<<<< proposals

CENTRAL PARK MEMORIAL

1999

Site : Old entrance to the demolished Central Park Rugby League Football ground, Wigan, Lancashire. 

Estimated budget: £27,000 (for each proposal). Estimate for manufacture and installation from S&J Whitehead Stone Merchants, Oldham

Proposal 1:

Dimensions: 13 x 6.5 x 1m (stone pillars 2.4 x 1m)
Materials: Hollington White and Salmon sandstone
Solid stone pillars with one layer of salmon stone carved in relief detailing football grounds history. Rugby posts of standard metal construction.

Proposal 2:

Dimensions: 1.5 x 2.5 x 0.6 m (rugby balls actual size)
Materials: Grinshill Buff and Myddle Red sandstone
Stone clad around a concrete internal form. Rugby balls carved from solid stone. The red sandstone inset is carved in relief detailing history of the football ground

Two short-listed proposals commemorating the glorious sporting past of the now demolished Central Park Rugby League Football ground. I wanted to use two colours of stone to represent the red and white of the team colours of Wigan, so I picked red and buff Hollington or Grinshill stone as it is of a similar type to the sandstone found in the area (New Red Sandstone) and also it can be quarried and worked easily.

For this commission I would only have been personally responsible for the designing of the monument, due to time constrictions and its size. I envisaged contracting out the actual manufacture. Apparently other short-listed ideas included installing the old 'twin towers' of Wembley ! which itself was being demolished, but I don't think this ever came to pass.