Five giant dinosaurs have arrived in the gardens of Blenheim Palace – and they are bringing a remarkable piece of Oxfordshire’s scientific history back to life.
Dinosaurs Are Forever, a new exhibition by artist Jay Jay Burridge created in partnership with the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, features five life-size sculptures of Megalosaurus, the first dinosaur to be scientifically named.
The sculptures are on display at Blenheim from 10 August to 1 November, giving visitors the chance to encounter the nine-metre-long prehistoric predators in an unusually playful setting.
Rather than recreating the rigid skeletons traditionally seen in museums, Burridge’s sculptures have been designed to move and pose. Two appear to be play-fighting, another is sitting down, while one is lying on its back apparently scratching behind its ear.
Each sculpture measures around nine metres from nose to tail and stands approximately 2.2 metres high at the hips.
The articulated structures can be dismantled, reassembled and repositioned, meaning the dinosaurs can appear in different configurations during the three-month exhibition.
From Stonesfield to Blenheim
The exhibition has a particularly strong Oxfordshire connection.
Megalosaurus was first scientifically described by Oxford geologist William Buckland in 1824, following the discovery of enormous fossil bones at Stonesfield. Buckland’s work established Megalosaurus as the first dinosaur to be scientifically named – although the word “dinosaur” itself would not be introduced until 1842.
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History describes Oxfordshire as the birthplace of dinosaur science, with the original Megalosaurus fossils among its collections.
The new sculptures offer a contemporary interpretation of that scientific landmark, combining evidence from surviving Megalosaurus fossils with what palaeontologists know from the dinosaur’s closest relatives.
The result is deliberately different from a conventional museum reconstruction: brightly coloured, expressive and designed to make a prehistoric animal feel unexpectedly alive.
Dinosaur bones made with foam and chef’s knives
The sculptures also represent an unusual meeting of science, technology and traditional craftsmanship.
Their lightweight articulated frameworks incorporate cellular materials supplied by Zotefoams, while Polyformes Ltd used precision water-jet cutting to create cross-sections of the larger bones.
Burridge then laminated the sections using a hot-air gun before carving the forms by hand – using large chef’s knives.
The skulls and vertebrae were produced using 3D-printing technology, while manufacturing off-cuts and shavings are collected for reuse or recycling.
Burridge said the materials allowed the team to create sculptures on a museum scale without the corresponding weight, while combining precision manufacturing with hand craftsmanship.
The exhibition was developed with musculoskeletal biologist and vertebrate palaeontologist Dr Matt Dempsey, helping to ground the contemporary sculptures in current scientific understanding.
A prehistoric Oxfordshire story in a new setting
There is something particularly fitting about placing the sculptures in the grounds of Blenheim.
Megalosaurus belongs to the scientific history of Oxfordshire, but the new exhibition takes that history out of the museum and into the landscape, presenting one of the county’s most significant discoveries in a form designed to appeal to a new generation.
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History continues to display the original Megalosaurus fossils and other evidence of Oxfordshire’s Jurassic past, including casts of dinosaur footprints discovered at Ardley Quarry.
At Blenheim, meanwhile, the five enormous sculptures turn that history into an outdoor spectacle – part palaeontology, part contemporary art and part family attraction.
Dinosaurs Are Forever is included with a Blenheim Palace Annual Pass or Park & Gardens ticket. The exhibition runs until 01 November 2026, with the gardens open from 10.00am to 5.30pm.
