War Memorial progress update

28 April, 2021 – 12:19 pm

Since re-opening on the 14th April I have spent almost everyday working on the carving of George Hyett. An Abenhall man, George is the face of my 1st world war soldier.

Carving Forest of Dean sandstone takes alot of patience and skill as well as sharp tungsten carbide tipped chisels.

I favour hand crafted chisels from JP Masonry https://jpmasonrysupplies.com/ and Steven Travis https://www.stoneworkingtools.co.uk/ I use 2 different weight wooden mallets, a lump hammer and a selection of dummy hammers with my smaller fine carving chisels.

Due to the ‘plucky’ characteristic of this stone I can’t take too much away at a time as it has the tendancy to pluck more away than I want but it is also very hard so it is quite difficult to work off large quantities at a time unlike the limestone that I use.

The stone came from Barnhill quarry near Coleford in the heart of the Forest of Dean. https://fodstone.co.uk/
It has beautiful Green, Lilac, Red and Amber ochre colours running through it as well as indentations of the fossilised tree bark from it’s origins. I chose the stone for it’s natural primitive surface which in my mind represents the 1st world war. The side that I will be carving the 2nd world war names, dedication and soldier is sawn but not dressed, this to me is representative of the 2nd world war.

These photos were taken yesterday, it’s darker because I have just rinsed the dust off after my days work.

George Hyett, a work in progress.
Close up of webbing and ammo pouches.
Close up of the face and upper body. You can see how I am chopping around the outline of the figure.

I estimate that I have around 100 hours of carving left, I will also be carving some more poppies towards the top of the stone.

When this is finished it will be installed in the garden next to the Church in Mitcheldean. Unveiling date to be confirmed but it should be in September.

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  1. 2 Responses to “War Memorial progress update”

  2. AWESTRUCK.

    By Gwynneth Manning on Apr 28, 2021

  3. Thank you Gwynneth x

    By Caroline Horwood on Apr 30, 2021

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