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The Sculptures

These are the work of an artist from Suffolk, Ben Platts-Mills and his helpers. Timber is their material and the chainsaw is their principal tool. Their work is to be seen in many parts of East Anglia and further afield and Harding's Pits, with its carved entry markers and the Great Whale at the centre, is among their best. The Fairstead Doorstep Green in North Lynn has another fine example of their artistry.

Before he began work, Ben held classes in the three primary schools close to the Green — Whitefriars, Greyfriars and St Michaels — asking children what they would like to see put there. The ideas came thick and fast, hence the seal supported by a man rising out of the earth and with a submarine on the end of its nose, the tumblers (part of Harding's Pits was once used as winter quarters for the travelling fairground folk) holding up the fisherman in his sou'wester, and the great bird now cruelly vandalised but still keeping watch over the Green and its many inhabitants.

See more of Ben's work here.