?History?, Bramcote Old Tower

Image: © Alan Murray-Rust Taken: 17 Oct 2016

One of a series of sculpted seats in the gardens surrounding the old church tower, created in Ancaster stone by local sculptor Andrew Smith working with the local community. Each has a granite panel with text by local writer Pat Ashworth. The 'History' seat picks up local motifs. The cross and the skull and crossbones reflect carvings on tombstones in the churchyard, while the sheep's head reflects the agricultural history of the village and the shears and knitting the traditional local industry. The accompanying text reads: "Tell of beacons and bonfires, tithes and taxes. Of alehouse and almshouse. Of cowled monks on a beaten path to penitence. Of the firm thumb and sore eye of the framework knitter. Tell of Henry Holden and Elsie Eatch. Of Ice Age stone and harvest home, of squires and shepherds, damsels and divinity. Hensons and Bagshawes are buried bones but live immortalised in stone."

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