Earthworm Bench,
Milton under Wychwood, Oxfordshire

We were asked to create a memorial bench for a much loved Soil Scientist, in the shape of an earthworm. Inspired by how earthworms move, contracting and expanding, we came up with a sketch for an abstracted worm.

At 5m length it would be big enough to seat many people, and the curves would make cosy seating areas.

We made a 1:10 scale wooden maquette, and cut out cardboard templates at 100% size to show the sponsors from Wild Oxfordshire what it would look like, and looked at these with them on site.

We picked up 3 large butts of locally grown Oxfordshire oak in a convey of trailers.

With each butt of oak weighing a couple of tons, the pieces were roughly carved to shape outside the workshop, following the cardboard templates.

Even after initial shaping, the large pieces of oak needed a whole team of woodworkers to move them into the workshop.

Once inside the workshop, the pieces were fine-tuned and rounded to create a sinuous earthworm shape.

A commemorative inscription was carved all the way along one side of the earthworm, dedicating the bench to the Soil Scientist, and making clear the link with the earthworm, and their championship of soil.

The earthworm was now ready to be installed in the beautiful countryside on the outskirts of Milton under Wychwood, providing views towards the two wildlife ponds. The first stage was digging in the galvanised steel framework, to keep the oak pieces in place and separate from the ground. The nine large oak pieces were then fixed on top of that to form the earthworm.