Six Stones: a memorial to lost and endangered species by Andrew Whittle

Portland stone

The three stones with skulls and wings represent just some of the species lost to West Sussex in the last century. They look towards the stones with hourglasses, whose time is running out. The animals, plants, insects and birds referred to illustrate a story which is becoming universal, of small and largely unnoticed losses everywhere.

“The symbolism is taken from the marvelously explicit 17th and 18th century stones found in churchyards. The shape, however, is more akin to a milestone, suggesting that we are on a journey towards a different place. The sixth stone plainly refers to our possible extinction. What is certain is that the joyful diversity of life which our grandparents knew has already been lost through the actions of man.”