By Hannah Hiles for Brilliant Bamboo

A bamboo bench which was inspired by a Stoke-on-Trent family’s history has gone on display at a prestigious, award-winning gardens and arboretum in Hampshire. The bench, which was created by artist Spencer Jenkins as part of a Brilliant Bamboo project with Middleport Matters, was made from bamboo harvested at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, where it can now be seen until Sunday, September 7.

Local resident Sandra Smith met Spencer at a creative session in Middleport, where she talked about the Middleport Pottery canal cranes and their connection to her family history, particularly her grandfather George Page.

He went on to create the bench – named Sandra’s Story – using bamboo and recycled steel in tribute to George, who was a well-known character along the Trent and Mersey Canal.

Spencer said: “I have been using bamboo for many years in a small way by experimenting with the bamboo by fusing it with other sustainable materials. I was very excited to develop the use of bamboo in a more extensive way after getting involved with Brilliant Bamboo and Imagine Bamboo recently.

“It’s been a natural evolution of my practice and I’m very happy with how these new ways of working to realise my ideas. Sandra’s Story has been a project very close to my heart because it’s furniture-based with a narrative which is very important to my making. It was wonderful how this story all fell into place during the Middleport Matters / Brilliant Bamboo community project.

“I found Sandra and her story heart-warming and sensitive which made my job very easy indeed. Mixing materials, place and people is a special way of working which I’ll never forget.”

Brilliant Bamboo director Gemma Thomas added: “The Sandra’s Story bench is a great example of how our history can be bound up with objects.

“It’s very fitting that it is now on display at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, where the bamboo for its creation came from. It’s lovely to think a piece inspired by Stoke-on-Trent’s social and industrial history is on show more than 180 miles away.” The bench will be displayed at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens as part of their ‘Summer of Bamboo’, alongside four other artworks also created with bamboo grown and harvested there.

Clare Goddard, director of the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, said: “The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens is very proud to host ‘Sandra’s Story’ and to have connected with Brilliant Bamboo. Spencer’s bench epitomises the beautiful and vital connection between horticulture and creativity, nature and storytelling, themes that lie at the heart of ‘Summer of Bamboo’.

“That the bench is created from the Gardens’ own bamboo makes it even more special and we look forward to many visitors, sitting, enjoying, and reflecting on the magical properties of bamboo and to leave inspired by our collaboration.”

The bench is set to return to Middleport in the autumn, when it will be located at the Harper Street yard. Orit Azaz, creative director of Imagine Bamboo, said: “Sir Harold Hillier Gardens has been enormously generous in donating bamboo canes from its impressive collection for artists and communities across the UK to explore what they can create with UK grown bamboo. I am delighted that Sandra’s Story will be seen and experienced by visitors to the Gardens this summer, alongside four other artworks also created with bamboo grown and harvested there.”