Statue of computing pioneer winched into place

A statue of pioneering 19th Century mathematician Ada Lovelace has been installed in the town near her childhood home.

Lovelace, the daughter of romantic poet Lord Byron, has been widely described as the world's first computer programmer because of her work with inventor Charles Babbage on his idea for an "analytical engine" in the 1800s.

She was born in 1815 in London, but her childhood home was the now-demolished Kirkby Mallory Hall, some five miles (8km) from Hinckley in Leicestershire.

Specialists winched the 2.5m (8ft 2in) bronze sculpture on to a plinth in Lower Bond Street before a small crowd of onlookers on Monday.

The statue of Lovelace, who died at 36, stands outside the Hinckley campus of the North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College.

Jon Bell, a specialist in sculpture installations, said: "I was pleased to install the lovely Ada. It's gone really well.

"She's a one-and-a-half-times life-size replica. She weighs about 500 kilograms (1,102 lbs), and a lot of that is her flowing skirt.

"She's quite well made in that you can lift her from the arms. Usually, with a human statue, you noose them from the neck to get them in place.

"But because we could use her arms it was a quite easy installation and we didn't have to worry too much about balancing her."

The Ada Lovelace in Hinckley Community Interest Company, which was behind the project, said the location was chosen to inspire girls and young women to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

"We are going to have an official opening at a later date," said project leader Stan Rooney.

"But it's absolutely fantastic to see Ada in place and she looks magnificent.

"I hope people who see her will feel very proud about her connections with the town because her work helped to shape the world of modern computing."

The statue is a replica of one commissioned by a property developer for a building in Westminster in London.

Rooney said the sculptors who created it, Mary and Etienne Millner, had agreed to allow the mould to be used to replicate the original statue.

The project has cost £100,000 and has been paid for through donations and fundraising.

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