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As I walk along the beach at Borth, the freezing wind impotent in its attempts to puncture the beauty, I can see it.

Well, what’s left of it, anyway. This is where a forest once proudly stood, thousands of years ago. The heavy storms that battered the west coast of Wales in 2014 revealed even more of its ancient glory, and you can still stroll among the remains, when the tide allows.

This Ceredigion village is home to 1,400 people but also to legend, myth, and a haunting sense of the past.

This forest once rose high into the Cardigan Bay sky, overlooking a populous land beneath it that extended off the coast. Climate change, rising sea levels, or ineptitude from a drunk watchman which resulted in sluice gates being left open on a stormy night, killed this part of the world. Cantre’r Gwaelod, described as ‘the Welsh Atlantis’, was no more, and the 16 villages which made up its kingdom were drowned and consigned to history. Or so the story goes.

Whatever version one believes about this forest – and there are many versions – one cannot deny its existence and a level of importance that today makes it the focus of a differing of opinion, to put it one way, or, to put it another, a split community.

(Image: John Ibbotson)

An artist, Robert Davies, wants to pay homage to the sunken forest and create a signpost to climate change at the same time. Not with a plaque or an information board or a film but by erecting a 10m-high metal tree on the beach.

That’s roughly the height of a two-storey house.

This will not be a permanent structure, rather a temporary expression of art. It will cost hundreds of thousands of pounds in a literal sense, but is there a greater price?

Villagers here tell me there is no row, no bitterness, no lingering sense of anger towards the other side. But a divide is evident, those against and those in favour of ‘Tree’.

(Image: Robert Davies) (Image: Robert Davies)

Locals might deny a rift, but I have to arrange two separate meetings with two different groups of people who live and work together. I’m asked to guarantee that nobody "from the other side" will be present at one of the meetings, for fear of me witnessing a beachside quarrel.

I set off to meet the people who oppose this “completely unnecessary” structure which will “dominate the landscape” and “decimate” the area. One person even calls it an “ugly alien beast” and “a metal monster that very quickly will turn into an ugly rusting metal monster”.

I’m told that three or four people want to meet me. Instead, 20 turn up, each of them want to have their say, and each of them speaking of their astonishment that this "thing" is going to be placed on the sand.

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

An hour later, I walk down the village to meet those of the opposing view. It almost feels wrong, having spent time chatting to people who so eloquently put across their concerns, who shook my hand and made me feel at home in a village where I had never previously been. But across the road I go, to another group of people, equally charming, equally articulate. Only this time they had biscuits.

We meet in a cafe which I thought was closed for refurbishment. It is closed, but they open the door, invite me in and lead me upstairs to a packed room full of 'Tree’ supporters, drawings, plans and opinions.

If the people of Borth don’t care about this project, they have a funny way of showing it.

The plan

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

Robert Davies is a Birmingham-born artist who lives in Taliesin, five miles east of Borth. He intends to place a single metal cast of a Ceredigion oak tree on the beach, adjacent to the ancient forest and between the man-made groynes and the beacons which are already in place, between Borth and Ynys Las to the north.

The overall height of the tree will be between nine metres and 10.5 metres tall, with several branches arching towards the shore, the lowest of which will be about 9ft from the ground and all of which will be visible, even at high tide.

Mr Davies has not revealed the estimated cost of the project but it is thought that it will run into the hundreds of thousands, all of which will be raised by him privately, and not financed by the public purse.

(Image: Robert Davies)

Planning permission for ‘Tree’ was rejected, and then granted on appeal, with certain conditions. Namely, development must begin no later than June 14, 2023, and that it must be removed in its entirety by June 14, 2028.

“I was walking along the beach one day in 2016 and I was thinking about the submerged forest,” says Mr Davies.

“The rising level of the sea and climate change are huge issues and I want to create a cultural response to these material changes. ‘Tree’ will represent the changes in our environment and make reference to an historical past around which stories and myths exist.

“The visual context and impact of ‘Tree’ also reflects the isolated nature of Borth, stubbornly nesting on this strip of land, hanging on with determination in the face of violent natural forces that are reshaping the coastline. ‘Tree’ is about our historical past and our vulnerable future.

“When I had the idea the people I spoke to got it straight away – what it means and what it will symbolise.”

Those against

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

I’m told that there is quite a lot of ambivalence towards this project in Borth but that isn’t obvious to me as everyone seems to have an opinion, one way or another.

One woman, a landlady of a local pub, comes up to me with her thoughts written out on a postcard as she has lost her voice to a Ceredigion cold. It hasn’t affected her sense of humour, however, as the message begins "you could say the idea of placing a huge metal sculpture on this beautiful stretch of unspoilt coastline has rendered me speechless".

She’s the only one, as everyone else hurls their passionate pleas at me.

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

Rychard Carrington is a poet and university tutor who lives a stone’s throw away from the beach. He’s accused Robert Davies of ignoring the concerns of those who oppose his structure.

