Water Land sculpture – Milton Creek Country Park

Early in 2023 artist Martin Brockman was commissioned by co-commission by Ideas Test and Creative Estuary with funding from the Arts Council and Crowd Fund Kent,  to create a sculpture for Milton Creek Country Park in Sittingbourne which came to completion over the winter months.

Working alongside the park ranger, Friends of the park and local communities,  Martin created a group of green oak benches to mark the industrial past of Milton Creek and the wildlife of the tidal lands found on the Saxon Shore Path . Carved onto curved oak beams are oyster catchers, egrets, seagrass and local flora alongside the Thames barges and industrial cranes linked to past industry.

School workshops explored the brick and paper making industry, the barges that travelled up the River Thames to London and how nature has reclaimed the industrial site at Lloyd’s Wharf Sittingbourne . Pupils dug clay, made and decorated bricks and created drawing pigments to produce imagery which Martin incorporated into the carving on the benches .

The future of the Creek as rising sea levels will have an impact on this liminal space was explored through foraging the plants found on site and exploring how the importance of sea grasses for carbon capture can help create a positive future for similar environments along the North Kent Coast.