Giving a talk about the new Downs bench to the Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society in Bristol

Last Tuesday, The Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society (CHIS) met for their Annual General Meeting. I was invited along to talk about the bench that they commissioned and which was installed on Clifton Down earlier this year.

After the society business was concluded, the chairman Brian introduced me and I spoke for a while about the different subjects carved on the bench and the stories around researching them. There was a slideshow of images to illustrate it.

As well as talking about these subjects, I gave a very brief demonstration of relief carving techniques and answered questions. 

It seemed to go very well and several people came up afterwards and chatted about their different experiences of carving. I learnt a few interesting things too! Thank you to CHIS for commissioning me to make the bench and for inviting me to talk at their AGM. Thanks also to M. Shapland, who took the photos on this post.

Where are the carved spiders hidden on the bench in the children's playground on Clifton Down in Bristol?

If you've been searching for the spiders on this bench and can't find them all, you're probably not alone. Some of them are deliberately carved to be hard to find...

However, if you're looking for a map straight to each one, I'm going to have to disappoint you. That would be far too easy! The carving of the purseweb spider really doesn't count as one of them either.

Instead, here are some clues for you to give it another go:

Spider 1:

This spider is the biggest and doesn't look quite like the others. It lives on coral in the end but is well camouflaged and hard to spot.

Spider 2:

This spider must have been a favourite of Isambard Kingdom Brunel; he included it on his bridge.

Spider 3:

This spider likes to read about Mr Brunel.

Spider 4:

This spider hides under the Suspension Bridge.

Spider 5:

This spider guards a screwhole that is part of the oak's history. It lives on the edge.

Spider 6:

This spider is guarding your back when you sit down, from behind the rest.

Spider 7:

This spider hides almost beneath a leaf.

Spider 8:

This spider is on top.

Spider 9:

This is a shellfish spider.

Spider 10:

This spider likes to give backrests support.

There you go, ten spiders... good luck and happy hunting!

The bench in the children's playground at Clifton Down has been installed!

Last Friday, I went to the Downs with a group of the estates team from Bristol council to fit the large oak bench that I've been working on for about two years.

It took about five and a half hours altogether to install it and members of Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society (who commissioned the piece) came to see it, as well as Francis Greenacre (who represented the Downs Committee and helped a lot with the design) and Libby Houston (who is represented on the bench and also allowed me to use some of her poetry).

Just before the installation,  I was shown the offshoot of the 'Poet's Tree' next to the playground where the bench now stands. This black poplar also grew next to the spot where Peter Gabbitass (who is represented on the bench) sold his poetry. The original tree was cut down about twenty years ago, but recently a shoot from the stump has succeeded in growing to become a mature tree.

 

Thanks to the council team for all their help. I'm very happy with the bench and hope that many others will enjoy it too!

Giving presentations and ideas generating workshops at the St Monica Trust retirement home in Bristol

The St Monica Trust runs several retirement and nursing homes around the Bristol area. I have been asked to carve some sculptures for them to commemorate a grand and well-loved old cedar tree. It grew in the grounds of the Cote Lane site but had to be felled for safety reasons.

As part of the process, it seemed important to give the residents a chance to say what they would like to see carved from the timber of the old tree. So a couple of days ago, I visited the Cote Lane site and gave three presentations to do that.

 

After a presentation about the history of woodcarving and the different ways that it is done around the world, there was a brief demonstration of relief carving and then a chance for those attending to give their ideas for sculptures. There were also some examples of different kinds of timber and some of my previous work there, to help set the mood for thinking about things that are carving related.

 

There were plenty of good ideas put forward and those attending (some of whom are keen woodworkers themselves) hopefully enjoyed the day as much as I did!

More of Peter Gabbitass' great grandchildren come to see the Downs bench

After the visit by John in February to see the image of his great-grandfather Peter Gabbitass carved into the Downs bench, I have now welcomed three more of the poet's great-grandchildren to my studio to see his portrait.

A couple of weeks ago, Heather, Steve (aka Michael) and Heather's husband Fred came to visit.

