Description:

Three large boulders appear behind a smaller, lower stone block whose sides are carved to suggest a stone wall.

The smaller block is inscribed on its top surface with a child-like picture of a girl with a pony tail in T-shirt and shorts, and carved with a snail on the left. Of the other boulders, one is carved with a snail, two leaves and a standing figure in robes (probably a woman, but the face is too worn to be certain) at the corner; the tallest one is carved with a lizard, a bird, a hunting scene of two men on foot chasing a pair of wild boar, and the head of a bearded figure with curly hair wearing what appears to be a bobble hat; the third is carved with a Daliesque melting watch, with a snail on the other side.

The boulders are all of very soft red rock, and are rapidly being eroded.

Background to the stone gateway:

A design theme was chosen, focusing on the idea that the Greenway follows an imaginary Time Line which runs north west from the Scheduled Ancient Monument Area within Berryhill Fields.

Three gateways were constructed (Stone, timber and metal). The Stone Gateway is the nearest to the Scheduled Ancient Monument, and was intended to commemorate the earliest history of the area before it was settled by farmers.

This explains the use of stone, the presence of the animals, the hunting scene, and possibly the standing figure in robes (it may be a monk or a nun). However, it cannot explain the depiction of the young girl in T-shirt and shorts, the man in the bobble hat, or the melting watch. The last of these could be an allusion to the idea of a time line.

There was a strong emphasis on community involvement throughout the project, and the Berryhill Friends Group played a key role in its management.