LAST week we had some fun with the weird, mostly natural ‘sculpture park’ at West Nab, above Meltham.
Objects – of art or nature – include an etched ‘compass’, a ‘urinal’ and a ‘chaise longue’.
Dave Andrews of Netherton set me off on this trail, and Valda Maw-Day of Dewsbury adds a neat postscript.
The pictures left and right tell the story.
Left is Dave’s picture of what appears to be a monk, carved in bas-relief on a West Nab rock.
Valda tells me this was carved by her father in the early 1970s. The family lived then in Thongsbridge, but had previously lived in Cudworth and Holmfirth.
“He called it ‘Moses at prayer’ but we don’t know why. He wasn’t particularly religious,” she said.
“He always loved art and would have loved to have gone to art college, but he had to earn a living so he went into the mill.
“Later, he started a property renovation business and got a set of stonemason’s hammers and chisels. He built his own house, but he carved sculptures to relax.
“We would go with him to play at West Nab while he was carving Moses.
“We wedged a book under some rocks up there for visitors to sign and say what they thought of it, but the book disappeared.
“I might go up there soon and put another book there.”
