Yorkshire: "Rock Art"
One of the largest collections of rock art in the country can be found on open moorland around Bradford, West Yorkshire. These symbolic Neolithic and Bronze Age carvings are usually drawn on stones rather than cave walls. They are often called ‘cup and ring marks’ although there is a lot of variation in the patterns found.
EH organised a rock art workshop at Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley linked with the ‘Not Set in Stone’ exhibition for Heritage Open Days 2004. Families were invited to a drop-in workshop where they could make their own clay rock art, have a guess at what some of the rock art found in the country might mean, and have a go at stencilling their own rock art images. It was a very successful day with 116 people attending.
Some of these rocks were then selected for display in the exhibition at the Manor House in Ilkley. Families were invited to attend the exhibition in Ilkley to see their work.
This was the first phase of a longer term project that will use rock art as inspiration to engage new audiences in the Keighley area. Arts-based workshops will be run with the Asian community using rock art on Ilkley Moor as a starting point. Traditional crafts and skills will be developed to produce artwork inspired by the rock art patterns. A resource pack will be produced on rock art in India and Pakistan to use during the workshops. All the participants will be taken onto the moor to see the rock art and to visit their local natural and historic landscape.
A later phase of the project will involve young people from Keighley producing large scale sculptural pieces inspired by rock art.
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