Heartlands Bench CEC

For my CEC work placement with Kerrier council, I was asked to design a bench which potentially would end up inside the Heartlands Development alongside other artist commissions. I knew about the ‘call for submissions’ to artists back in December, but the projects were too big for me to consider applying for and as well as this I had a great interest in both sides of the commissioning process, from the artists perspective and also the commissioners.

The call for submissions sent out by KDC, contained about 7-8 commissions, all of which were to be placed within the new Heartlands Regeneration Project. The massive heritage of the heartlands site (being on of the most prominent tin mining areas of the region) meant that there was a huge amount of source material and history to draw from which could be fed back into the project.

Image taken from: Seams & Veins Artist-Maker Brief for Pool Village Commissions Dec 2008

Even before I had come to Falmouth, I had decided that one of the main focuses of the course for me would be to look into the mining history of the area, with a view to incorporating this subject into my research and finding ways that this could inspire work for me.

The title of my course is ‘Interior and Landscape Design’, and it is important to explore understand what this means to me. So far, the subjects which have interested me are things connected to public art, urban space, architecture, community, history… then things like anthropology, because that is a broad enough title to contain most other subject areas, and importantly the design process.

With this in mind, the Heartlands Project was a great way for me to experience a live ‘regeneration’ project that is focussed on the public realm, instead of a much more singular or individualistic approach, which is something I am more familiar with, this because my own experience is limited, and certainly does not extent to working on big projects as this.

So having known about the commissions since December I was really excited when after sending in my CV in the hope of getting some work experience KDC asked me to design a bench.

The council office’s role is concerned with the landscaping and upkeep of the Kerrier district area. Whilst at the offices, my role was to design a bench and also get involved in planning of public consultations, this meant putting together inspiration sheets which would have been used to stimulate discussion amongst local people about the kind of improvements or initatives that they would like to see put in place in the community. Alongside this I did a bit of illustrator work, this time information sheets for the local Dolcoath mine. At the time I was not familiar with AutoCAD, and because of this I could only put my designs onto paper.




Making the jump from drawing on paper and sketching my ideas down without really thinking about it, to drawing in a computer programme, was a bit of a challenge, and did feel like it wasn’t very worthwhile doing. But now I can at least open CAD without having a heart attack, and I would even say that I can successfully draw some lines.


The inspiration for the bench is taken from railway tracks found on the Robinson's Shaft site. The bench will be made from shaped rolled steel, and groves will be etched into the bench to create the impression of tracks. Placed underneath the bench for support is a piece of granite stone. Although I can see problems with the design, I do like the general idea. It is simple and I think that the railway track idea would not be lost on people. I am yet to find out KDC's opinion though.

If people are going to understand ideas and take them seriously then using a programme like AutoCAD enables for the expression of these ideas in a more universal language, and not only this but takes things from the ideas stage into a design stage, where ‘specifying’ materials and sizes take it that little bit closed to reality.




What remains in the heartlands site is a mish mash of old industrial buildings – mineshafts, big wheels, engine houses, all of which are in a state of semi ruin, contrasting this there is a huge area of wild flowers and green land, which over time has laid claim to the site(s) – hence the reason many of these areas have been designated ‘areas of outstanding natural beauty’

In the industrial age this land would have been an eyesore and dangerously polluted, but now is quite beautiful in a run down industrial kind of way. In the heartlands site one of the things that remain, amongst other equipment is railway tracks, wagon would have been laden with ore and these been used to move ore from place to place around the site

VIEWFINDER National Monuments Record english-heritage.org.co.uk

One of the things that drew my interest to the railway tracks was to do with how they were used. Basically transporting ore from one location to another, on land and also beneath in the mines. Although we usually associate mining with men, in fact women were employed by the mines on the surface and worked at separating the ore that had been removed from within the mines, these women were known as ‘Bal Maidens’. Typically women were not allowed in the mines because of the dangers involved, but experienced no less hardship than the men.

