St Mary’s Church in Beverley, East Yorkshire, wanted to raise awareness of their amazing roof bosses, famed for being some of the best examples in the country; I was contacted by Jennie England, at that time the church’s Heritage Learning Officer, about carving some replicas of a roof boss at different stages, but as we chatted we realised we could expand on this idea. After deciding to include some local schools and community groups in the project, the plan was developed to engage everyone in the process from start to finish ~ the design through to the completed carving.
The pupils at Skidby Primary School, Newport Primary School, Newland St John Primary School, St James’ Primary School and the trainees at Mires Beck Plant Nursery were all sent examples of the bosses at St Mary’s, and challenged to design their own. I divided each final design into quarters and transferred them onto blocks of tulip wood, which would be carved individually then fixed together at the end of the project. With the usual method of changing participants every 20 minutes or so, each school were able to get through almost 50 pupils per day, and 150 over the three day workshop ~ far more than if they had only the single roof boss to work on; although this compromise wasn’t a true representation of the church bosses, it gave the children and Mires Beck trainees a sense of the activity, and also introduced an element of teamwork ~ when carving one of the quarters, an eye always had to be kept on the other pieces to make sure that everyone was working to an equal depth and style!
Once the carvings were assembled, they were displayed in St Mary’s church along with information on the project, and the originals that inspired them.
