A NEW piece of public art honouring a former Yeovil school could be installed on a new affordable housing development.

Boon Brown, on behalf of developer Stonewater, has applied to Somerset Council for permission to install a piece on land in the Kingston Mews development, which is being built in The Park.

The proposed piece – entitled Writing Lines – measures around 2.3 metres tall and 2.4m long and pays homage to The Park School, which was formerly housed on the site and closed in 2020 having relocated to Chilton Cantelo.

It features The Park School motto – nisi dominus frustra (without the Lord, in vain) – created using metal tubing depicting handwriting on a chalkboard.

The designer said: “We did quite a lot of research into The Park School, which we found fascinating, particularly the importance of its role educating young people within the town since 1851.

“It made us think of the many, many students who would have studied on the site 100 years ago, learning Latin on old-fashioned blackboards.

“Many things have changed since those days but some things have stayed the time.

“It made us think about the process of learning, how when you are first introduced to new subjects or ideas they can often seem impenetrable or unclear but with patience and sometimes looking at things from a new perspective things can suddenly click into place and hopefully you begin to understand.”

The piece could be built on the new development in Yeovil. Picture: Boon Brown/Somerset Council

This concept led to the design, which appears confused from many angles, until the words become clear.

“Our sculpture takes inspiration from old Victorian chalkboards and the act of writing repeated lines as a way of learning,” the designer added.

“It takes the form of a large wooden A-frame, reminiscent of a traditional blackboard, filled with 3D scribbled lines formed from metal tube.

“As you approach the sculpture from the side, the scribbles appear to be complete nonsense, however as you move around the piece and take your seat at the front of the class the scribbles slowly begin to form recognisable letters.

“The text written on the blackboard is revealed to be ‘nisi dominus frustra’ which is the Latin motto of the old Park School.”

If approved, the piece would be installed on a small plot of land previously earmarked for a substation, which the developer says is no longer needed.

For more details, and to comment on the plans, log on to somerset.gov.uk and search application reference 25/00512/FUL.