Tatton Park

Had a lovely pre-breakfast walk in Tatton Park this morning. We are very lucky in that the entrance is about 150m from our back door (and it is free for walkers and cyclists). Took loads of pictures and almost all were better than this one, but I decided that as this is about as close as I am allowed to photograph my wife Nahida, (seated on the distant bench), this is the one I would use. It also shows the arched brick entrance to the old buried 'Ice Store', where in the 17th and 18th century, sheet ice collected in winter from special shallow ponds was stored for later use in Tatton Hall's great kitchen - iced puddings and the like, I should imagine.

It ties things back to an arts project called oneplace that I was indirectly involved in some years back that commissioned artist Andy Goldsworthy. The oneplace programme was inspired by my good friend Steve Chettle of ArtsUK. As part of this, Goldsworthy came to Tatton Park on two week-long periods in November 2005 and July 2007. In the former he used some very cold weather to make sculptures which used ice from the old ice ponds, as well as incorporating other materials such as branches and leaves. It was said that the ice ponds had not been used at Tatton Park for more than a century. One of Goldsworthy's Winter pieces went on to feature in the December 2005 issue of New York Times - you might be able to see an image of one in my Picassa Web Album on Google+.

My one-and-only claim to international arts fame is that I lent Andy my pair of thigh waders for his 2005 winter works, and so that he could wade-out to gather sheets of thin surface ice. Somehow, he must have knelt on a sharp thorn or rock, as they have leaked at one knee ever since. A price worth paying for art maybe, but awkward when flyfishing with one boot-leg flooded.

Of course, May this year sees the start of the much grander 2012 Tatton Biennial. With the theme of Flights of Fancy, artists participating will be developing new works that reference Tatton Park's aeronautical legacy as well as "the human urge to accomplish the impossible".

In terms of seeking this 'impossible'; and also with reference back to Tatton's ice harvesting, and Goldsworthy's oneplace winter installations; in the previous 2010 Tatton Biennial, a giant block of ice carved from the Greenland tundra was also installed at Tatton. Weighing-in at two-tons, it was housed in a glass structure in the gardens and kept frozen using solar power and pond water throughout the five month Biennial. The artist, Neville Gabie (whose work I really like) had selected the ice two months previously and had it transported back by boat via Norway!

Now thats a seriously long way to go and fetch an ice cube for your G&T.