Fern Hill Bench Commission

We were contacted by a customer in the South Hams who was recently bereaved, to create a special bench for her beautiful wildlife friendly garden. She had a particular poem which she chose a couple of lines from to be carved into the bench. The lines are from Dylan Thomas’s Fern Hill, which celebrates the joy and innocence of youth, which fades and is gone all too soon. The lettering was designed by me, inspired by the work of Martin Wenham. It is intended that just like the poem, and much poetry in general, you have to work at the meaning. The bench is made entirely from sweet chestnut from South Devon. The bench seat was wonderful tactile edges - we call it a pebble edge - inspired by the pebbles that can be found on Westward Ho! beach. The backrest, spindles and legs were all split from unseasoned coppiced sweet chestnut, then dried before being refined and composed into the final piece. If you would like to commission a special piece for your home or garden you can contact me through the commissioning page.

“Time let me hail and climb, golden in the heydays of his eyes”