Nature Strikes Back
CROWHENGE - PROGRESS REPORTS
As the project progresses I will post regular updates here. I have also created a Crowhenge Facebook page too so if you are on Facebook please follow 'Crowhenge' and feel free to add suggestions and comments.
Yesterday (August 10th 2019) was the day of Crowhurst Village Fayre so we wanted to complete as much of Crowhenge as possible before the fayre was over. As a consequence all contributions received so far are now attached. 😁
This includes pieces for 'Sanctuary' from St. George's Church and the Christian Healing Centre and pieces for 'Business' from the Plough Inn, Crowhurst Park, Hyfield Stables and Tom's Groundworks. 'Community' has some lovely work from Crowhurst Community Arts and the Tennis Club.
Also largely complete is 'Farming', although it still needs a centrepiece (coming soon). Crowhurst's working farms were too busy to contribute directly but most were very happy to be listed in the project. The names of all farms that have historical importance in the village are also included. While some of these farms retain a legacy of listed buildings in Crowhurst, others exist only in historical records. We have tried to be comprehensive but please let us know if any have been missed.
Although the major work on the project is now done, it is ongoing and new contributions can be added at any time. So please get in touch!
A few more things added over the weekend including Ian Gordon's wonderful Crowhenge sign. Paul Johnson's pieces for Quarry Wood went on 'Environment' and the Brownies, the Cubs and the Playgroup pieces went on 'Youth'.
The Powdermill plaque attached to 'Heritage' has been 'disappeared' already. I will try and replace it at some point but have simply written its memorial for the time being...
Installation Part 3
Crowhenge is here! All 7 parts are now installed in the recreation ground. Huge thanks to Tom’s Groundworks for sending Paul down on Saturday to help Neil dig the remaining 5 holes. Over the next couple of weeks I will be on site doing the titles for each piece and attaching all the wonderful things that you have all made for the project. Some pics of the latest contributions below plus pics of Crowhenge in place.
Installation Part 2
Hole no. 2 for second Henge piece which we installed yesterday. Also attached the first component of 'Heritage' representing the history of the railway in Crowhurst.
Installation Part 1
Crowhenge is go!! First pillar was installed today - Wednesday July 17th 2019. Will put up the others over the next couple of weekends and can then start attaching all the contributions from people in the village.
St. George's Primary School
On June 25th a piece of hornbeam went on a day trip to Crowhurst Primary School!
This piece of the henge will represent Community and part of the school prayer reads: ‘As many hands build a house, so many hearts build a school’. So it seemed like a really nice idea to have the pupils put their handprints directly onto the piece of wood. Throughout the morning all the pupils came out in small groups to have their hands painted. The handprints built up in layers and the piece of hornbeam became increasingly bright and colourful. Here it is in progress and complete.
On June 25th a piece of hornbeam went on a day trip to Crowhurst Primary School!
This piece of the henge will represent Community and part of the school prayer reads: ‘As many hands build a house, so many hearts build a school’. So it seemed like a really nice idea to have the pupils put their handprints directly onto the piece of wood. Throughout the morning all the pupils came out in small groups to have their hands painted. The handprints built up in layers and the piece of hornbeam became increasingly bright and colourful. Here it is in progress and complete.
Crowhenge Contributions
We began decorating the Environment piece this month and Quarry Wood and Friends of Combe Valley are working on their contributions. For the farming piece we talked to the working Crowhurst farms and most of them are happy to be listed alongside the names of the historic farms in the village.
We also received a lot of other contributions.
Beautifully painted discs representing Crowhurst Community Arts and the Arty Farties, a horseshoe from Hyfield Stables and a wooden sign from Crowhurst Park. On the youth front, the Cubs made a sign using letters and tracking arrows and we have a lovely piece of abstract painting from the Crowhurst Playgroup! We also got several pieces for Heritage including Powdermill.
We began decorating the Environment piece this month and Quarry Wood and Friends of Combe Valley are working on their contributions. For the farming piece we talked to the working Crowhurst farms and most of them are happy to be listed alongside the names of the historic farms in the village.
We also received a lot of other contributions.
Beautifully painted discs representing Crowhurst Community Arts and the Arty Farties, a horseshoe from Hyfield Stables and a wooden sign from Crowhurst Park. On the youth front, the Cubs made a sign using letters and tracking arrows and we have a lovely piece of abstract painting from the Crowhurst Playgroup! We also got several pieces for Heritage including Powdermill.
The Brownies
The part of the Crowhenge sculpture decorated so beautifully by the Youth Club Juniors will represent ‘Youth’. Now the decoration is done, I can start collecting things from all the community youth groups in the village to attach to it. First up – more fun - with the Crowhurst Brownies. I went to meet them all in the Village Hall on May 21st.
There are 17 letters in ‘Crowhurst Brownies’ and there just happen to be 17 Brownies so I took in small discs of wood so each Brownie could do one letter each. Sadly one was absent so that letter was done instead by Snowy Owl while Tawny Owl drew the logo for us. Only the side of the disc with the letter on it will be visible when the discs are put onto the 'henge' piece so on the other side everyone could write or draw anything they wanted. This means that I know some Brownie secrets now!
Here are some photos of the Brownies hard at work and of their beautiful results. Thank you Brownies and thank you Tawny Owl for the photos.
