The piece of art in front of you is crafted from Hillhouse Edge sandstone, hand carved using traditional methods by professional stonework artist, Patrick Walls.
It has been designed using ideas and designs from a series of public stone carving workshops, where participants were asked to reflect on how they felt Calverley Old Hall could be best represented. The stone has references to the found archaeological objects in the building, the painted chamber, the restoration project and public engagement workshops which have been held on site, traditional craft skills used in the process and the history of the building itself.
- Some of the everyday objects found during works on site, including wooden bobbins, scissors, children’s shoes, a stoneware bottle and hens eggs.
- >The Calverley Owl, taken from the family crest.
- Designs from the painted chamber.
- A representation of the many people who have called the building home over the years
- A floral design from one of the ceramic tiles found in the building.
- A spinning wheel, to represent cloth making in the cottages.
- The 1977 fire in the lodging block (now community space).
- A design taken from the decorative window in the Solar block
- The sun, representing sustainable energy used to heat Calverley Old Hall.
- Tools and hard hat, representing the focus on traditional craft skills throughout the project.
- Designs taken from the painted chamber.
- Hands clasped to represent the coming together of different communities throughout the project.
- A representation of skills training workshops.
- Smaller designs taken from intricately carved timber in the Solar.
- The chapel screen.
- A floral design, taken from a piece of wallpaper in the building.
- An aerial view of the hall, showing the different rooflines.
- The geometric design of the chapel window.
About the workshops
As part of our National Lottery Heritage Funded engagement project ‘Crafting Cultures’, we ran a programme of events including training and engagement activities for a range of audiences. This included a series of five creative stone carving workshops run by professional stone craftsman Patrick Walls.
Over the course of a one-day workshop, participants were invited to learn the basics of stone carving and produce their own small bas-relief carving, inspired by Calverley Old Hall. Many of these carvings have now been placed in the grounds of Calverley Old Hall to form part of a small sculpture trail for future guests and open day visitors. Taking place over the course of a week, the workshops were attended by a range of different people, from members of the general public, participants joining us from Leeds group Arts and Minds, and participants from Leeds based charity, St George’s Crypt.
Participants took inspiration from a wide range of motifs and subjects, including geometric window pane designs, intricate floral designs from ceramic tiles removed from the building and sections of patterned wallpaper, with each design based in some way on Calverley Old Hall.
An online version of the stone trail with photographs of the carvings is available here.
Alongside creating their own stone piece, participants were also asked for ideas on creating an overall stone sculpture, which would be permanently sited in the garden area of Calverley Old Hall.
The stone sculpture you see in front of you is the outcome of these ideas.
The sculpture features designs on all four sides which take inspiration from the designs or objects that participants felt represented Calverley Old Hall best. Amongst geometric patterns taken from the solar and chapel windows, you will find grotesque creatures lurking, inspired by the designs in the painted chamber, alongside some of the hidden objects.
The shape of the piece was inspired by the building itself; sandstone was chosen to reflect the fabric of Calverley Old Hall, whilst the inclusion of irregularities in the stone stemmed from a desire by participants that the piece should not be too ‘formal’, given that the building is also irregular in shape in a lot of ways. Two of stone faces are kept as natural stone, with minimal carvings. Participants felt that the piece should in some way represent the ‘higgledy-piggledy’ nature of the building, a reflection of its imperfect nature due to all the changes that have been made throughout its long history.