Nest

Background

Our design for the newly restored gravity-fed Ilkley Fountain was inspired by sphagnum moss. It was made by James Wilkinson and installed in Spring 2025. It has been a joy to see the local community and visitors to the town watch and listen as the moorland water flows through the fountain.

This new fountain sculpture, which offers a contemplative evocation of the nature of moor-found sphagnum moss and its water-bearing properties, carries profound local significance.

Nigel Walsh

Curator of Contemporary Art, Leeds Art Gallery

I love it. Anybody who looks at this now with the sun on it, I defy them to say it isn’t anything other than amazingly beautiful.

Alan Titchmarsh CBE

Nest

In the months since the Ilkley Fountain opening, we have designed a limited edition sculpture, Nest. Using the same sphagnum moss inspired forms, Nest is a new interpretation of the themes of the Ilkley Fountain.

With James Wilkinson, we have developed this as a sculpture or as a fountain sculpture.

Origin of themes for Nest

The starting point for this new arrangement of our sphagnum moss leaf forms was seeing birds wash and drink in the moorland water as it flows through the gravity-fed Ilkley Fountain on its way from the peat and moss of the moor down to the river.

Evolution of ideas

Developing our Ilkley Moor-inspired fountain design with the project team offered an opportunity to explore the rhythms of this iconic and ancient Yorkshire landscape: the slow formation of peat, the constellations of tiny bright mosses, the calls of the migrating birds, and the ghylls of life-sustaining water. It also revealed the various human encounters with the moorland landscape over time, from being a sacred place of worship during the Iron Age, to the harvesting of sphagnum moss for wound dressings in World War One, to the current efforts to conserve and restore the local habitat. All this gave resonance to the concept of home as a shared moment in time and this evolved into the theme of the new work.

Nest as the title for the new work

Birds use mosses and grasses to soften their nests into intricate tapestries which provide home for new life and nurture. Alongside the appreciation of this vitality is the awareness that in this shared moment in time, nature’s balance and the interconnectedness of all living things is perilously vulnerable.

Limited edition sculpture

Nest was initially created as a sculpture (without water), 25 cm high x 47 cm wide. The first two people to order it, however, asked that we develop Nest to have an option for incorporating water, so it is now a sculpture either with or without water. Made in galvanised and etched steel (the same material as the Ilkley Fountain), Nest is suitable for outdoors or indoors. If outdoors, it can be left all year round in all weathers.

Nest as a limited edition sculpture with water

Nest as a small self-contained fountain sculpture in galvanised and etched steel: It is very easy to assemble and operate and does not need an additional pool or body of water. The fountain sculpture comprises:

Nest sculpture (25 cm high x 47 cm wide) in galvanised steel
Removable small reservoir (20 cm high x 20 cm wide, also in galvanised steel) for the water and the pump. When the fountain is not running, the reservoir is gradually filled by rainwater or can be topped up easily.
A separate solar panel and rechargeable booster. The booster is charged by the solar panel, regulates the flow and ensures that the fountain runs when the sun is not shining and into the evening.
(Optional addition) An additional secondary bowl 80cm diameter also in galvanised steel. In this configuration, the water flows over the edge of the upper bowl into the larger bowl beneath. The reservoir which holds the pump is underneath the larger bowl. Images available on request.
A certificate of ownership which states the number of the sculpture in the edition.

Video below shows assembly of the fountain
Images below show water on the galvanised steel, the solar panel and booster, the reservoir with pump and the fountain spray

Sound of water

The flow ratio has been set so that the amount of water splashing up through the leaves and into the bowl forms a pool of water as it trickles slowly back down through the central hole. This means there is the sound of water falling on water, and the sculpture also attracts birds.