Acreative idea on the Helping Hands (HH)
Facebook page will become a beautiful
commemorative bench in a few months’
time – thanks to a winning design by Stewart
Pawley, a design engineer from Barrow.
HH member Pam Bowler suggested in June
that a bench be installed to recognise the
community spirit that the village had shown
during lockdown. The Parish Council agreed to
support the idea and before long, a competition
to design a commemorative bench was up and
running. By mid-August, entries had come in
and three finalists selected. The designs were
placed on the HH Facebook page, visitors to the
page voted and Stewart was named the winner.
So, how did he come up with the top design?
He says as soon as he heard about the
competition, he began brainstorming and
sketching, finally coming up with a poignant
and beautiful design of a tree, representing
the community, its arms covering the people,
its hands supporting them. Behind is the
sun, representing the positive energy and
light of the days to come. The design depicts
the community’s protection and support for
everyone in the village, from the very young to
the very old. Stewart explained, “on the far left,
are a pregnant woman and child, then a teacher
with children of key workers. Next is a person in
a wheelchair with a helper, then a young family,
and, on the far right, an older person.”
Stewart’s first thought had been to use the
arches of the Barrow bridge in a design, but he
couldn’t quite get that to work. Many hours of
discarded sketches followed until he came up
with the idea of the tree, which was refined
and tweaked eventually to produce the winning
design. Stewart is an accomplished artist and
was featured in the Spring 2018 edition of
Barrow Voice (see our online archives) for his art
installations in Rainbows Hospice. You can see
more of his art at www.stewartpawley.co.uk.
The Parish Council is working with Stewart
and HH to facilitate the creation of the bench.
The exact location is still to be confirmed but
Stewart looks forward to his work being brought
to life and sitting on it for a few moments –
and, probably, most passers-by will not have a
clue that the man on the bench is its designer.
Lindsay Ord