Paving artwork unveiled A new paving artwork has been unveiled in Northamptonshire. The design celebrates the Brampton Valley Way, a former railway line, now a 14 mile long cycle route and nature trail in Beckon Fields, Northamptonshire. The paved sculpture incorporates 25m of engraved sandstone paving and runs around the outside of a childrens play area.The sculpture alternates an image with a railway sleeper to create a curved repeating pattern.  The paving contains text and images that tell the story of the history of the railway and later some of the important features, landmarks and ..read more

New memorial for Mesothelioma unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum Today saw the dedication of a stone sculpture that I have been working on honouring all serving and veteran members of the British Armed Forces with the asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma. The memorial sculpture has been installed at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. The sculpture was commissioned by Mesothelioma UK, the national asbestos-related cancer charity. The memorial is made up of more than 60 carved stone blocks representing the building blocks of life and public service. The blocks form a to ..read more

Sculpture unveiled in Wakefield This week saw a sculpture that I have been working on for some time, unveiled in Wakefield in Yorkshire. Titled “Everglow”, the 5m tall concrete and glass artwork was commissioned largely by the developers who have a created a major new housing development in the city. The sculpture is inspired by the canal that transformed the fortunes and the future of the city in the 19th Century. The sculpture celebrates the city’s waterways and the role they still play in the city. The blue coloured, patterned glass and giant concrete monoliths represent the mass and form ..read more

The sculptures that I have been working on for Caernarfon castle over the past 2 years or so have been completed and installed. The stone sculptures are inspired by the craftsmen who would have worked on the castle, one of the finest examples of its type, built in the middle ages. On entering the castle, you will first see the Master Builders hands. Constructed and carved from 20 pieces of sandstone, the bands of stone replicating the stripes of red and buff coloured stone that Caernarfon castle was constructed with hundreds of years ago. Initially weighing 14 tonnes, the complex sculpture, ba ..read more

Donington manor repairs Most of my work over many years has been the creation of large scale public art sculpture. Predominantly these sculptures have been in carved stone although occasionally in glass and concrete. Over the years I have taught myself some of the fine arts of working stone including designing and carving letters and carrying out some very tricky stone masonry projects. When a lorry baked into the 250 year old pillar cap on the wall of the Donington Manor Hotel in Leicestershire, the stone shattered into a dozen pieces and was deemed irreparable. I was asked to visit the damag ..read more

I am making good progress on my latest giant stone sculpture. The sculpture takes the form of a giant pair of hands. It weighs in the region of around 8 tonnes having weighed in at a whopping 14 tonnes when it was delivered to my Leicestershire workshop in December. Despite the dreadful storms over the last couple of weeks, conditions have generally been good for working outdoors. I started work on the hands, firstly by making a 1:10 scale model, also in stone although I sometimes make these in clay. From that I was able to project up onto the full sized stone blocks and was confidently able t ..read more

I have just taken delivery of a number of blocks of stone which together will help to create a new giant sculpture. The blocks of buff and red sandstone are assembled in layers but will be carved into one huge artwork measuring 3m x 2m x 1m high.  The total weight on delivery was probably around 16 tonnes but I anticipate it to be about half of that on completion. Work on the new giant sculpture should take 2 to 3 months but as ever, it is always tricky to judge how long something like this might take. This will be the largest sculpture that I have worked on. The biggest single piece prio ..read more

10 years of sculptures at the National Memorial Arboretum. In 2011, I was approached by a lovely elderly gentleman called Harry Parkes. He asked if I would be prepared to make a memorial to the Bevin Boy miners which would be sited at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Harry had been a former Bevin Boy and was frustrated at the lack of recognition the Bevin Boys had received following their conscription to work down the pits by Lord Bevin during WWII. The goal, to have a memorial to all the men who gave years of toil, and in many cases their lives, to the war effort. This was th ..read more

400th Memorial Unveiled The 400th memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum, for the Naafi, was unveiled this week. I have been working on the Naafi memorial at my workshop over the last few months and last week it was installed and and dedicated at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. I hadn’t been aware until a few days beforehand that it was to be the 400th memorial at the prestigious location. The Naafi (Navy, Army and Airforce Institutes) for whom my own Grandmother served at Haggeston Castle during the 2nd World War, provided catering facilities for all of the armed forces ..read more

The railway sculpture that I have been working on for a couple of months is due to be installed in the coming weeks. The stone sculpture, carved in relief weighs 5 tonnes, is almost 2m high and 2m wide. Inspiration for the artwork was taken from Leighton Buzzard light railway where the volunteers have sought to keep the track operating since it’s demise as a commercial line when it formerly served to move gravel and sand from local quarries. The railway is now a popular tourist attraction and operates out of a small station and railway sheds near the town centre. The stone sculpture depicts 2 ..read more