Phil Townsend

Seating, Way-Markers, Weathervanes, Stiles, etc

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Title :  ‘Coal Seams Seat’

Location : 
Twizell Burn, Grange Villa, Co Durham, 1997

Materials :  Elm 

Description :  The hard geometry of this seat reflects the industrial heritage of the area as it is sited on the summit of a mine’s spoil heap. The support posts at the rear pay reference to the chimneys and pithead winding houses of the collieries, each post carved with the name of a local pit. The rising line of the seat back echoes the shape of a slag heap while inset from the upper edge are the names, horizontally carved, of the eleven principal coal seams in order of their depth below ground.