Park Farm Thornbury
(2021)

Location : Thornbury, South Gloucestershire

Materials : European Oak

Funding : David Wilson Homes (Section 106)

Pickedmoor Brook Seat

An inventory (dated 1521) revealed that this land was then used as a deer park. Five hundred years later it is being consumed by bricks, mortar and tarmac. What will be here in five hundred years’ time? This is the running theme for the carvings on Pickedmoor Brook Seat, situated downstream from the medieval fish ponds. Carved onto the arching seat back, a thousand year timeline flows through Pickedmoor Brook (also known as Pickedmoor Rhine), The flow of time runs from right to left, with the flow of the brook. Time past (1521) is signified as a stag’s head, situated to the left. Time present (2021) is depicted as a plan of the current housing development in the centre of the seat back. Time future (2521) will arrive from the right and is signified with a large question mark. The waters still flow and, remembering our fellow souls, a selection of the creatures which naturally inhabit the brook and its environs are carved along the timeline. What will be their fate? (letter carving by Georgia Wright)

Fish Ponds Seat

Fish Ponds Seat is sited close to the medieval fish ponds at Thornbury It is a Listed Ancient Monument (LAM), and one of only two intact medieval fishponds in the country. The design incorporates a ‘U’ shaped arch form, with two horizontal timbers carved depicting a selection of some of the creatures that would have inhabited the fishponds, helping to create a bio diverse, resilient and sustainable environment within the ponds.

On the top horizontal timber are carved four of the typical fish that would have been bred during medieval times: carp, bream, pike and tench. On the timber below are a some of the smaller creatures: spirogyra, great pond snail, rotifer, true worm, great diving beetle, tadpole and horsefly larvae.