Glamorgan Heritage Coast

2016

The Glamorgan Heritage Coast is famous for its cliffs of clearly defined limestone strata, but its heritage status is equally because of ancient human settlement along the coast, in particular many significant early Christian sites and stone crosses. For this reason, the designated area of Heritage Coast actually extends several miles inland and the client wished to highlight this to passing motorists.

I conceived of the sculptures as being vertical markers in the landscape, in the tradition of early stone crosses, but echoing the strata of the sea cliffs. There is also a hint of the shape of sails and the dinosaur claw prints found in some locations along the coast.

Four similar but individually distinct markers are located at significant road junctions along the border of the Heritage Coast: at St Athan, Llantwit Major, St Brides and Ogmore. In addition, at Dunraven Gardens near Southerndown I made a sculptural bench that echoes the carefully crafted layers of the gateway markers. The bench looks out onto the strata of the cliffs and includes the poem ‘Southerndown Man’ by Amanda Rackstraw, created with local school children.

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