The last one!

Eden Benchmarks - Sculptures for Sitting

Last summer I started the search for a series of ten sculptures, which had been commissioned for the Millennium to celebrate a very special river - the River Eden, which flows sixty five miles through the Eden Valley in East Cumbria, to Carlisle, and out to the sea at Rockcliffe in the north of the county.

I was interested in finding them all, as the project, with the passage of time, seems to have been largely forgotten. I had only an out of date, out of print leaflet that I had unearthed to go by and sometimes it has been difficult to locate them. It has certainly been quite a challenge. I was fascinated to find out how the local stone, in which they were made, had weathered and whether they were still serving the purpose for which they had been placed - to provide some interest on a pathway, a seat and a view of the river.

Vista
And this is the last one. It is situated high above the river in woodland near Armathwaite, a village between Penrith and Carlisle. The sculptor was Graeme Mitcheson. According to the information I have, the idea behind the piece is that a walker reaches this plateau and, seeing the winding river below, removes his clothes and goes for a swim. Interesting that the artist refers to the piece as 'Gone for a plodge' (plodge - wade in water). However, the reality is that it is unlikely that anyone would make it down to the river from here - it's an awful long way down!

There are a number of stones in a clearing, enough for many people to sit. But the largest slab of St Bees Sandstone is carved very skillfully. If you look at this in large, you will be able to see the clothes of the walker - boots, scarf, jacket etc. Also there is a rucksack and a map and you can possibly see that the map acts as a sundial with the shadow cast by the a strewn trouser leg. It was incredibly accurate when we came upon it!

What I would love to do now is to write all this up, produce some more accurate directions and maps and put the whole thing together as a booklet. I'm not sure I will actually get round to doing this!

Here are the other nine Benchmarks, for the record and in case anyone is interested:
Primrose Stone
Passage
Red River
South Rising
Global Warming
Water Cut
Flight of Fancy
Cypher Piece
Towards the Sea