Henry Cort Sculpture Park

The 'Henry Cort Sculpture Park' is the name given to the pedestrianised area of West Street.  It is a unique and stylish thoroughfare with a new town square known as Millennium Square which links the refurbished Fareham Shopping Centre with the new Market Quay development. The precinct features the Henry Cort Millennium Exhibition of puddled wrought iron sculptures and street furniture.

Please select a topic from those listed below for more information:

• Background
• The Henry Cort Exhibition
• Blacksmith Artists who have designed and fabricated the sculptures
• The Streetscape
• Puddled Wrought Iron
• History of Henry Cort

Background

As part of this Millennium Project, a grant of £641,000 from the Millennium Commission was awarded to a partnership consisting of Fareham Borough Council, owners of the Fareham Shopping Centre and the Southampton and Fareham Chamber of Commerce. West Street received a radical facelift with high quality paving, landscaping, sculptures, lighting and CCTV installations.

The Henry Cort Millennium Exhibition is themed on Fareham's market town history and is the largest permanent exhibition of sculptural ironwork of its type in Britain. Celebrating the Millennium and the achievements of Henry Cort - Fareham's 18th Century "Man of Iron" who pioneered the iron refining processes which helped England win the Napoleonic Wars - the exhibition has been produced by the finest contemporary artist blacksmiths in Europe.

The project provides a unique and exciting experience for Fareham, putting the town firmly on the map for the Millennium and beyond. It includes specially designed, handcrafted, puddled wrought iron street furniture, sculptures, performance podium and a water feature.

The pieces are modern, free, innovative and expressive, and although not concerned with direct reference to the past, the link and the cohesion is borne through the pieces incorporating wrought iron and using traditional techniques appropriate to the working of this material at the end of the 18th Century.

The area now also hosts the large and popular open air market every Monday, the Farmers' Markets on the first Saturday of the month, plus other themed events such as French and Craft Markets.