This project was initiated by ' Newark Community Arts' (as was then) in 1997. They made Stained Glass and Woodcarving workshops available for locals to get involved in, in various villages along the River Trent as it ran through the Newark area.
North Muskham was one of the villages that took up the idea, and the remit was to produce a carved post that made reference to the villages link with the river.
British Waterways (as was then) kindly made some recycled 'clapper gate' posts available as the core material. Each post was beautiful seasoned oak, with a massive hole through which originally the large hinge pin was located.
We had workshops over 2 weekends, and volunteers (most of whom had never carved before) first carved a small relief plaque for themselves, to get the feel of the tools, and then they went on to carve individual letters or the village name, which would be fixed down one side of the post, and some plaques to go on a second side that had images representing elements of how the river related to the village. On the last two adjacent sides of the post, we carved in a deeper relief, scenes of the river bank.
North Muskham was one of the villages that took up the idea, and the remit was to produce a carved post that made reference to the villages link with the river.
British Waterways (as was then) kindly made some recycled 'clapper gate' posts available as the core material. Each post was beautiful seasoned oak, with a massive hole through which originally the large hinge pin was located.
We had workshops over 2 weekends, and volunteers (most of whom had never carved before) first carved a small relief plaque for themselves, to get the feel of the tools, and then they went on to carve individual letters or the village name, which would be fixed down one side of the post, and some plaques to go on a second side that had images representing elements of how the river related to the village. On the last two adjacent sides of the post, we carved in a deeper relief, scenes of the river bank.