“We have to think about what is being lost,” he says. “I’ve seen the pictures of the sculpture on the beach, and some of them look beautiful, but the beach is beautiful anyway so it’s always going to look like that.

“As a piece of art, people see it and they might say ‘oh, that looks nice’, but they don’t think about the impact on the beach.

“I think that he (Robert Davies) thought once he won the appeal that the opposition would die. It hasn’t, it’s grown.

“One thing he says is that some people always complain about new pieces of art, but I have a deep feeling about this place. It’s not a no to the sculpture, it’s a big no to the location. It doesn’t have to be on the beach.

“My soul connects with nature on that beach. People really do genuinely feel for it and I think he’s been dismissive of that.”

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

Kim Williams also lives in Borth and has helped to rally the troops on this cold Ceredigion morning. She says Mr Davies won’t speak to her anymore and that, while this issue may not have split the village, it has made for some tricky meetings between friends and even family members.

“Mr Davies has kept a great distance,” she says.

“I emailed him some very direct questions but he refused to answer them. He won’t talk to me now because he thinks I’m awkward, I suppose. The whole story behind it has evolved: it started as a piece of art that was site specific, that has to be on the beach because that’s where the forest is. He now says it’s about the environment.

“There will have to be a destruction of part of the submerged forest, to dig into the beach, and we don’t even know, nobody knows, the cost of this and where the money is coming from.

“There have been arguments in the village about this. Close friends who don’t agree on the subject just agree not to talk about it anymore. It’s easier that way.”

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

One man who won’t be silenced is Louis Delahaye. He worked for the local RNLI for 25 years and has lived in Borth for more than half a century, having moved to the village from Manchester when he was a child.

He looks out on Borth beach, where he walks every day, and says: “As soon as I came here I fell in love with the place, with the beach and with the sea.”

Forget any aesthetic intrusion. His main objection is on safety grounds.

“I’ve been in that sea in lifeboats and I know how it can be. This tree will be an obstacle: hundreds of people swim in that sea during the summer and I really think that this thing could hurt someone quite badly. This area is also well-used by kite surfers, so don’t tell me this can’t be dangerous, at 30ft tall?

“This beach is our shop window. We have the real sunken forest – we don’t need this tree to let people know it’s there, it’s already an iconic site.”

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

You can’t move here for reminders of ‘Tree’, despite the fact that it hasn't even been constructed yet.

Flyers and posters adorn people’s walls and windows, and that mention of ambivalence seems more fanciful than ever when I walk past a protesting mural that dominates the side of one house.

One person with a poster in his window is Mike Willcox, a member of Borth Community Council, which voted seven to two against ‘Tree’ in May 2017.

He invites me into his home, and our conversation is interrupted as local after local comes in to use the Post Office that makes up the side portion of his house. He, perhaps more than anyone, can gauge the public opinion in Borth.

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

“I’m very much against it, from a number of points of view, but mainly an aesthetic one,” he says.

“The cost is going to be fantastic, and what about the maintenance? How much is it going to cost to remove it in 2028?

“It seems that Robert Davies wants to put his name on something but I don’t think he’s thought it through. This thing looks totally unnatural from all angles. The mere fact that people have taken an interest in this shows that people are aware and that people do care.

“Of course promoting the forest is important but I don’t see this tree being a tourism boost for Borth at all. I just don’t see it, people coming from all over to see it....one thing that strikes me though is this: before the planning was decided on, there was a meeting on the beach and every person who spoke in favour was not from Borth.

“I hope it doesn’t happen. I think he (Robert Davies) will get frightened by the responsibility and not go ahead with it. There’s so many things that he needs to sort out and secure before it can even go into the ground – I don’t think he realised that when he started out.

“Hopefully a bit of common sense will prevail and it won’t happen.”

(Image: Tom Gunn)

Those in favour

Mike Willcox’s fellow community councillor, Gwenllian Ashley, disagrees with him. She says parts of Borth have become run down, and that ‘Tree’ would actually help a lot of those who are vehemently opposed to it.

She is the curator of Borth Arts, a group of artists that live and work in the village.

“Borth needs an injection of tourism," she says.

"There is no year-round, deep tourism here. A lot of the people objecting to it run local businesses and they don’t seem to realise that they would benefit from it the most.

"The day it goes into the sand will be an important day for this area. It’s already brought the debate about climate change to the fore and it will continue to contribute in that way. Children will be able to come here on school trips to see it and it will, without a doubt, educate people.

“It’s a small thing, in the grand scheme of things – it’s not a nuclear power station. It will help people to visualise the forest. The stumps that remain are beautiful, but the tree will not detract from that beauty, it will add to it.”

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

Neil Johnson is a local artist and he agrees with Gwenllian's point entirely.

He thinks ‘Tree’ will be an important piece of art that will enlighten and engage people from within the community and further afield. He didn’t know Robert Davies until he heard someone else mention the idea of a tree sculpture.

“It’s not just a piece of art," he tells me. "It’s a concept that will raise awareness of a global issue.

