City of Bath College’s trainee stonemasons played a key role in putting Mark Foster on a pedestal in Bath city centre last month (May) when they produced the Stoke Ground Bath Stone plinth that the statue of the Olympic swimmer sits on.

The students created the eye-catching plinth from stone donated by the Bath Stone Group.

Students at the College’s Construction Skills Centre spent weeks working on the plinth to prepare it to take its place in the city centre along with Ben Dearnley’s twice life-size sculpture of the British swimmer.

The sculpture was unveiled at a ceremony attended by Mark Foster himself.

Nigel Bryant, the stonemasonry lecturer at City of Bath College, who managed the plinth project, said: “It’s been a great experience for our stonemasons to be involved in such a high-profile project like this.

“They really enjoyed working on the plinth and have created a fantastic piece of artwork that is an excellent accompaniment to Ben Dearnley’s incredible sculpture.

“City of Bath College has an excellent reputation for consistently producing talented stonemasons and our involvement with major community projects such as this is a key factor in our training programmes.”

The sculpture is part of the Art at the Edge project which aims to celebrate sport and Bath’s links to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

For more information about Art at the Edge see www.artattheedge.org.

For more information on stonemasonry courses at City of Bath College visit www.citybathcoll.ac.uk or call 01225 312191. You can also drop into the College’s Student Advice Centre at our Avon Street campus.