Sweet Meadows, 2010

This commission was to create designs to be grit blasted onto the concrete parapets of a replacement  bridge in Witham. Two designs were chosen so a decision was made to use both, the textual design on the inside (traffic side) and the streetscape on the outside.

SWEET MEADOWS

The bridge takes traffic and pedestrians over the River Brain, a river which dissects Witham and forms the route of a river walk established 40 years ago and beginning at Whetmead Nature Reserve where the Brain meets the River Blackwater.

The river was the delight of Horace Walpole on his travels through Witham in the 18th century. Horace Walpole the 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and politician. He is now largely remembered for Strawberry Hill, the home he built in Twickenham, and for coining the word ‘Serendipity’.

In 1749 he wrote ‘what pleases me most in my travels was Dr. Sayer’s parsonage at Witham ... one of the most charming villas in England. ‘There are sweet meadows falling down a hill, and rising again on t’other side of the prettiest winding stream you ever saw.’

ABBREVIATED STREET

Newland Street, the main street of Witham, has a rich variety of historically interesting buildings scattered along its length interspersed with modern shop units and concrete office structures.

The artwork takes a small selection of these historic buildings and re-creates an abbreviated street, condensing centuries of histories and evoking a refreshed curiosity in these now displaced buildings.