“By 1800, there were 2,000 or more females employed in the Cornish mines, and at least 6,000
by 1851. Between 1720 and 1920, there were probably more than 80,000 females working in all
of the mine related industries in Devon and Cornwall”

Bal Maidens Cornwall and Devon

english-heritage.org.co.uk

Reading the statistics associated with the mining industry and more specifically the mortality rate, you begin to realise how dramatic and hard the miners existence would have been. There is a report that was written in 1842 by Dr Charles Barham who was a mine surgeon. In the report is a series of interviews that take place between himself and some of the Bal Maidens who worked at the mine. He describes their state of health and circumstances, each example makes for scary reading.

Jane Jewell, 21 years old (Truro, March 31st 1841)

She has worked a fortnight at Consols but found she could not continue. She
has always found the ‘bal’ (mine) disagreed with her which she attributed chiefly
to the mundic water. The smell made her sick when the water was warm. Her
father is a miner at Consols and is in a declining state, and is about 50 years of age.”

Children's Employment Commission Report of 1842 Interviews with Bal Maidens from Cornwall and Devon

The Industrial Railway Record No. 19 - p242-245 © June 1968

Although the land will have changed dramatically since the 1840’s the diagram above explains how the railways will have been used to move the ore from one location to another within the mine.

CEC Work Placement - Kerrier District Council, Heartlands Project

My CEC work placement that took place with Kerrier District Council at Camborne was really good. The experience for me worked on many levels and I felt that I learned a huge amount. This was not only actual learning but also to do with experiencing the environment.

The office was a mix of people, engineers to project manager, a department manager and of course landscape architects. The whole group worked in unison and there was an interdependency that existed between them, as much as they hated to admit this. Because the council is in flux, lots of the offices have been moved around, and new alliances have been formed amongst colleagues. So the current situation (of about a year) works to the benefit of all, now stepping just a few yards across the office instead of communicating through endless reams of emails.

On my arrival I was met by Cathy Lowe, Landscape Architect. Cathy quickly took me off to the Heartlands Site, where she gave me a guided tour of the surroundings, explaining the way that the land would have looked when the mines were all working.

The Heartlands site is basically centrally located to all of the mines within Camborne. If you do a mine search of the area on the WHS, you will discover that there are as many as 2000 mine shafts within a five mile radius, many of which were left abandoned and forgotten about only to be later discovered by builders, and terrified walkers.

The picture below shows the vast amount of mines shafts located within Cornwall, all of the yellow dots are mine shafts.

http://mapping.cornwall.gov.uk/website/whs/viewer.htm

The Robinsons shaft area is home to one of the largest mines in Cornwall with a depth of the shafts being an astounding 735 fathoms or 3000m or 2 ½ miles deep (fathom = 5’9’ feet, traditionally a fathom is used as a sea measurement, but here adopted by the miners as the standard length measurement).

Next to the Robinsons Shaft site there is another mine which sits just about a quarter of a mile away, this mine is called South Crofty, this is the only working mine that exists in Cornwall today. All of the seams of tin have been mined over the hundreds of years that Cornwall played host to the largest mining industry in the world, the only reason that South Crofty remains is that the price of tin has risen in recent years, which makes the job of mining the remaining tin a profitable task.

When I went round Camborne with Cathy she drove up to South Crofty Mine and told me to look at the perimeter wall – to better explain, beneath is a quote taken from a blog; ‘The Unbearable Oddness of Stevyn Colgan’ ( accessed on the 24th June 2009) it is a bit of a cheat but this perfectly describes what I saw.

"The closure (of South Crofty) was marked by some poignant graffiti. There is a story that the local police caught the daubers just as they were adding the final question mark. The officers read the graffiti, sighed sadly, got back in their car and drove slowly away. And what was written? Two lines from the chorus of Cornish Lads, a modern folk song written by local lad Roger Bryant:

‘Cornish lads are fishermen and Cornish lads are miners too, But
when the fish and tine are gone, what are the Cornish boys to do?’

http://stevyncolgan.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html

Crofty has just re-opened for business and, as long as the price of tin remains high, has the potential for another 80 years of production. But such is the fragile nature of the industry that I'm not hopeful, sadly. There will always be cheaper labour elsewhere."

