A small piece of Scottish heritage is taking on a prominent role at the entrance to the Victoria Scottish Community Centre.
In an effort to promote traditional tradecraft and give back to the community, Esquimalt-based Heritage Masonry is working to create an entrance sign for the centre in View Royal.
With project completion expected in early 2025, the sign will incorporate stone carving, blacksmithing and traditional stonemasonry, all trades that have been practiced for thousands of years.
"The curved walls will be built with materials from Vancouver Island and/or reused from old walls dismantled for the centreB次元官网网址檚 construction. This vertical style of laying was chosen as a rarely used example of drystone walling originating in Scotland and Southern England. The capping B次元官网网址� soil and heather B次元官网网址� harks back to the peat caps of drystone walls in the Scottish Highlands," noted a statement from Heritage Masonry founder Gavin Chamberlain.
Duncan-based, award-winning stone carver Andrew Swinley has already cut the address number into one of the stones using a hammer and chisel. As a final signature to complete the project, he will carve the national animal of Scotland, the unicorn, on a sandstone boulder from Gabriola, which was donated by BC Marble Products in Chemainus.
Jake James, an award-winning blacksmith based in Metchosin, will create a thistle B次元官网网址� ScotlandB次元官网网址檚 national flower B次元官网网址� in a forged metal art piece.
"We needed to be a bit more intentional about educating the public about the [masonry] options available to them, so I reached out to the BC Heritage Branch to see if they had any sites that would be appropriate for this type of project," said Chamberlain. "This was proposed to us and we got lots of people driving by looking at what we're doing, talking to us and asking us about it, so we're trying to share that information."
Heritage Masonry says they are donating the project to the province and the community centre to promote traditional trades and design.
"We have all the skills in hand, but we don't often enough get the opportunity to do this specific type of work, like the drystone walling, we don't do enough of it," said Chamberlain. "Particularly the vertical dry stone walling and even the hand carving, I think a lot of the time it's because people just don't know about it."
They expect the project to be finished in January or February. Anyone with questions about the project or the traditional trades is encouraged to visit the site.
