Fountain | 1937
Worcestershire
Working on behalf of English Heritage as Creative Producer on their national Creative Programme, Suzanne developed the creative brief for a temporary site specific artist commission at Witley Court and gardens in Worcestershire. She supported the development and successful realisation of the project over a period of three years. Witley Court is a spectacular Italianate former country house: a Scheduled Monument and a Grade I listed building, now in the care of English Heritage. Artist Keith Harrison was appointed in March 2022 through an open call process to develop a creative response to the brief. Design proposals were developed throughout 2022, with construction on site completed in early May 2025. The development process included a successful planning application supported by Hedley Planning and archaeologist Kate Churchill, and consultation with Historic England.
The resulting installation by Keith Harrison, Fountain | 1937, retells the remarkable story of Witley Court and Gardens, from the perspective of the working class miners and steelworkers of Staffordshire employed by Witley’s 19th century owners, the Earls of Dudley. The artwork will be open to visitors for at least a year, with a special event planned for Autumn 2025.
Fountain | 1937 is a meditation on the complex historical relationships between the great ruined country mansion, and the lives of the working-class people of Staffordshire who created the wealth on which it was all founded. The artwork draws parallels between Witley’s demise as a country house through fire in 1937, with the simultaneous rise of welfare provision for miners through the construction of pithead baths across England in the 1930s.
The installation is an artist’s reimagining of a coal miners’ pithead baths, located in the grounds of Witley Court. The property’s 19th century owners had many coalmines and industrial businesses in the Black Country, and even their own railway, delivering coal directly to Witley Court. Harrison’s artwork invites visitors to imagine the contrasting lives of the owners of Witley Court (who had their own private plunge pool in the basement, and ornate fountains in their garden) with the lives of the miners and steelworkers employed by the Earl of Dudley’s businesses. The artwork includes a set of miners’ lockers made in Sheffield, and tiles supplied by Ketley Brick in Staffordshire, which has been making bricks with locally dug clay at Pensnett, Brierley Hill, since 1805.
Visitors are invited to borrow a free audio guide to listen to a specially commissioned accompanying soundtrack created by Preston Field Audio aka Carl Brown, in collaboration with the artist. The soundtrack draws parallels between labour and luxury, and includes contemporary field recordings from Lady Dudley’s plunge pool beneath Witley Court, the site of the former coalmine at Baggeridge and the Round Oak Steelworks, once owned by the Earl of Dudley. Other collaborators included English Heritage’s Historian Steven Brindle, and writer Daniel Wiles who contributed a short story to the accompanying limited edition booklet.
A series of floats mounted on the side of the pithead baths structure will be floated at Witley for special events later this year. Their forms reference the shape of steel products made at the Round Oak Steelworks in the early 20th century, and their bright colours relate to the floats commonly used in coarse fishing. This pastime was common on the rivers and lakes in and around Witley Court, providing a temporary recreational respite for the working classes.
The artwork was developed, designed and built by Principal Designer and Contractor Faulds Creative Works. The floats were made by ICA Creation in Cornwall, and lockers fabricated by JKSS in Sheffield. The water system metalwork was fabricated by blacksmith Paul Ager, with tiling by Sean Pearce. The accompanying limited edition risograph was designed by Charlie Noon, and printed by Earthbound Press. Engineering advice from Philip Cooper of Cambridge Architectural Research. Original renders by Carl Slater.
About the artist
Keith Harrison is an acclaimed British artist, Research Professor at Bath School of Art, Film & Media, and Visiting Professor at KHiO – Oslo National Academy of the Arts. He was born in the Black Country and grew up in Birmingham. He now lives and works in Plymouth. His work, often incorporating performance, explores the creation, destruction and transformation of materials and places.
Harrison’s large-scale ambitious works have included commissions for the Victoria & Albert Museum, Forestry England, Preston Bus Station, Camden Arts Centre, mima in Middlesbrough and the British Ceramics Biennial. His work has often explored working class histories of sites, and he has often collaborated with other artists including musicians Napalm Death and Will Gregory of Goldfrapp.