The mosaic seat is located near to the Lime Kilns at Consall Forge.
This seat sits in front of the four Limekilns opposite The Black Lion Inn.
The seat is built on a low brick plinth. The structure has a breeze block support and makes use of recycled Victorian blue bricks as well as slate. The structure is faced in ceramic mosaics, pieces from local ceramic companies' products, glass beads, and tiles.
The seat and mosaics were made by Philip Hardaker with children from the local school.
A ceramic plaque on the front of the seat reads as follows;
"THIS SEAT AND MOSAIC WAS MADE BY LOCAL CHILDREN FROM IPSTONES AND PHILIP HARDAKER. PLEASE RESPECT AND LOOK AFTER IT FOR THE WHOLE COMMUNITY TO SHARE."
A number of themes have been incorporated into the design. The River Churnet with ammonites and different varieties of fish depicted, along with various animals, birds and plants indigenous to the area.
The back of the seat features a design that celebrates this location as Heritage Site 2002, with the restoration of the four lime kilns that are Grade II listed. (
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There are blue, black orange and brown tiles surrounding plaques that name those who were involved in the repair of the Lime Kilns. They are as follows; RSPB, Leek and Moorlands Historic Buildings Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, Local Heritage Initiative, Nationwide, The Countryside Agency, J.C.B. Tarmac and the date AD2002
Philip Hardaker
Philip Hardaker is a - Sculptor, Ceramicist and Moasic Artist
Arts Consultant for Community, Education and Public Arts
Philip Hardaker was born in Harrogate, North Yorshire in 1954. He attended Harrogate College of Art in 1975 then went on to North Staffordshire Polytechnic to gain a first class honours degree in Fine Art Sculpture. He moved to London in 1977 when he attended the Royal College of Art and gained an M. A in Fine Art Ceramics in 1980. His lecturers included Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Blake and Lord Queensbury.
Philip moved to Somerset in 1980, renting a studio in Bruton from Dutch painter Henk Huffener.
Since 1985 he has lived in a seventeenth century packhorse inn on the outskirts of Stoke on Trent, working as a sculptor mainly in the public sector and undertaking many educational projects and private commissions.
Hardaker is an accumulator, a shifter of detritus collecting the flotsam and jetsom of our wasteful consumer society and transforming these materials into art. He represents his work as archeological sculptural paintings made from clay and found objects. For thirty years he has been digging up ancient and modern ceramic shards from Staffordshire and around the world. He employs these fragments of past ages along with his own modelled and cast ceramic elements of heads, animals and aeroplanes in ceramic collages of considerable intricacy and beauty. Hardaker's work has political and ecological objectives and concerns in communicating comment on historical events. The work is also intrinsically linked with being English and celebrating the past production of Staffordshire ceramics and creativity.
The philosophy, ideas and messages behind the work capture the age we live in with both serious intent and irony and a strong sense of humour. Source: (
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'Philip has worked with and for multiple private and community clients to create stunning works of art personalised to their specific artistic requirements.
These range from personalised works for small local businesses, public park sculptures and mosaics, memorials, commissions from Parliament and the Royal Family alongside community work created by Philip with the assistance of local school students.' (
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