They told me how Peter Gabbitass was a carpenter and joiner before deciding to become a poet and that the the Windsor chairs that he made at his workshop in Worksop, Nottinghamshire are now very valuable and sought after. Although he was not a rich man when he died, he left the money that he had to his gardener.

Last week, Eric and his wife Stella also dropped by. It's been real pleasure to share the carving with members of the family and to hear more about the man himself from them.

A surprise visit from Peter Gabbitass' great grandson, to see his ancestor carved on the Downs bench

As I was working today in my studio with music playing on the stereo, I didn't see two people patiently waiting for me to look up. It was a visit from the great-grandson of Peter Gabbitass (the 'Clifton Poet') whose likeness is carved into the Downs bench that I am currently making.

The visit was a complete surprise to me but a very welcome one. John was very interested to see the carving of his great-grandfather and it was a pleasure to give them a sneak preview of the rest of the bench as well.

It is getting closer to completion! The bearers are now all carved. The last one to be made has been a crinoid (also called a sea lily), which would have lived in the seas of the Carboniferous Period around 350 million years ago. What became the limestone underneath the Downs was laid down during this time.

Here are all three bearers, depicting a crinoid, a brachiopod and a colonial coral:

Libby Houston visits my studio to see her portrait carved in relief and to chat about rare plants and Whitebeam trees

Libby Houston is one of the subjects carved into the large oak bench that I've been working on. She has had six books of poetry published as well as being a winner of the prestigious H.H. Bloomer award, which is given by the Linnean society to 'an amateur naturalist who has made an important contribution to biological knowledge'.

It was a bit nerve-wracking for me, as this was the first time that I've actually shown someone a carved portrait that I've done of them. Libby seemed to like it though...Phew!

I've also carved two lines from her poem 'The Trees Dance' onto the tops of the backrests.

Libby looked over the text to be carved about her on a previous visit, which meant that I don't need to worry about any inaccuracies too much! It was great chatting with her about the rare and unusual trees and plants that can be found in the area. One that was mentioned is Spiked Speedwell, which is rare and lives on the rock faces in the Avon Gorge. 

Image from:http://www.ukwildflowers.com/

This plant colonised the area just after the land was stripped bare by the glaciers of the last Ice Age. It is at home on steep rock faces and very thin soils, so survived in the Gorge when other plants and trees took over elsewhere in the area. It is also perennial, so it grows back from the same rootstock every year. 

Libby said that there is debate amongst botanists as to how long these plants can live for and some believe that in favourable conditions, such as in the Gorge, individual plants could be thousands of years old, possibly even 10,000 years. This is impossible to test at the moment as far as I know but if it is true, it would mean that the plant seen now is exactly the same one that started growing next to the retreating ice sheet!

We also chatted about Hutchinsia, a tiny perennial flower that lives its life cycle through the winter to avoid competition from other plants. It starts growing in autumn and flowers in March. By springtime, when everything else begins their season, it is done for the year and dies back.

Image by natterjacktoad from http://www.ispotnature.org/species-dictionaries/uksi/Hornungia%20petraea

Whitebeams are also a bit unusual in the natural world, as they will hybridise with certain other species (such as the Wild Service Tree Sorbus torminalis) and produce fertile offspring. Usually when species interbreed, the offspring are sterile. An example of this would be mules, the result of a horse breeding with a donkey. Nearly all mules cannot produce offspring themselves.

Whitebeams are also often found on steep slopes and thin soils, where they can live without being overshadowed and having to compete for resources with larger trees such as ash, beech or oak. This local high density of population, together with their fertile hybrid offspring, means that they often interbreed and produce new species. There are at least three unique species in the Avon Gorge alone. 

One of the Whitebeam species has possibly my favourite name of any tree. It grows near Watersmeet, on Exmoor in the Southwest of England, and is called the 'No Parking Whitebeam' (Sorbus admonitor). Why the strange name? The first example was found next to a road and had a 'No Parking' sign fixed to it.

Libby also kindly gave me two fallen leaves from a Whitebeam tree that she discovered in the Avon Gorge to copy in a woodcarving on the bench. It is named 'Houston's Whitebeam' after her. There is only one specimen of this kind of tree known to exist, so I suppose it must be one of the rarest trees in the world.