Crowhurst Youth Club Juniors
Had a lot of fun this month doing two activity visits to Crowhurst Youth Club Juniors. I took one of the wood pieces down to the Youth Club on May 1st and everyone drew shapes directly onto the wood and then painted the shapes. The following week we drew and painted small squares between the shapes and got as many youth club members as possible to sign their names. Finally we made a sign to be attached later.
The piece of wood will eventually be standing upright and the bottom part will be in the ground. This means that nobody will see it so Youth Club members wrote whatever they liked on that part! Once all the paint had dried I gave the whole thing a nice coat of wood oil to help preserve the wood and the colours. Here are photos of the work in progress and a ‘before and after’ which really shows how hard everybody worked.
Ian Gordon
I am very happy that the ‘henge’ piece representing ‘heritage’ is already under way thanks to a remarkable man in the village called Ian Gordon. This is just some of what I have learned about him.
Ian Gordon has lived in Crowhurst for more than 30 years. Walking past his house in Station Road you would never suspect that it contains a gallery’s worth of intricate and beautiful wood carving. There are sculptures, statues, framed wooden geometries and relief carvings based on images by Picasso and Gauguin. His skill with wood is truly astounding. It’s not just the phenomenal art work but pretty much every piece of wood in the house - the banisters, the tables, the cupboards, the chairs and several guitars - have all been constructed by Ian himself. In his basement he has a workshop that contains a lifetime of woodworking tools and a phenomenal Victorian cast iron band saw that weighs (literally) a ton.
Ian hasn’t just been creative with wood. For part of his career he worked with computing software at a time when it was just emerging for standard office use. So he is also, what would now be called, a bit of a geek. When he retired, he experimented with developments in creative and visual software and by the early 2000s had produced a remarkable series of computer generated prints. These complex and colourful images are also displayed around his house.
Another remarkable (and very useful!) thing about Ian is that he knows an awful lot about the heritage and history of Crowhurst and the surrounding area. In 2002, he wrote a chapter in the book ‘A Tapestry of Battle’ as part of a Battle Writer’s Group project. So it seems very appropriate that Ian should be working on the piece of Crowhenge that will be dedicated to heritage.
Ian also teaches wood carving skills to a group of older people who come to his house for lessons as part of the University of the Third Age. What I haven’t mentioned is that Ian is 92. This makes him a piece of living heritage as far as I'm concerned and I feel very privileged to have met him and to be working with him on Crowhenge.
HENGE II
Shaped and trimmed.
Love the orangey residue of the sycamore bark.
Cleaned and first stage of shaping and bark removal done. Now waiting for my neighbour and his chainsaw to come over and trim them all to a standard length.
HENGE 1
Here is the raw wood. The next stage will be cleaning, shaping, trimming it all to size and preparing the surfaces.
RSPB Forewood have very generously donated wood for the project and on Thursday March 7th, Phil Henderson (RSPB Forewood) and Ray White (Warden, Forewood) turned up in their truck with Silver Birch, Hornbeam, Oak and Chestnut. Some pictures below.
CROWHENGE - INITIAL PROPOSAL
Collective artwork celebrating the character and community of Crowhurst
Crowhurst sits in an area of outstanding natural beauty in which trees are one of the dominant features of the landscape. The art work proposed below will use common local woods to create a 7-piece wooden structure. Each piece will represent components of Crowhurst life under these potential headings: Community, Environment, Heritage, Youth, Business, Farming and Sanctuary.
The rough sketch above shows how the project might work. Some of the seven wood pieces will retain their natural bark while others will be decorated. Preparing the seven pieces of the wood will be the first stage of the project. Ian Gordon, who is well known for his wood carving expertise and his knowledge of local heritage and history, has agreed to help decorate the central pillar of the henge. Hopefully Crowhurst Primary School, Crowhurst Youth Club and Quarry Wood will each be decorating a piece of the henge as well. Updates soon!
The second stage of the project invites every community group, business and organisation to contribute something that can be attached to the relevant piece of wood. I can provide small ceramic or wooden discs that can be decorated in any way that represents the group, business, organisation or interest. This could be a logo, a motto, a picture etc. These decorated wood or ceramic pieces will then be attached to the ‘henge’ as in the rough sketch below:
A big thanks to those of you who have already got in touch about the project. I will soon start contacting as many of the community groups and organisations in the village as possible. As well as those who are already on board my list includes:
- Golf / Bowls / Tennis / Cricket / Football clubs
- Crowhurst Community Arts
- Women's Institute
- Village Hall
- Crowhurst Primary School & Playgroup
- Beavers, Brownies, Cubs & Scouts
- Little Dragons & Discoverers Youth Club
- Quarry Wood
- Fore Wood
- Combe Haven Wetlands
- Crowhurst Farms
- The Plough
- Crowhurst Care Homes
- Riding Schools
- Village Market
- Businesses listed in Crowhurst News
- St. Georges Church & Coffee Shop
- Baptist Church
- Christian Healing Centre
- Powder Mill
- Ironworks
- Railway
- 1066 Saxon/Norman
- Roman
This list is NOT final or definitive. It would be very helpful if people could contact me or advise me on other groups that I have not yet listed. Thank you.
Individuals can also contribute their own unique objects. The objects must be small and easy to weatherproof and attach. (However, I can provide materials for individuals to use if requested).
As each wood piece is decorated, it will be placed incrementally on a site (TBC) in the village where it will be easily visible so that all residents can watch the progress of the piece and hopefully feel encouraged to contribute.
If you are interested in being a part of this project or have any questions and suggestions you can email me directly here:
THANK YOU