A Hand of Peace

I can't say how many times I have passed this place, always seeing the hand and three doves, but never stopping to finding out more. It was only when I was searching for ideas for this event that I discovered the name of this work of art, "Hand of Peace".

It was created by Rose Garrard, a local artist, to emphasise the existing war memorial stone. The area had become rather run down and it was decided to create a new focal point. The hand itself is made from Portland Stone, the same material that is used for Allied Forces gravestones in Britain and Europe. Work started on the sculpture in 1998 and it was installed the next year. It is also complimented by the poppy window decorations in the Art Deco style memorial bus shelter that stands next to it.

I find these style of war memorials a breath of fresh air in comparison to the traditional stone crosses. Somehow the single stone hand and three doves conveys more than just remembrance, more than just a place to stand and look backwards into the past, but also a place to look forward into the future.

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Europe / UK-England

Lat: 52° 6' 30.53" N
Long: 3° 19' 44.38" W

Elevation: 223 ft

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Taken with a Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G fisheye lens. Mounted on a Nodal Ninja 5 panorama head and R-D16 rotator atop a Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. Shots taken at 6 positions 60° apart, tilted 15° down and another shot taken looking straight up. Raw files then processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7 before being stitched together using PTGui 10.0.12 Pro and converted using Pano2VR 4.5.3.