Carving a place in history

2:00pm Sunday 2nd November 2008

A LOCAL sculptor who has been hard at work for several months had her efforts rewarded when the font she had been carving was unveiled and dedicated at St Andrew’s Church in Hurstbourne Priors.

Marilyn Smith was commissioned to design and create the new limestone and slate font for the church.

The huge project took her 16 months to complete.

The suggestion for a new font was made in 2002 when it was decided the old font – which had been in place since the 1870s – was looking a bit worse for wear as well as being badly damaged.

“It was in very poor condition and the iron supports were rusting causing the font to crack,” said Marilyn.

Marilyn is known in the village for her sculpting work after she created a Millennium Statue for St Mary Bourne.

She felt honoured to be the one creating something for her local church.

“It was a bit daunting at first because I had never done anything remotely as important and of this size before,” she said.

“It felt absolutely phenomenal to do it as most fonts seem to last many hundreds of years and actually creating something that’s going to be there long after I’m gone is a wonderful feeling.”

The new font, which is covered in words, is very different to its predecessor and Marilyn feels it gives a new decorative feel to the church.

“I chose the words from the Sermon on the Mount as I feel they are incredibly important words and decorated it with carvings of things which can be found in the grounds of the church,” she added.

“Considering a lot of people who go in a church nowadays have a look around I wanted something that would have a great impact on everyone who walked through the door.”

If anyone wants to see the new font they have until 9 November when the church will close for the winter months. It is however open for the regular services on Sunday.