Ellesmere and Benchart

Monday 19th October 2009. Before Frankton Junction we had time to go down the Ellesmere Arm, so we did. It was four years since my last visit, and some things have changed. The warehouse looks more in need of urgent attention.


There's a new sculpture - coils of rope? Sacks of grain?* - and a new Tesco's.


And the area behind the crane looks emptier than I remember from before.




* I've searched for Ellesmere sculpture and found Benchart. Unfortunately the photos on that website come up as question marks so I can't tell if the sculpture I photographed is the "fender idea".

I read that the shelter at the entrance to the Ellesmere Arm, which we looked at on our return here the next day, is part of "Benchart".


From their website:

"Benchart is the collaborative public art work of two Shropshire artists, Huw Powell Roberts and Ruth Gibson.... Our work is predominantly site-specific and inspired by the local environment and history."

The artists get schools and other local people involved in their projects. Again, from the website:

To influence the final detail in the sculptures Ruth and Huw asked local people to give them memories and old photographs. They were in Ellesmere Market on Tuesday 12th and 19th June 2007 to record these and also showed their plans and gave the market customers a chance to work with the sculptures key material - clay.
In the market hall there was a display of ideas and work in progress along with a demonstration of brick clay carving and an opportunity to have a go. Also there was a chance to make clay tiles by gathering textures from in and around Ellesmere and the canal.
They also worked with pupils at Ellesmere Primary School and at Lakelands School in June 2007
'In the primary school we looked at various industrial artefacts borrowed from the maintenance yard, and using them the children made decorative clay tiles which have been incorporated into the new 'Gateway' sculpture on the canal'
'In the secondary school we worked with older children teaching the art of brick clay carving and the children carved brick paviers using images of the canal architecture. This may be made into a permanent ceramic sculpture for the school'.


Above is a detail from the shelter showing two old photographs: one is of a boat being legged out of a tunnel; the other is a wharf scene with boats laden with what appears to be milk churns.

I've managed to copy directly from the website (by going to Blogger's "Compose" mode) here:

All three sculptures have words and poems incorported into the designs.

Shropshire poet Bob Gibson was commissioned to write a series of poems based on Shropshire canals and below are those which were selected for use on the sculptures.

 

 

Narrow boats

Loaded with tons

Of limestone, coal,

Milk and cheese,

Duchess Countess,

Jupiter move slowly

On the way to Whitchurch

 

 

 

 

  Pontcysyllte

Mighty aqueduct

High over the Dee,

Stone Pillars

Support the canal

Where heavy boats

Float through water

And Space.

 

                                                                                        

Vale of Llangolle

Wetlands of Whixall,

Shropshire, Cheshire,

Wales.

 

 

In Ellesmere yard

Blacksmiths, wheelwrights,

Navvies, carpenters,

Shovel and pick

Hammer and tongs

Spanner, chisel, saw,

Red hot iron

Hammered to shape,

Timber sawn and nailed

Making lock gates,

Horse shoes, boats

Building

The great canal