"This will bring visitors here. My wife and I have been to places in the past just to see something. This will be the same. People in Manchester or Birmingham will think ‘let’s got to Borth for the weekend’. They’ll want to see it. It will bring a lot of people to this area.”

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

This piece of art, if and when it appears in the sand, will not be here for long. Even if it were erected today, it would stand for a maximum of nine and a half years, until the summer of 2028.

Given the complexity of its creation, installation, and the finance needed to make it happen, it will not appear for some considerable time yet, if at all. Is all this fuss really worth it? After all, squabbles created by ‘Tree’ could outlive ‘Tree’ itself.

This is not important, according to local woman Shelagh Hourahane. She cites Banksy’s recent work in Port Talbot as evidence that a piece of art does not need to be permanent to have an impact, referencing the strong possibility that that piece of art, emblazoned on a garage wall, will, at some point, be moved.

“I don’t think we should assume that permanent or long-term art is the most powerful or the most meaningful,” she says, passionately.

“Works of art like this are powerful and meaningful because they depict things that cannot be taken for granted. However long it’s there for, it will create awareness. It could have a big impact. It’s not there simply to be a work of art – it’s there to provoke and to inspire. We in Borth will be making a statement.”

(Image: Robert Davies)

A tree, a statement, an eyesore, a safety hazard, a piece of art. Which of these is it? Can it be all of them and still breathe? One group of people is going to be very disappointed in the coming years, but one university lecturer tells me that many more people are going to be more than disappointed in the not-so-distant future if and when climate change, already evident, becomes rampant.

“I realise that we can talk about the urgency of climate chance but that doesn’t seem to cut it with a lot of people,” admits Steven Tooth, a lecturer at Aberystwyth University. “The facts go over people’s heads but a piece of public art like this can engage people emotionally and start a wider discussion about nature.

“There’s been a lot of coverage of ‘Tree’ and a lot of it has been quite negative, and I just don’t understand that. I find some of the objections to the piece quite odd, to be honest.

“This has meaning. It’s not just a tree on a beach. On the banks of the Brisbane River in Australia there is a piece of art which is basically the top third of the letters ‘FLOOD’. What does it mean? The top of the F is the level that the water rose to during the floods of 1974.”

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

The insinuation here is that art, in its very existence, is more than just what is on display to the naked eye.

‘Tree’ also has a meaning, beyond the fact that it is a nod to a long-lost past that needs to be celebrated in the future. Why, therefore, are there signs all over this village that oppose this plan? Why I have been inundated with correspondence from people who love art, but not this art?

“It’s easier for people to unite against something,” continues Mr Tooth. “It’s very rare for people to come together for something they’re in favour of, they don’t unite in the same way.”

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

I feel like we could talk about this forever, the pros and the cons, what it means and what it doesn’t mean, but Mr Davies has to leave to attend a meeting – about ‘Tree’, naturally.

Before he leaves I propose to him that, in severe conditions, his piece could pose a danger. I mean, could this tree fall over? He responds, tongue in cheek, that if it does then it will prove his point.

Objections and concerns regarding the safety and visual impact of ‘Tree’ were addressed during the planning process and subsequent appeal, but if the climate hammers the structure enough to break it before 2028 then maybe we’re in an even bigger crisis than its creator is preaching about.

The artist has listened to the objections and doesn’t understand them. To him, the location of ‘Tree’ is the art. It has to be there. If it doesn’t go there then it doesn’t go anywhere.

(Image: Jonathan Myers)

“If ‘Tree’ was to be behind the sea wall, in the village or on a traffic roundabout outside the supermarket, as was suggested, it would just be a tree, incongruous and without context,” he explains.

“By placing it in the sea, at mid-tide, adjacent to the submerged and revealed forest, it creates a narrative that tells the story of our past – its relationship to the pine, alder, birch and oak forest that was inundated as sea levels rose 6,000 years ago – and our future as sea levels start to rise again.”

And what of this sense that the majority of objectors are from Borth and that the majority of people who want it to go ahead reside outside the village? Is someone’s origins and the length or scale of their relationship with this haven even relevant? Mr Davies thinks not.

“Someone said to me ‘you’re ruining our beach’. Well, to that, I say it’s not your beach, it’s everyone’s. Whether you were born here or moved here, it’s still your beach. It belongs to the Crown, it belongs to us all.

“My dad used to bring me down here in the 1960s and I’ve always loved Borth. I’ve lived here, my wife is from here and I met her in this village.

“I’ve worked incredibly hard on this but I don’t mind the work because that’s part of it. I’m very grateful to have met so many people and I’ve met some great friends along the way.

“I want this to happen but if I’m honest I think there’s about a 10% chance that it will.

“But in a sense, the debate and the discussion that’s arisen as a result of this project means the tree is already there. Even if it doesn’t work out, I’m already so proud of what ‘Tree’ has achieved.”

With that the whole room nods in unison at the thought that even if this idea always remains exactly that – an idea – it will still be a piece of art that will live long in the memory.

Whether it actually gets to live on this gorgeous and majestic landscape we will have to wait and see.