STUMPED

The often controversial, ‘Stump’ sculpture must be relocated.  Society Trustees have been approached to join consultations with Broxtowe Council regarding its suitable new location.

Created by award-winning, sculptor Paul Mason, ‘Water Head’ (as it is actually titled) is a lifesize, modernist piece carved in white marble. It depicts a tree trunk, and was originally a water feature, this function was turned off for testing in the ‘90s and simply never reinstated. The reason for the relocation is to create more space to be able to improve the range, quality, and number of activities in the Square – particularly markets and all-weather entertainment events.

The Society has helped inform criteria for relocation of the piece:

• positioned so as to relate to its theme

• ideally Council-owned land

• visible to townsfolk and visitors

• display information about the piece.

Newly appointed Interim Town Centre Initiatives Manager, Vicky McCourt, has been in consultation with Civic Society Trustees, Mervyn and Tamar, about the proposal. Works are scheduled for completion by March 2025 and negotiations with site owners about location of the work are ongoing. But you can give your views and suggestion, via a survey we have created to consult local people on the decision.

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STONE SETTING

Over a decade ago,  I was writing a piece for The Beestonian on ‘The Stump’ because I love it and wanted it to be placed somewhere else as part of the then Phase 2 works for the Square. I believed then (as I do now) that if people knew more about it, they would stop calling it names and love it too.

I contacted Professor David Manley, a long-time friend and colleague of the artist, who has written much about his work, to talk to him about the piece and its maker,

“[he] is probably the most important sculptor of his generation in the Midlands … he lived locally, first in Loughborough then Long Eaton for several years before moving to Derby in the last years of his life, when he was made Professor of Sculpture there.”

‘Water Head’ was sculpted by award-winning sculptor, Paul Mason. He’s known for his large scale stone carvings; much inspired by natural forms. Awarded a Royal Academy Gold Medal in 1976, Mason went on to win several awards for his work which exhibited around the UK and Europe, including Tate St. Ives and Bauhaus in Berlin. He taught at Loughborough, Staffordshire, and Northumbria before becoming Professor of Sculpture at Derby University in 2004. In addition to his academic career, Mason was also Artist in Residence at Gloucester Cathedral and Tate St. Ives, and received commissions for public art for towns and cities up and down the country including Aberdeen, London… and little ol’ Beeston. ‘Water Head’ has a pedigree we should be more proud of, and I’m delighted Broxtowe is moving it somewhere more appropriate.

Commissioned in 1989 by Barry Protheroe (then of Broxtowe Borough Council), it cost a whopping £25k and originally (as its name suggests) featured a cascade of gently flowing water. You may recall ‘Leaf Stem’ sculpture outside St Peter’s Church in Nottingham had the same feature? That was by Mason too. Both sculptures were subject to water testing due to Health & Safety concerns in the early ’90s and their water features were just never reinstated.

“He was very much a traditionalist; obsessed with carving stone, like Moore – and was the kind of artist who liked to look at others’ work, work of all styles and form. He was very generous in that regard.”

Mason work is in the tradition of Henry Moore, and is often compared with that of Moore’s and Barbara Hepworth’s. These are big names in modern sculpture. These comparisons are clearly well-founded, for Mason’s tutor was himself a student of Moore’s. During his residency at Tate St. Ives, Mason was commissioned to use stone from Hepworth’s own actual studio to create pieces for his Paul Mason: New Sculpture for Tate St. Ives exhibition in 1996. Quite a heavyweight, then. And I don’t just mean the stone.

He was alive to see the water features of both ‘Water Head’ and ‘Leafstem’ decommissioned. He had a studio in Long Eaton, and likely passed Beeston Square on his way there. I imagine, after spending so much time working on something, it must have been quite disappointing to not have it much appreciated; to have it maligned – or overlooked entirely. It occurred to me that ‘Water Head’ probably wouldn’t be where it is now if Mason had any choice where it went. Unfortunately, we can’t ask him about his thoughts on his piece’s setting. Paul Mason died of cancer in May 2006, aged 54; a year after his last solo exhibition, ‘Stone Landscapes‘, at Quay Arts on the Isle of Wight.