Finding the joy (Gromit Unleashed 3)

Way back in 2013, when my kids were 7, 9 and 12, I took them to Bristol to hunt for Gromit sculptures. It was a treat for them, a nice day out. But it was me that loved it the most. I became low-level obsessed with hunting for Gromits and that has stayed with me. I have figurines around the house – four Gromits, two Shauns and a Wallace. My husband was hoping to get me a brand new one for my birthday in a few weeks, but I know they took months or years to release them – they’re all actually hand painted.

Even in 2013, my kids were competent at navigating using an app, but there was a bit of bickering going on. And at one point we ended up at a McDonald’s in an Asda, which feels a bit like a fever dream, but it definitely happened.

We didn’t find them all, but we went to Bristol a couple of times and we had fun.

There have been other sculpture trails – my younger son has humoured me through a penguin trail and a Snowdog trail in Birmingham. But for me nothing comes close to the Aardman sculptures to raise money for Bristol Children’s Hospital and encourage tourism around Bristol and the surrounding area.

In 2015, there was Shaun in the City – Shaun the Sheep. He was in Bristol and London, but we only went to Bristol. It was me and the kids again. Them on the app, me loving life at spending time with them and collecting photos of sheep sculptures. I can’t even describe why I loved it so much, but I did. At this time in my life, my freelance  work wasn’t confined to a particular client and a particular time of day, so I could take a day off work just to look for Shaun the Sheep.

In 2018, there was Gromit Unleashed 2. This time, Gromit was sitting down rather than standing up. And there were Wallace sculptures – always Wallace sitting on a bench, with space for people to sit next to him. And Feathers McGraw sculptures. This time, my husband went hunting with us for the first time. I also had a day with all three kids, a day with the younger two and a day with just my daughter. But we still didn’t find them all.

In the winter of 2020, there was a mini trail inside The Mall at Cribbs Causeway, Bristol. It was a fairly half-hearted effort with some old sculptures and some new ones. But these were dark Covid times and we took whatever joy we could find – even if that meant wearing masks in all our photos.

In 2023, it was announced that Gromit Unleashed 3 was coming! But not until 2025. That felt like a very long wait.

And so here we are in summer 2025. My kids aren’t filled with joy at the prospect of hanging out with Mum looking for Gromits, but they know how much joy it brings me, so they’ve been putting a shift in. They are the responsible adult and I’m the big kid, filling my own life with joy. This time round, I found them all! It took quite a bit of effort and a few trips to Bristol and the very wide surrounding area. My work now doesn’t easily allow me to have a day off, so most of the hunting was done in the afternoon.

The app (which costs £2.50 and goes to the charity) divides the Gromits (and Wallaces, Feathers, Norbots and one solitary Shaun) into mini trails. We’ve never really taken a systematic approach before, but this time we have. We’ve gone out with the express intention of completing a mini trail.

On our first trip, my younger son, daughter and I (along with Hetty of course) completed the Historic Bristol Trail – 11 sculptures around the city centre. My kids, mainly my son, navigated. If I look at a blue dot representing me on a map, I don’t understand which way it’s facing. I can’t work out how the roads on the app equate to the roads in real life. But my kids understand it completely and worked out an efficient route for us to take.

We weren’t the only one Gromit hunting, so we only had time to type the number in the app to say we’d found it and take a couple of quick photos. There wasn’t time to look at them in great detail because we’d get in the way of everyone else. But that’s the beauty of the photos – I can study them in depth later.

Our second trip was a genius idea, if I do say so myself. On Sundays, we go for a long run, which eats into half the day, leaving only the afternoon to go to Bristol. So my husband, daughter and I went for a run in Bristol and found Gromits. We ran eight miles and found 15 sculptures – all the Harbourside Trail and nearly all the Clifton Trail. We accidentally missed one of these and found one on the South Bristol Trail instead.

The third trip was just me, my son and Hetty. This was a big one, taking in A Grand Day Out North Trail, which was as far north at WWT Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, and Go North Trail. My son plotted a route and we even found the missing Gromit from the Cifton trail. I was very pleased with the 12 sculptures we found, but we were out of the house for five and a half hours and my son had slightly lost the will to live.

Our fourth trip, on another August afternoon, was going to be just me and my daughter. But at the last minute, my son decided he could face another trip after all. This time, he plotted a route on Maps on my phone from home back to home, taking in stops at each of the seven sculptures on the Wander East Trail.

Interestingly, there were only Gromits and Norbots on this trail. Also interestingly, we didn’t see any children looking at sculptures this time, only adults like me. At Starcatcher Norbot, a man took about 10 photos, taking in every single detail. Then we saw, not for the first time, adults wearing Wallace and Gromit Tshirts looking for Starcatcher. I pointed out to my kids that there are even bigger Gromit geeks than me!

And so we had just eight sculptures left to find – on the South Bristol and Grand Day Out South mini trails. These would involve the longest journey for us from Gloucestershire and one more trip out. By this time, my son was back at uni and my daughter was at work, so my husband drove me as far as Cheddar Gorge. He was definitely the least enthusiastic of my navigators, but I’m pleased to say we completed the trail for the first time. 53 out of 53 Gromits!

I’m very grateful to my kids for being my navigators and responsible adults and sharing in my joy of Gromit Unleashed 3.

Gromit Unleashed 3 ended on 31st August. The sculptures are all available to see at The Greatest Dog Show on Earth at The Mall, Cribbs Causeway from 13th to 28th September.