Pendle Hill Summit Stones

The Pendle Hill Summit Stones are public sculptures installed on Pendle Hill in Lancashire in April 2019, commissioned by the Pendle Hill Landscape Partnership and In-Situ. They represent the meeting of man and nature - the anthropocene. Twelve sculptures were created and then assembled in a ring formation to sit around the Trig point at the top of the hill.

The eight cube shaped sculptures were cast from concrete made with cement sourced from a local quarry at the foot of Pendle Hill. The cube, seemingly out of place amongst nature’s backdrop, yet it is one of the most common and simplest shapes found in crystals and minerals. Edges & corners of the sculptures were cut away in places to convey the natural process of weathering and erosion from exposure to the elements. 

Engravings on each of the eight sculptures reference aspects of Pendle Hill and humanity. Contour lines, a familiar site on the maps used by walkers, echo the geography of the area and contours of the hill itself. Cell patterns of the Sphagnum moss, as seen under a microscope, are a homage to the moss that has compacted over thousands of years to form the layers of peat on the hill. Fossils point to the hidden geology and history of the hill. Echinoids, belemnites, Crinoidea and ammonites, fossilised sea creatures linking us to a time when Pendle would have been underwater, are common in the bedrock that Pendle Hill is formed from. The honeycomb pattern honours bees and the insects who pollinate the plants on the hill, as well as the crops globally that we are so reliant on. Ring & cup petroglyphs, one of the earliest forms of prehistoric art, relate to the earliest settlers on Pendle Hill, 12,000 years ago. The communication stone represents mankind and the many ways of communicating we have developed through time and different cultures. The warp and weft of woven fabric on the weaving loom refers to the cotton industry, as it has had such an important role in the history and development of the Pendle area, particularly Burnley, King Cotton, which was once the cotton capital of the world. The Moon and constellations relate to the universe and how everything has its place in the grand scheme of things. Nature can often make us realise how insignificant we are in its midst. Constellations also reference the seasons and also link to Richard Towneley the astrologer who conducted experiments on the hill. 

The four sculptures that mark North, South, East and West were half spheres, carved from locally sourced limestone and mark the Ley lines that run from North to South and East to West. At the centre of each of these is a well, the sphere and the well in the centre symbolise a human egg, the beginning of all human journeys. Inspired by the cairns on the hill, piles of stones that walkers have carried on their journey up, the wells are a space where visitors are invited to pick up the last stone left in the well and leave their own, thus creating a conversation between them and the last person on the hill. The well also will act as a rainwater collector for birds and dogs to drink from.

The circle or ring that the stones form around the trig hold the simple yet rich connotations of continuity, life and cyclic time, referencing infinity, the sun and moon, perfection and completion. The ring links to unity, hope and trust, something the suffragists, the quakers and other radicals from the area were always working towards.

After being exhibited at SET Project Space in London, the Pendle Hill Summit stones were then on display at In-Situ in Brierfield, Nelson. They were then installed on Pendle Hill & the entirety of them will not be seen again in our lifetime. Like archaeology in reverse, buried with the intention of being found, they were set into place around the trig point and buried in the ground so only the top surface is visible to visitors to the summit. The main body of the sculptures is concealed underground, not to be seen again completely until the ground slowly erodes around them and the stones are gradually exposed once more to the Pendle of the future. There is a message to the future hidden inside the stones that was decided through workshops and talking to people in the Pendle area. The chosen message will never be written anywhere, only people that saw the stones before they were embedded know what this message is. Its hidden from sight now the stones are set into place and covered with earth, lying in wait to be passed on to the future.