The writing was faint on the wall, just about decernable, but the memory no doubt still is strong. There is so much to take in and so many things to think about, the strong roots of the past clashing with needs of the present.

The Heartlands area spans Redruth Pool and Camborne. Big lottery funding of £22 million was won by ‘CPR Regeneration’, (a partnership of Kerrier District Council and South West Regional Development Agency) using this money CPR aim to change the face the area, by creating a series of multi functional spaces, a ‘new’ meeting area with lakes, sculptures and an outdoor theatre, to name some of the changes planned. Intentionally re-presenting the historical identity of Redruth Pool and Camborne back to the people in a way that brings inspiration for the future.

This image shows the area of Camborne, Redruth and Pool, alongside the proposed plans for the Heartlands project, the new designed area will join the three villages.

Carpet Font

When I first went to Treloan, I decided to show what I had been thinking about for the signs – I knew that they wanted to have something ‘ different’ so thought that I would experiment with materials – this was the first idea that I had:


I wanted to create an effect that was unusual, the carpet was kindly given to me by a carpet shop, and as it would have been thrown out anyway, I thought that it would fall into the recycled criteria.



There is of course the fact that the carpet as a material would be completely impractical to use in an outdoor setting.

As well as this there is some lino in the picture which I also got from the carpet shop – I would really have liked to use the lino, but the laser cutter would not have been able to cut it successfully because it has got a foam back and releases lots of noxious gasses – not a good idea. Shouldn’t forget it though because I still like the idea.


The other thing which I liked about the carpet, is that over time it would have had plants grow on it, but the carpet would still only last for a shortish period of time, which is not the objective – so carpet might not be the best idea. I took a photo of some grass and then used photoshop to make it look as though the grass was growing onto the carpet.

It would have to be covered, or sealed somehow, to stop it from rotting in the rain.

After speaking with Annie, Mac Pete and Deb's although everyone thought that the grass on carpet was a nice idea, no-one could really see it happening because of the impracticality.

CEC Work Placement 1

As part of my CEC Work Experience I will be working with Annie Lovejoy, and Treloan Coastal Holidays a camping and caravan site run by Deb’s and Pete Walker. The site is located in Portscatho Cornwall, a ferry ride across the water to St Mawes, and then about five windy miles over the Roseland Peninsula. The campsite has beautiful views of the sea, which is just a quick walk from the site.

Deb’s and Pete are eventually aiming to create a green and sustainable lifestyle at Treloan for themselves and also the holidaymakers. The campsite already has many eco innovations. They have pigs preparing the ground for a vegetable plot, chickens, a polytunnel for more plants and as well as this they aim to provide an eco holiday, with great incentives; like walkers and backpackers are able to stay at the site for a reduced rate if they arrive by bus or train because they travel with less of a carbon footprint. The site has eight mobile homes and plenty of space for lots of caravans.


Annie Lovejoy is studying for a PHD at Falmouth, and she and her partner Mac Dulop along with the support of Deb’s and Pete, will also be adding to Treloan by introducing new artistic and ecological activities to enhance the overall experience of Treloan as well as creating the beginnings of an Artist led community.

Annie and Mac have put together public art programmes in the past, one such was Barton Hill a Primary School and Children’s Centre in Bristol. Annie and Mac were lead artists in the project and they helped to redevelop the site, the project involved a participatory design process ensuring that the school childrens’ ideas and input were incorporated into the completed designs of the school. Examples of which are shown on Annie’s website; Shedsite.

My participation in the Caravanserai project will be to create some signs for the site. The signs will be a selection of directional and informative signs, for example

• Signs for road, which tell people to keep their speed down

• Signs for the toilets

• Signs for the recycle bins

Debs and Pete are clear about what kind of signs they would like, and their are certain unavoidable restrictions for instance the signs must be suitable for the outdoors and long lasting. The idea is to make the signs as quirky and individual as possible as well as making them from recycled materials and or found objects where possible. Over the next few weeks I will be adding information about my CEC placement to my blog. My ideas for the signs – and any other kind of inspiration which is relevant.