By the way, the piece of dowel next to the leaf on the right is plugging a hole left when I dug some lead shot out of the wood. I wonder how long it had been in there?

A sneak preview of some of the carvings on the bench for the Bristol Downs

I've been very busy for the last month or two working on a big new bench that will go onto the Downs. Very few large pieces of sculpture are allowed to be permanently placed there, so it's a really exciting project.

The bench is made from oak that grew nearby and it was milled near Chelvey, just down the road. The work on making the bench has been done at my studio at Bower Ashton, so it really is a local bench for Bristol. I'm carving one of the two backrests in the photo above. Each is about 2.5 metres (about 8 feet) long and 7.5cm (3") thick. Pretty sturdy!

The bench is scheduled to be finished by December and then installed in the children's playground next to the Observatory and the Suspension Bridge in March 2015.

It will be a cross between an information board and a bench, so people can read about wildlife and people associated with the area while having a comfy place to sit. There will also be a 'treasure trail' of carved little spiders for visitors to find; some easy to spot, some not so easy!

Here's a preview of a few of the other carvings for you to see:

The purseweb spider, a tiny relative of tarantulas that lives in the Avon Gorge.

The 'Bristol Dinosaur', Thecodontosaurus

Carving one of the bearers that will hold the bench up. It shows a brachiopod, a shellfish that is found fossilised in the Carboniferous limestone under the Downs. Much larger than life-sized though!

This bearer shows the coral Lithostrotion, also found in the Carboniferous limestone.

Chalkhill Blue butterflies live in the Gorge. They are nationally uncommon, living in very specific areas in the south of England.

 

This is Libby Houston, who is a poet, botanist and rope access expert. She has had several books of poetry published, and gave permission for me to carve two lines from her poem 'The Trees Dance' onto the bench. They read:

'Forest-father, mighty Oak,

on my back the lightning-stroke'

Libby spends much of her time abseiling into the Avon Gorge and mapping the rare plants that live there. For her work, she was awarded the prestigious H.H. Bloomer award by the Linnean society. Amongst other achievements, she has discovered some of the very rare hybrids of Whitebeam trees that grow in the hard-to-reach parts of the Gorge and nowhere else, one is even named after her: Sorbus x houstoniae. There is only one specimen of this tree known to exist and Libby kindly gave me some examples of its leaves to copy.

I researched most of the information for the bench myself, but could not have done it without the help and advice of a few people, who I'd like to thank here; 

Francis Greenacre has been a great help, providing feedback, liaising with the members of the Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society (who commissioned the bench) and also supplying very useful images and ideas, particularly about Brunel's designs for the Suspension Bridge. Thanks also to RoseMary and Linda of CHIS, for meeting and chatting about ideas.

Ray Barnett, Mark Pajak and Isla Gladstone at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery all gave their time to meet and discuss ideas and images for wildlife and fossil subjects to use. Mark and Isla also supplied very helpful images to use.

Dr Clive Lovatt, Richard Bland and Linda Edwards helped in researching the poetry featured on the bench, as well as supplying information about local poet Peter Gabbitass who is one of the subjects.

Libby Houston very kindly gave permission to use her poetry and supplied leaves to copy, as well as explaining her work and checking the facts were correct! It was great to meet her.

Thanks also to Joe Cooper of Touchwood Enterprises, Andy O'Neill and Sam Mond, without whom I might not have had any local timber to carve into in the first place.

Milling the oak for a large bench to go on the Downs in Bristol

After several unexpected delays, the locally-grown oak to be used in making a new bench for a public space in Bristol has finally been milled!

This new bench will be situated next to the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge, at the end of the Downs.   It will be the centrepiece of a newly-renovated children's playground and will feature carvings celebrating local history and wildlife.

I was helped a lot in milling the timber, at a yard just outside Bristol, by local chainsaw carver Andy O'Neill.

Andy brought along his Alaskan mill, which is basically a frame fixed to a powerful chainsaw. This allows boards to be cut fairly accurately, to a given dimension, from timber that may be in places inaccessible to larger mobile sawmills.

The first board is now in my studio and I'm really looking forward to getting started. Hopefully, the bench should be finished by the end of November.