Beautiful Brickwork

摘要

The tiny village of Compton in Surrey sits atop the potter's equivalent of a gold mine. When the bedrock geology of England was laid millions of years ago, a puddle of Lower Cretaceous Wealden Group (mudstone and limestone) sedimentary rock was marooned beneath Compton in a sea of less advantageous Lower Greensand Group sandstone. William Cobbett, in his Book of Rural Rides (1830), describes this rich clay deposit as a signature feature of 'the real weald, where the clay is bottomless'. It was the discovery of this 'gold mine' of weathered yellow-orange-red Weald clay beneath the topsoil of her Surrey home that inspired the expression, and provided the raw material, for artist and architect Mary Seton Fraser Tytler Watts' terracotta treasure known as Watts Chapel (also known as Compton Mortuary Chapel). Begun in 1896 and consecrated in 1898, it is the only Grade I listed building that can be accurately described as a work of community public art.