Edinburgh, Gracemount, Gracemount High School

The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (http://www.pmsa.org.uk/) set up a National Recording Project in 1997 with the aim of making a survey of public monuments and sculpture in Britain ranging from medieval monuments to the most contemporary works. Information from the Edinburgh project was added to the RCAHMS database in October 2010 and again in 2012.

The PMSA (Public Monuments and Sculpture Association) Edinburgh Sculpture Project has been supported by Eastern Photocolour, Edinburgh College of Art, the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Historic Scotland, the Hope Scott Trust, The Old Edinburgh Club, the Pilgrim Trust, the RCAHMS, and the Scottish Archive Network.

Three low reliefs, one on each stone frieze section of the façade above the main entrance to the school. The central relief is carved with the arms of Edinburgh: a three-towered castle with portcullis. The relief on the left shows a female figure, standing barefoot, her hair tied up in a loose bun and wearing a long dress with a frilled collar and an apron. She is shown in profile facing towards the centre and raising her left forearm in salute. The heel of her right foot is raised, and the foot turns backwards, suggesting movement. Behind her are fragments of a rustic low wooden fence. The carved figure on the right side of the façade wears a long habit, belted around the middle, and a hooded cloak which also drapes over her left raised arm. Her right hand is turned up in an open palm gesture. Behind and on her right is a well from which flows water, represented by carved lines ending in scrolls.

The school was opened in 1959 and demolished in 2003.

The reliefs from the old school were set into the garden of the new school on Lasswade Road. See EDIN1534.

The relief on the right represents St Catherine of the Balm Well in Liberton. The well attracted lepers and people with skin diseases, and was said to have come from some of the oil of St Catherine, brought from Mount Sinai (St Catherine's shrine) to St Margaret, being spilled at that spot. The oil on the surface of the well water is probably related to large deposits of shale oil in the area.

The relief on the left represents the Lady of Little of Liberton. In 1685 she was imprisoned for harbouring Covenanters, and was only freed when her husband agreed to be substituted for her.

The Edinburgh arms is taken from the mace of 1766.

Inscriptions : Above central relief (raised numbers): 19 59

Signatures : None Visible

Design period : 1958-1959

Year of unveiling : 1959

Unveiling details : Unveiled 27 October 1959 by Sir Ian A. Johnson-Gilbert, Lord Provost

Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN1519)

Within a corner garden, the three stone reliefs from the façade of the demolished Gracemount High School, now function as standing stones demarking a small oval garden. The carved surfaces of the low reliefs (St Catherine and the Balm Well, the arms of Edinburgh: a three-turreted castle with a closed portcullis, and the walking figure of Little of Liberton's Lady) face inwards. On each verso surface is an appropriate poem by Liz Niven. Round tree slices form the paths leading to the reliefs. The edge of the path leading to the oval garden has four inscribed stones at intervals, reading 'Thole and think on'. Two carved wooden benches face each other across a path, with a third carved bench on grass nearby.

The Gracemount Sculpture Garden was funded by the Scottish Poetry Library, City of Edinburgh Art and Learning Unit, South Edinburgh Partnership, and the National Lottery Awards for All.

The garden was designed by Emma McNeil, a pupil at Gracemount High School. The hard landscaping was done by Land Engineering (Scotland) Ltd.

The three wooden benches were made from recycled elm, by Robin Wood of the Four Winds Inspiration Centre, Edinburgh.

The small rectangular stones inscribed Thole and think on, came from Liberton Kirk. They were removed from the kirk when it was re-faced.

See EDIN1519

Inscriptions : On four small stones beside path leading to oval garden (insised letters):

Thole / and / think / on

On castle relief, either side of central turret: 19 59

On verso of relief of Little of Liberton's Lady (incised Times New Roman letters):

Je m'appelle Dame Tintagel. / Je viens d'un pays lointain, / la douce France ou mon coeur est reste. / Le beau lever de soleil ne me plait plus, / toute seule ici en Ecosse, / avec les barbares, les Ecossais, / au service de ma reine, / la belle Mary Stewart, la reine des Ecossais.

On verso of relief of the Edinburgh arms (incised Times New Roman letters):

My stones watch over the earth, to Pentland Hills, Arthur's Seat. / Across years I have seen / blood spill, lands alter, lives change. / This world evolves for better or worse / we look to the future, / new school, new hopes, new dreams.

On verso of relief of St Catherine and the Balm Well (incised Times New Roman letters):

The king has sent me here, / carrying this brown bottle, / Lying within is lamp-black, / precious murky oyl. // Found down the stoney well, / smelling of sweet grass and flowers, / the spilt oil soothes and heals, / history knows its powers. // Also ink for copper-plate, / to print the people's memories. / Remember me, Catherine / and my loyal Ladies.

Signatures : None

Design period : 2002-2003

Year of unveiling : 2003

Unveiling details : School opened 2 December 2003

Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN1534)

The long dark frieze is an illustrated concrete poem, running the length of the wall above the upper walkway in the central hall of the school. A series of 12 panels joined horizontally, carries a poem in script, which flows and changes direction around 12 small reliefs designed by the schoolchildren. Some words share a letter, others are written vertically: those conveying time ('today', 'tomorrow', 'summer', 'year' and 'hours') so that the layout recalls a musical score. The underlying theme of the seasons begins on the left with images of the school and of a bird's nest in the first panel; develops into summer with two images of flowers in the third panel, goes on a journey in the fourth panel with a relief of a Viking-like sailing ship, running into the fifth panel with an image of a whale and another of an oak leaf. Autumn is suggested with reliefs of a hedgehog in the seventh panel and an abstract square of smoke in the eighth. Winter is represented by a snowman in the tenth panel, a robin in the eleventh panel, and a bare tree in the twelfth panel.

The frieze was commissioned by the Friends of Gracemount High School. The images were designed by pupils at the school, the poems are by Liz Niven and Tim Chalk, and the whole frieze was created by Chalkworks.

Inscriptions : A mixture of upper case letters and cursive script runs in different directions between and around small relief images, and across where the panels join. The complete text reads:

THE SUNSHINE / moves around / OUR SCHOOL // AND WARMLY / MEASURES / OUT OUR / HOURS / TODAY / WILL BE / TOMORROW'S / PAST / THESE SEEDS / WILL BE // TOMORROW'S / FLOWERS // SUMMER / thoughts / like dreamboats / sail // in my head / swim // secret oceans of / coral blue and red // THE / LAST / DAYS OF / THE PAST / YEAR // DARKEN // THEIR / SUMMER // COLOURS / Faint smells / of smoke / LENG // THEN / THE / HOURS // STEP OUT / INTO COLD / ICE SNOW / Breath in // frosty air / SEE THE PUFFED ROBINS / SHIVER IN THEIR / PAPER FEATHERS / OUR // HEADS / DEEP IN / BOOKS / We don't notice the / Weather

Signatures : None

Design period : 2002-2003

Year of unveiling : 2003

Unveiling details : School opened 2 December 2003

Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN1535)