A Chichester memorial for our pandemic times

It was the challenge Vincent Gray was presented with by Abbeyfield Chichester – and to which he responded with a work which will be unveiled today (August 18).

Alwyn Thompson-Dyke, vice chairman of Abbeyfield Chichester charity's board of trustees, said: “In our 60th year we focused a while on just how fortunate we are to have such an extraordinary team of staff here at Abbeyfield Chichester. Never more so than throughout the pandemic when their commitment, diligence and resolve, to keep our elderly residents safe, were outstanding.”

For Abbeyfield Chichester’s 60th birthday, the trustees debated how to create a lasting commemoration for their staff, “a tribute to their consistent effort and dedication”: “A plaque was considered, planting a commemorative tree… then someone suggested a statue. But how to depict dedication in a three-dimensional object? This was the challenge given to member of the Royal Society of Sculptors Vincent Gray. Vincent’s works will be familiar already to many around the city, the statues of Nelson and Murray in North Street, John Keats seated engagingly in Eastgate Square among several others.

“Working closely with two Abbeyfield trustees, the concept for the brief developed around the symbolism of caring hands. Once a visual image was agreed, Vincent’s technical skills and sensitive interpretation got to work in his Chilgrove studios to arrive at a three-dimensional maquette, a third the size of the final structure. This was honed into a full-size 5ft metal wire frame.”

Layers of plaster were applied, moulded, measured for perfect proportion and gradually a stunningly simple but emotive creation was born, Alwyn said: “This was cast in bronze resin not only once but twice over, in order that both Abbeyfield Chichester houses could have their own 5ft bronze sculpture – a fitting testament honouring our special team here.”

Alwyn is promising a “glorious milestone in our long history of providing affordable, assisted retirement living to the elderly of our community”: “How to depict dedication was a tricky idea but we moved forward quite quickly with the idea of hands. I think the point is that hands reach out and that's the value of their symbolism. They are key to what our staff were doing in supporting and helping people, holding an elbow, just supporting and caring… it's really just about reaching out all the way from being a babe right up to the elderly.

“I had a little bit of a push in the design. I didn't want anything too traditional or too predictable really which is how it evolved down the route of a more contemporary piece, making you stop and think rather than just thinking ‘Oh that's a pair of hands!’ and I'm really pleased with it. We were talking with Vincent and I was saying that I wanted it to go in a more contemporary direction and he just said ‘I can do that.’ He just responded to that. He said ‘I can change’ and ‘I can move with what you want’ and he was very happy to work with that guidance.

“The funding for our sculpture came from our legacy fund which we are fortunate enough to have developed from bequests over some years.”