Cardiff Bay: Adventurers Quay artworks

This is Adventurers Quay, a large residential development on the edge of Roath Basin in Cardiff Bay and, as you can see, around the ground floor of the building, at pedestrian eye level, there's an artwork.

The artwork, which was installed in 1999, has two components, one a mosaic of ceramic sails coloured blue and white, the other, perhaps less obvious, the grilles that cover the window openings to the car park inside the building.

The 'Terracotta Sails' mosaic is the work of ceramicist David Mackie (b. 1965), a prolific artist whose website lists completed artworks dating from 1994 to 2024, several of which can be seen in the Cardiff area. As well as the highly glazed sails, there's an undulating row of terracotta bricks fashioned to resemble a rope running along the lower part of the artwork. I quite like this piece, though I think the concept lacks imagination, sails being a very common theme among the artworks around Cardiff Bay.

Passers-by might be forgiven for not realising that the 11 steel grilles covering the car park openings are an artwork, so simple are they. These are the work of Andrew Rowe (b. 1963), whose DAR Design website describes him as a 'designer, sculptor and artist blacksmith', who works 'to commission, providing unique design solutions for public art, architectural metalwork, street furniture and sculpture'.

Cardiff Bay: Blue Beacon

I'd walked past this artwork many times before I paused to look at it more closely, possibly because it's located outside Bute Town Police Station, and I've never thought it a good idea to be seen lingering outside police stations. 

I've called this blog 'Blue Beacon' but I've also seen this artwork called 'Lighthouse' and 'Blue Light' – I'm not sure which is correct. 

According to his website, this piece was designed by British sculptor Mark Renn (1952–2019), with assistance in the design development and fabrication management from Mick Thacker. 

The 60-foot-tall stainless steel construction is the work of 'A1 Stainless, South Wales Monuments, Richard Williams', and there's also an LED lighting system that produces a pulsing blue light at night. 

The granite base of the structure is inscribed with a poem, 'The Ballast Bank', from the publication Zen Cymru, by Peter Finch. 

You can read the poem in full on Finch's website, which offers the following explanation for the piece and its relevance to the location:

The Ballast Bank is a poem by Peter Finch which has been incorporated into Renn and Thackers' Blue Light public artwork at the entrance to the South Wales Police Headquarters on James Street, Cardiff. This station is built very near where in the early days of Cardiff as a trading port stood a quarter mile bank of off-loaded ballast. This had been dumped by arriving ships making space for their outgoing cargoes of iron and coal. The Bank is clearly visible on John Wood's late 1830s map of the town.

The artwork puts some of that ballast bank back. The poem delineates the races, language groupings, trades and ideas which flowed in and out of the burgeoning industrial town as it exponentially developed. In its original form the poem circled Renn and Thacker's silver tower to run across the station entrance steps, in through the doors, up across reception finishing on the reception desk's surface.

According to the newspaper Wales Online, there seems to have been some controversy and criticism about the erection of this artwork, not surprising when you consider that upwards of £70,000 of taxpayers' money was used to pay for it in 2013.

Cardiff Bay: Triple spout

I admit to never having noticed this fountain until I found it mentioned in the Cardiff Public Art Register; the register is available as a downloadable pdf, though be aware that it seems not to have been updated since 2008 and, in the interim period, some artworks have been vandalised, many have suffered damage and not been repaired, at least one has been relocated, and, despite Cardiff Council's history of neglect, more artworks have appeared around the city. 

The reason I hadn't previously noticed the 'Triple Spout' is that it's located in a hole in the ground in Cardiff Bay's Roald Dahl Plass. According to the Register entry, the location is 'a deep D shaped feeder pit that was historically used for balancing water levels in the adjacent Oval Basin'. 

The fountain is the work of British sculptor William Pye and was installed in 2000. Pye specialises in sculptures involving water; his website says he 'is inspired by the extraordinary qualities of water and fascinated by the natural laws of hydrostatics and how these can be manipulated'. Scrolling through the list of works on Pye's website I realised that I've seen at least one other previously, the font in Salisbury Cathedral, which I included in a blog written in January 2017, Salisbury Cathedral by day.

Weymouth: Civil War cannonball

When I turned from looking at the ghost signs I blogged earlier this week and looked across to the other side of Maiden Street, I immediately found another item of historical interest. 

Though I didn't at first notice the object itself, I did quickly spot this plaque on the side of the building. 

And then I almost bumped in to a young woman who obviously also had a fascination for the old and interesting. She was photographing, and thus brought to my attention, these two plaques cemented in to the pavement opposite the building (and she was delighted when I pointed out the ghost signs to her). The plaques read:

The Maiden Street Cannonball

Just below the top window of the building opposite is a cannonball lodged in the wall. While the cannonball may be a replica, the damage originates from the time of the Civil War.

At the beginning of 1645 the important strategic port of Weymouth was under Parliamentary command. However in early February a plot by local Royalist sympathisers led to a surprise attack which left Weymouth, across the harbour, in the hands of the Royalists. This plot is known locally as the 'Crabchurch Conspiracy'.

The Parliamentarians took refuge in Melcombe Regis but came under heavy bombardment from Royalist artillery during the following week. The cannonball which struck the building may well have been fired from an elevated position across the harbour on the Nothe headland during this time.

By the end of the month the Parliamentarians had stormed the bridge and retaken Weymouth. However the whole town was left in ruins and the local economy would take years to recover. 

The building itself, which now houses the RAFA Club, other commercial enterprises and public conveniences, is Grade II listed, and the Historic England website entry confirms that the building dates to the 17th century, though the windows are 19th-century upgrades. The entry also confirms the presence of the cannonball, with no mention of the possibility of it being a replica: 'A C17 cannon ball remains embedded in the gable masonry to the left of the casement.'

Weymouth: ghost signs

Although the main reason for my mini breaks in Weymouth is to find and enjoy the local wildlife, in particular the birds, and, during the summer, the butterflies and dragonflies, every time I wander the streets of the old town I find more new and interesting things. 

During my most recent visit, a couple of weeks ago, I turned from Custom House Quay in to Maiden Street, my eyes wandering all the time up, down and around the street and buildings, when I noticed these signs on the building on the corner of Maiden Street and Helen Lane. 

The sign is in three separate parts, which appear to read: 'manures and cakes' (this made me chuckle), 'grain', and 'hay, straw and English grain', though I think there are words above that are not now legible. 

Though I've not been able to find any information about the building or its previous use (it is not one of the many Weymouth buildings that are heritage listed), I assume it was once used as a warehouse. Being so near to the harbour, it could easily have stored agricultural products that had arrived at the port or were being stored prior to being shipped elsewhere. 

In case you are not familiar with the term 'ghost sign', Historic England defines these as: 'fading advertising signs, or shop signs that are preserved on buildings longer than the businesses they represent'.