other pranks have included replacing the lettering, an example of which was on the 3rd February 2010 when "University of Surrey" was replaced with "PEN-BLWYDD HAPUS RHIAN" (Welsh for "Happy Birthday Rhian"), putting traffic cones on the stag or adding extra structures (such as a penis).