November 16, 2022

Swanage Pier Project

Swanage School students assemble on Swanage Pier.

Swanage School students test out the stone rubbing trail on the pier.

Some of the stone rubbings completed by Allsort’d — Some of the stone rubbings completed by the students.

Burngate were delighted to collaborate with The Swanage Pier Trust and The Swanage School to mark the 125th anniversary of Swanage Pier in the making of an interactive art trail.

As part of their Fine Art GCSE course, students learnt about the importance of the Swanage Pier for the shipping of Purbeck Stone to London and beyond, they visited Haysom Quarry and attended several weekly stone carving workshops at Burngate, which has helped them to gain an understanding of both their landscape and heritage as well modern day quarrying and the heritage skills still so vital to Purbeck.

The project culminated in them making nine stone carvings which have been installed along the 125 year old pier, each featuring a marine themed design carved by the students, with the aim of inspiring visitors to the pier to make their own pieces of art through stone rubbings – similar to brass rubbings, using the medium of crayons, chalk or oil pastels, transferring the raised carving to paper.