From the beginning of our Treseren journey, when we opened our venue we have been privileged to work with sculptor Benjamin Dearnley. Ben has displayed many of his bronzes and marble pieces in the house and gardens and carved the incredible slate memorial to the miners who lost their lives in Cornwall’s worst mining disaster of 1846 on site at Treseren. Our beautiful old Mine Captain’s house became his open air studio and we recently featured the process of moving the vast sculpture to its permanent home at East Wheal Rose Mine, the scene of the disaster which you can read all about in these pages.
Our setting
Ben has also applied his creativity to works placed at Treseren. The house itself is a Georgian beauty and the long-established gardens with sweeping lawns, old slate walls and winding pathways amongst magnolia, camelias and rhododendrons create the most picturesque surroundings. We always try to be thoughtful about any additions to these serene spaces; to work in harmony with nature, the history here and honour the sense of place.
The Story of our signage
When we opened and it came to creating our signage, rather than purchasing a generic laser printed logo, we invited Ben to create our sign. He engraved an aged piece of marble with Treseren’s name and logo, which sits at the entrance to the driveway. We loved watching the process and even got involved learning to make marks in the stone and add the gold leaf.
It occurred to Ben when he was making this sign, that a shard of slate he had salvaged from a quarry would be a lovely additional motif featuring our ‘T’ logo engraved at the top of the piece, finished in gold leaf. We found the perfect spot for this mid-way up the driveway, so as couples enter and drive up to Treseren, it echoes the sign at our entrance and draws you further up the driveway to arrive at the house.
A New sign for Treseren echoing our history
We wanted to commission a new piece from Ben – a sign that would also be a piece of art that would have a resonance for our couples. We loved the feel of the signage on arrival, and wanted the journey on from Treseren, when our couples are leaving to start their married lives, to be signified with something special from this place they chose to marry.
Inspired by the research we have done into the history of our Mine Captain’s House and the original residents in the 1800s, we created a wall in Loveday’s Bar that celebrates the spirit of this place. With the family trees of both Mine Captains that lived here; Captain Middleton and Captain Champion as a centre piece and the key dates captured and framed, we also blended quotes from writers of the day including a beautiful sentiment from poet Elizabeth Barret Browning; Light Tomorrow with Today
This quote has always resonated with us. Just four words which capture the spirit of the special celebrations at Treseren. This is the sentiment we hope will linger and we asked Ben to carve these words into a new sign for us to be placed amongst the camelias just near the exit to Treseren, unseen until leaving the site.
The search for the stone
Part of the excitement of a sculptor creating an original artwork in a piece of stone or slate is the search for the right stone. We went with Ben to our local reclamation yards where after much searching, we discovered a riven piece of slate with various curves and undulating edges. It could not be used for building projects or anything that needed a square edge, but for us it was the perfect find! Ben could see where the words would flow beautifully through the natural markings of the slate.
Calligrapher, Kati of Scalet Paperie created the artwork and design for our Spirit of Place bar wall including the beautiful flowing calligraphy for the Light Tomorrow with Today quote. Ben set about re-creating the script on the stone to echo the artwork inside the house, first marking it out and then carving into the stone.
As ever, it was a privilege to watch Ben creating at Treseren. We opted for our signature gold, which bought the lettering to life with a shimmer. To this, he added a gold star with additional striations in the surface, emanating from the centre.
The star not only works in tandem with the quote, but reflects the Gaelic / Cornish meaning of our name, Treseren; ‘homestead under the stars’.
The finished piece
Ben has named the piece The Poet’s Stone. We hope all our couples love it as much as we do and take the sentiment to light tomorrow with today forwards to every future happiness.
