Things to See and Do

Fountain | 1937

A new temporary art installation by Keith Harrison retells the remarkable story of Witley Court and Gardens, from the perspective of the working class miners and steelworkers of Staffordshire employed by Witley’s 19th century owners, the Earls of Dudley. Launching in Spring 2025 the artwork will be open to visitors for at least a year.

Fountain | 1937 is a meditation on the complex historical relationships between the great ruined country mansion, and the lives of the working-class people of Staffordshire who created the wealth on which it was all founded. The artwork draws parallels between Witley’s demise as a country house through fire in 1937, with the simultaneous rise of welfare provision for miners through the construction of pithead baths across England in the 1930s.

Artistic concept

Fountain | 1937 is an artist’s reimagining of a coal miners’ pithead baths, located in the grounds of the spectacular Italianate former country house. Witley Court’s 19th century owners had many coalmines and industrial businesses in the Black Country, and even their own railway, delivering coal directly to Witley Court.

Harrison’s artwork invites visitors to imagine the contrasting lives of the owners of Witley Court (who had their own private plunge pool in the basement, and ornate fountains in their garden) with the lives of the miners and steelworkers employed by the Earl of Dudley’s businesses. The artwork includes a set of miners’ lockers made in Sheffield, and tiles supplied by Ketley Brick in Staffordshire, which has been making bricks with locally dug clay at Pensnett, Brierley Hill, since 1805.

Visitors are invited to borrow an audio guide to listen to a specially commissioned accompanying soundtrack created by Preston Field Audio with the artist. The soundtrack draws parallels between labour and luxury, and includes contemporary field recordings from Lady Dudley’s plunge pool beneath Witley Court, the site of the former coalmine at Baggeridge and the Round Oak Steelworks, once owned by the Earl of Dudley.

A series of floats mounted on the side of the pithead baths structure will be floated at Witley for special events later this year. Their forms reference the shape of steel products made at the Round Oak Steelworks in the early 20th century, and their bright colours relate to the floats commonly used in coarse fishing. This pastime was common on the rivers and lakes in and around Witley Court, providing a temporary recreational respite for the working classes.

Read more about the installation in the accompanying booklet below.

Fountain | 1937 Booklet (PDF)
© Photography by Dom Moore

Artist Spotlight

Keith Harrison is an acclaimed British artist, Research Professor at Bath School of Art, Film & Media, and Visiting Professor at KHiO – Oslo National Academy of the Arts. He was born in the Black Country and grew up in Birmingham. His work explores the creation, destruction and transformation of materials and places.

Harrison’s large-scale ambitious works have included commissions for the Victoria & Albert Museum, Forestry England, Preston Bus Station and the British Ceramics Biennial. His work has often explored working class histories of sites, and he has often collaborated with other artists including musicians Napalm Death and Will Gregory of Goldfrapp.

Discover Witley Court

Explore our Creative Programme

Our Creative Programme brings unique artistic interventions to our sites in the form of contemporary visual art, theatre, literature, dance and other creative art forms that bring England’s stories to life. 

The programme commissions artists, often in partnership with organisations, to produce creative works that draw inspiration from our iconic sites and collections and encourage engagement with heritage and history in new and thought-provoking ways.

Learn more about the Programme