Abergavenny

2009

Brewery Yard, behind Abergavenny Town Hall and Indoor Market, had become an unloved car park and poor quality outdoor market space that did nothing to promote Abergavenny and encourage footfall. The closure of the neighbouring Cattle Market and its redevelopment as a distinctly unattractive supermarket lent urgency to make the site more appealing and to create a link to the existing shops on the High Street.
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I worked closely with landscape architect Tim Rose of Macgregor Smith and Chris Jones of Miller Research to integrate artwork into a complete redesign of Brewery Yard. Public engagement was key to the success of the scheme and we chose to take as our starting point the history of the site as a former brewery, interpreting this in a series of artworks integrated throughout the scheme. My artworks create a contemporary take on Abergavenny heritage and help shape an attractive space that functions equally well as a market place, a car park and an imaginative events space for the famous Abergavenny Food Festival.
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The artwork uses materials appropriate to the vernacular nature of Abergavenny as a market town on the Welsh borders, notably local sandstones, handmade bricks from Coleford in the Forest of Dean and Welsh slate. The barrel forms are a direct reference to the history of the site, but their simplified form and large scale provides an almost abstract reading that signals new life for the area.
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I commissioned poet Menna Elfyn to add a layer of detail to the scheme with engaging text in Welsh and English. I also worked with local school children who carved bricks that I then built into the barrel pillars. Finally master stone carver Tom Clark took my designs for hops, barley and flowing water and carved them into beautifully crafted relief carvings on the walls that were needed between the steps.
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I am sometimes asked why the red sandstone pillars on Market street look relatively small. Our original design was for much larger pillars that framed the space and the street. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts we were unable to convince various parties to share our imagination and vision.

Abergavenny’s loss I feel, so I include drawings of what could  (should!) have been, for the record. To see the success of such a design approach, see Blaenau Ffestiniog.

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