HOUSING developers, Backhouse Housing, are planning to install an art sculpture at the entrance to ‘Callaway Gardens’ to remember the former Westbury Hospital.
The Backhouse residential development will comprise of 56 homes after planning permission was granted by Wiltshire Council in 2018.
A proviso of the planning permission was for the developers to provide a piece of public artwork about the history of the site.
Tim Baldwin, design manager at Backhouse, presented a proposal of an iron bench sculpture, at Westbury Town Council’s highways, planning and development committee last month.
He said, “The art will be both an entrance piece to the development, but also a reflective piece for those driving round and through The Butts, to create a connection between the housing and the former hospital site, it won’t be purely for the residents of Callaway Gardens.
“We have employed the help of local company Ironart, who are foundry craftsmen just outside Bath. They have a history of public artwork, including the sunflower on the roundabout at the bottom of Bathwick Hill.
“We have left the brief with them, but we of course want to recognise the history of the site, so we wanted to try and incorporate a nod to the hospital that was there and also to try and incorporate the history of the ironworks in Westbury, as part of the railway development, and the effort within the war that the ironworks provided.
“Our proposal would be for a 7m across and 2m high contemporary form of the hospital bed, made into seating for reflection. The bench will feature words for reflection including ‘caring for the past, present, future with love and compassion’.
“As promised to the members of Westbury’s League of Friends, the foundation stones from the original hospital will also feature in the development. We tried to incorporate them inside the iron structure, but we have decided that we potentially will have them put in one of the communal gardens.
“Ironart will be finishing the structure to a applicable standard, that allows for minimal management. Once it is in the space, the maintenance will be run by a management company who will deal with the upkeep and maintenance of the structure.
“This is just at the proposal stage, and a lot of ideas have been thrown around, but we wanted to show that we want to preserve the history here at Callaway Gardens for the residents of Westbury.”
Erica Watson, former chair of the League of Friends who worked to save the hospital site said, “I met with two of the Backhouse team a coupe of weeks ago with some other (ex) LOF trustees.
“James and Tim made us very welcome and spent over an hour showing us several drafts of drawings prepared for the proposed artwork. We were all very impressed with the amount of time and expense that Backhouse had spent in sourcing artists and a blacksmith to provide the right artwork to reflect the former hospital site.
“We were shown where the proposed artwork would sit and how they hoped it would encourage people to get together. I am not sure that any other developer would have done the same.
They also reassured us that the foundation stones were safe and would be incorporated into the site.
“We were also invited to add to the proposed time capsule which will be buried on the site, along with contents from the original capsule which was found when building commenced
“Given the high emotions involved re the loss of first Westbury Community Hospital, and then the site, I do feel that Backhouse have involved the community via the League Of Friends at every stage which they were under no obligation to do and I look forward to further meetings with them to discuss what is buried in the time capsule.”
