My mother passed away suddenly in October 2015, and an unfortunate combination of events left me unable to attend her funeral service. Wanting to do something meaningful in commemoration, we decided to enshrine a memory of her into the fabric of one of our favourite buildings, the National Trust's Dyrham Park, just North of Bath.
In 2015 Dyrham Park has been undergoing massive restoration, replacing the entire slate and lead roof for the first time in 150 years. To help fund this work (£3.8M) the National Trust were allowing people to 'sign a slate' - for a small fee you get a whole slate, and can write whatever you want using a long-life silver pen. The slate will be incorporated into the roof, and stay there for hopefully the next 150 years at least. Here are a few examples, in place and ready to be fitted - they are fitted writing-side down, to preserve the work.
We visited Dyrham a week or so after my mother passed away to see the deer, and to get up onto the 'roof experience', saw these slates, and learned about their 'VIP etching service'. Using this service, the slate is sent away to be laser-etched, and any design may be used, incorporating photographs if needed. A genuinely brilliant idea, and a wonderful way to have a tasteful, permanent memorial to a loved one installed within the fabric of a glorious building.
Ilene designed the slate, incorporating a couple of lines from a song in my mother's favourite musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - here is the original design
We heard on the 12th November that the slate was etched and ready, and were invited to come to Dyrham Park on the following day to see it and get photos of it before it was placed into the set to be installed in the roof.
So, Friday 13th November 2015 - we got to Dyrham about 2.00, and were met by Judith, who presented us with a lovely letter of thanks for support of the Trust's reroofing efforts.
It was so wet and windy that they were not sure we would be allowed up on the roof at all. But we were given the go-ahead, and went to the Victorian Kitchen to pick up the slate, but not before being told by a couple of people in the shop that they had seen the slate, had spontaneously burst into song being big Joseph fans, and - this is a surprise - our slate for my mother is the only professionally-etched one in the whole roof that contains lines from a song.
Quick snap in the Victorian Kitchen. In order to get this photo, Josh moved aside a slate signed by Sophie, Countess of Wessex to make room for my old mum - take THAT!!
Up on the roof, we met a National Trust staffer who was checking the wind speed up top with a handheld anemometer, to make sure we were still safe.
And it was judged safe.
So off we went. We were given a tour of the roof by the 'Sophie shifter' Josh, who is on the left here.
We passed more signed slates being prepared for installation. These were obviously all hand-signed, we didn't yet know why there was no sign of an etched one in this part of the roof.
The team putting the slates in place were pretty amazing, their skill level very high - my mother is definitely safe in their hands.
The best bit was yet to come. The etched slates (as opposed to the hand-drawn ones) are all being installed on the roof of the Great Hall, the showpiece room of Dyrham Park, right above all the great pieces of art. Not only are they taking pride of place on the most important roof, but their individual locations are being mapped, so we will know exactly where she will be - in theory we could walk inside the Great Hall, look up, and - apart from not having Superman X-ray vision - could see the slate up there. Here is the Great Hall awaiting the slates - the little printed pictures show the team exactly where the paintings integrated into the ceiling are located ... i.e. guys, please do not step on the bare plaster ceiling right here.
And here's the slate, ready to go
After our tour the slate went back into the 'Great Hall' slate storage, and will go up on the roof sometime in the next 2 weeks. Work finishes at Dyrham in late December, we will go back as late as possible before the roof is closed, to see them putting the etched slates down, then again as soon as the house is restored, to see the Great Hall restored and re-roofed. With its permanent memorial to my mother up there.
She never visited Dyrham as far as I know, but it has been a special place for me the last 15 years, since we first moved to Bath, so for us it's really nice that a memory of her, and her love of Joseph, will spend the next 150 years there, being strong and sheltering the art from the rain.
A big thank you to Sharon, Judith, Josh and all the staff at Dyrham Park who made this happen for us, and who turned this into a very pleasant day, despite the sad circumstances and the awful weather.
All images © 2015 Ilene Sterns, all rights reserved.
