In Gloucester Cathedral

On entering the Cathedral the visitor is greeted
with what appears to be a circular black marble
chalice and at its centre a square font. How
shocked was the lady, so I was told by a guide,
who placed her handbag on the black marble
whilst she took a closer look at the magnificent
stained glass of the West windows a few yards
away. The surface was not marble after all but
water ! This image captures the reflected glory
of the West windows in this water sculpture
created by William Pye b 1938.

The sculpture is one of his "Brimming Bowl"
water sculptures. Surface tension maintains a
flat disc of apparently still water at a level that is
right up to the brim if the bronze bowl . A significant
flow of water enters the vessel and as it rises
turbulence disappears to give an effect of stillness,
despite the fact that some 135 litres of water per
minute flows silently down the throat of the square
central weir that draws water down to a reservoir
below. I understand the lady's handbag was retrieved
before it slipped over the weir!