Stone marks and defines our landscape: limestone underpins the land, dry stone walls define the fields, ancient stones tell of our ancestors, quarries and mines provide employment, stone built houses create private space and shelter. Words mark and define us as individuals: speech acts reveal our personality, statements outline our ideas and thoughts, lyrics and quotations sum up our feelings and beliefs. Combined stones and words record our history, documenting previous cultures for future generations.
Ancient earthworks of Arbor Low, pre-historic rock art on Gardom's Edge, the Derbyshire Guide Stoops, the telling gravestone, biblical references at Curbar Gap and the Three Ships on Birchen Edge, form strong precedents for a mixture of text on stone within our landscape.
In marking the seventeen entrances to the parish of Middleton and Smerrill, Sites of Meaning affirms our boundary and greets our visitors. The inscribed text develops our personal and collective identity. A public marking of private thoughts and feelings at the time of the millennium.