Commissions & Public Art — Sculptural Seating for Heritage Sites, Parks, Trails & Schools

Large carved seating and sculpture for places that have a story to tell. Since 2005 we have made sculptural seating, thrones, arches and trail pieces for castles, country parks, woodland trails, nature reserves, libraries, visitor attractions and several hundred schools across the UK — all hand-carved in solid oak in our workshop in Mid Wales, and built to live outside for decades.

Work like this

• Conwy Castle Throne — commissioned by Cadw for the walls of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A solid oak throne carved with the Good Friday 1401 capture of the castle. Read how it was made.
• Meirion's Trail, Harlech — four storytelling thrones and a circular bench for a permanent public storytelling trail through the town, each carved with a tale from the Mabinogi.
• Ospreys Bench, Dyfi — a carved oak bench for the wildlife hide at the Dyfi Osprey Project.
• Viking Legend Bench, Drayton Manor — a 2–3 seater throne bench carved with Norse gods for the theme park.
• Studfold Trails, Yorkshire Dales — the Two Stone Wishes arch and entrance archway for an adventure trail.
• Lapland UK — a carved fantasy arch for the winter attraction.
• Brechin Castle Centre — a carved entrance arch for the Scottish visitor attraction.
• Cornwall Libraries — a storytelling chair carved with Cornish myths for the library garden in Penzance.
• Wakefield Council — circular ring seating for school grounds.
• Schools — storytelling chairs, arches, benches and instruments for several hundred primaries, secondaries and SEN settings, many designed from the children's own drawings.

What we make

• Sculptural seating — carved thrones, benches, ring seating and giant chairs for public spaces
• Entrance arches and gateways for trails, parks, nurseries and attractions
• Storytelling houses, pavilions and outdoor classrooms
• Carved signs, sculptures and wildlife pieces for nature reserves and hides
• Memorial and commemorative pieces for communities

How a commission works

1. Tell us about the place. The site, the stories attached to it, who will use the piece and roughly what you'd like to spend. Photographs help. We visit sites across the UK when it's useful.
2. We draw. Suzanne and our lead carver Dan come back with sketches. We go back and forth until it's right — the Conwy throne changed its whole story after Cadw's historians read the first drawing, and was far better for it.
3. You approve the design and pay a 50% deposit, which books the workshop time. Schools, councils and trusts can order on a purchase order.
4. We build. Most single pieces take 6–12 weeks from an agreed design; multi-piece trails are scheduled over several months. You get photographs as it progresses.
5. Delivery and installation anywhere in the UK, with fixings suited to the ground. Pieces are supplied unvarnished to silver naturally, or varnished on request.

Budgets

As a guide, a single carved oak bench or throne for a public space starts at around £2,500 including VAT; large sculptural thrones like Conwy from around £4,500; carved entrance arches from £2,500 to £4,500; and multi-piece trails and storytelling structures from £10,000. Every piece is priced from the drawing, and we're used to working within grant and Section 106 budgets.

Built to stay outside

Everything is solid oak or Douglas fir, thick in section, with hand-cut joinery designed to take weather and weight for decades. Unvarnished oak silvers to the colour of stone over a couple of seasons; varnished pieces keep their golden colour and can be recoated. The Harlech thrones have been sat on by thousands of people a year since they went in, and are exactly as they should be.

Get in touch with a place and a story, or call Suzanne on 07508 993227. See more in our storytelling chairs and thrones, arches and storytelling benches.