Monument To Satterthwaite
Nigel Lloyd 1983
Nigel Lloyd spent a very productive six months in Grizedale in 1983. He began his five-sculpture residency with 'Monument To Satterthwaite', a trio of stone and wood structures which sat up on the hill to the east of the village. Lloyd described the piece to the sadly now-defunct 'Aspects Journal' publication (from where the picture is taken):
"I had conceived of an idea to make a series of viewing platforms looking out across a glade or large vista of open forest. In my mind's eye I had it all worked out (scale still in keeping with working in a studio!). I had found a likely spot, and hoped that by June it would still be workable. Unfortunately that particular spot had been felled which brought home to me another problem of working within the forest. Grizedale is not a museum, or a sculpture park, it is a working environment, with an ever-changing face, due to old trees being felled, areas thinned, and new plantations set up. Thus one's own work has to accommodate these changes, traditional ideas of work lasting a lifetime have to change with it.
The area chosen for the first piece 'Monument To Satterthwaite' was a conifer plantation thinned the previous year, so safe from felling for the next five to ten years. The area was ideally suited to the half-formed idea in my head - a small glade, open, with good sunlight filtering through, near three tracks used by walkers. I felt it was important when making the first piece to make something that was less 'forest sculpture' but more 'forest furniture', in the hope that the local community and walkers would get involved. I constructed three large viewing platforms (in the hope that people would stand/sit/eat picnics on them). Each one had a stone 'cairn' on top, and although the platforms were made at different heights due to the contours of the glade, the stone on top remained a constant, so that the viewer standing on one platform could sight along the top of the stone to the other two, thus levelling-up the area. These structures were reminiscent of viewing platforms I had seen while on a scholarship in Japan in 1979, and the area chosen to site them also bore a strong feeling of the Orient.
The title of the piece came about through hearing two forestry workers talking (trying to direct a group of lost walkers) and saying: "If you go up past the monument and follow the track to Satterthwaite..." What better way of having a piece of work titled? The locals now know it as 'The Monument' and it takes on a personal quality.
It was the largest piece I made in the forest, due to the fact that all the materials were moved and constructed by hand, and I think an subconscious gesture on my part to make the biggest thing I could without the aid of winches or a block and tackle, or outside help; proving that I could work outside without too much difficulty."
Like most places in these parts, the name 'Satterthwaite' is of Norse origin, 'saetr' being a pasture, and 'thveit' meaning isolated. The church as it looks today, with its chunky square tower, dates from 1914, but according to the records, there has been a church or chapel of some kind on this spot since the 1500s. However, some sources have it that there has been a settlement here since as early as the 10th Century.
Also by this artist:
For The Birds 1983
The Fortress 1983
Half Moon Stakes 1983
Stone Red Wallow 1983