AN ABINGDON schoolgirl has won a competition to design a new plinth in Oxford commemorating naturalist Charles Darwin.

Poppy Simonson, a pupil at the School of St Helen and St Katharine, will see her design carved into a high plinth outside the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Poppy, 15, from Sutton Courtenay, came up with the design in her after-school art club.

The plinth will be unveiled in front of the museum in Parks Road next year.

Poppy said: “It was a great challenge to create a design for the plinth and I’m really excited and surprised to have won the competition.

“It will be amazing to see my design carved into a real plinth – I can’t wait.”

Judge Tania Kovats said: “The winner had to offer a simple solution – Darwin’s idea is simple but with enormous significance.

“Similarly, the plinth should be a simple and elegant solution – like evolutionary thinking.”

Sculptor Alec Peever, who will carve the winning design, added: “This design was well-researched and beautifully made. Its simple and elegant design will allow it to translate smoothly into a surface design.”

The museum is putting up a limestone plaque on the new plinth to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the museum and the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth in 1809.

Museum director Prof Jim Kennedy, who was also on the judging panel, added: “The inclusion of finches into the design referred to Darwin’s research in the Galapagos Islands.”

Secondary schools in the county were invited to submit designs to decorate three sides of the plinth.

There were 58 entries from 16 schools across the city and county.

Poppy will be able to visit the studio to see the work in progress before the plinth is finally put in place.

She is also being given a prize of £200 and two framed photographs of the plinth and one of her design, as well as books for her school and art department.

Judges said the standard of pupils’ entries was “extremely high”.

The runners-up in the competition were Emma Thorpe, 14, of Banbury School, Shannon Draisey, 14, of Cheney School in Oxford, and a joint submission by two pupils at Henry Box School in Witney.

Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who realised that all species of life had evolved over time from common ancestors.

He called the process natural selection. In 1859 he published his seminal work On the Origin of Species.

affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk