As part of the city-wide Salisbury River Park Project, I was commissioned to come up with some bespoke picnic benches for an orchard area near the river Avon. A main theme that emerged from our public engagement work there was the interest and connection to the rich chalk stream habitat of the river and I wanted to celebrate that in the benches somehow. Very early on in the project, a child at the local primary school had mentioned wanting some “fish benches”. I ran with that…
Wherever possible, I like to use recycled materials or timber sustainably sourced from the local area: these benches are made from some large sections I sawed off an ancient fallen Oak tree on the outskirts of the city and some slabs I milled from two dying black locust (robinia) trees Salisbury City Council donated to the project.
