Copthorne Village website

 

Built by John Allen, 01342 716694 to the plans of Nicholas Rowe, Arcitect 01444 440200

In exploring possibilities for a new Memorial Garden at St. John’s, we started looking at what alternative ideas there might be that we could use. We wanted to get away from either the ‘lots of little paving slab memorials’ (which not only does the Chichester Diocese not really like, but also rather quickly makes large areas of a churchyard feel barren); or the slightly nondescript ‘meadow with an obelisk monument’ approach.

Even though this was to be place where people would be remembering loved ones lost, we wanted some of the imagery to be that of life and light.

 

 

The imagery of life as a pilgrimage, heading towards a goal, is beautifully picked up in the undulating paths of the labyrinth. As Chartres in France is the link to the Diocese and Cathedral of Chichester in England (the Dioecese Copthorne is in), it made sense to use that as the inspiration, so the idea of Memorial Garden and the Labyrinth could link together to produce a workable, yet dignified solution. The 450mm (18") wide grass path is edged at ground level with counter-sunk bricks; and ashes are buried directly under the turf. Names of those buried here are also recorded in a Memorial Book in the church.

 

There is a central focus in the labyrinth, and as well as words remembering those who are buried round about it the inscription from 1 Corinthians 13 - Now we see as through a glass darkly, then we shall see face to face.

The idea of glass caught the imagination of those planning the memorial garden, and after someone suggested making the monument from glass, and several months of research, we found just the sculptor we were looking for. Colin Reid ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) has been casting large pieces of optical glass for some time, and was very taken with the project. Pieces of this size take over a month in the kiln to create! Other examples of his work can be found on his web-site .

Colin invited engraver Charmian Mocatta to assist with the lettering features of the piece. Charmian's work is seen in many places across Britain, and she is the author of ‘Lettering on Glass’ .

See how the project progressed on the photo album page.

 

Copthorne Labyrinth article

 

 

This article tells how the whole project was put together, and why. 

 

The Copthorne Labyrinth was blessed, and Colin Reid’s spectacular centre piece, was unveiled by the Rt Rev'd John Hind, Bishop of Chichester, on 19 March 2006. His sermon at the service of blessing is here .

 

There are already quite a number of ashes buried within the path of the Labyrinth, and it is already a favoured place within the churchyard.

 

A labyrinth differs from a maze in that it is one long path with a destination, rather than a place where one gets lost down a dead end. There is much other information about labyrinths on the web - try typing it into your web search engine, or clicking here, here or here. Try the online version from Grace Cathedral here.

As Copthorne Churchyard is always open, and the Labyrinth is accessible at all times.