Bench Stories
Memorial benches in British society most often commemorate the lives of individuals and, as a result, they’re the focus for private grieving; however, such benches are situated in public places, often in spots intimately connected to the people they memorialise.
My research, then, is multi-faceted. It covers memorialisation practices, private and public, and includes personal stories connected with particular benches. It examines the positive and negative aspects of these benches and I draw on a range of literary sources to develop my thinking.
Through using a variety of research methods I’m able to explore these objects of site-specific memorialisation that, to date, have received curiously little attention in either scholarly research or contemporary Place Writing.
The memorial bench is both an anchor and a prism through which I examine a variety of secondary themes, from the leisure use of public spaces to the rites and rituals of remembering. And, in continuing to read memorial benches, to visit and re-visit them, I find they connect me to place and also, in a surprising way, to the emotions they embody.
With this collection—a layered assemblage of texts and stories—I hope you’ll find new and interesting perspectives on place and memory.
