Installation | Social Project
A year-long project for Create Berwick / Arts&Heritage exploring the northern English folk custom of crowning kings and queens of industry.
Undertaken between 2025-26, I wanted to explore the differences between official and informal narratives of place.
This kind of unofficial geography exists everywhere, of course: we each have our own relationships to the spaces we inhabit, shaped by the bodies we live in, the communities we belong to, our work and access to resources—and this relationship often differs markedly from the ways a place is represented in government or tourism. But Berwick’s location in the Debatable Lands—belonging variously to the Kingdoms of England and Scotland at different times in history—makes it especially rich in individual interpretations …
Inspired by the Tweedmouth Salmon Queen festivities, celebrating their 70th year in 2026, I commissioned six makers to create wearable crowns and paired these with representatives of present-day Berwick industries, as nominated by residents.
Documentary by Jonny Randall
Annaluisa Wood, Modern Matron at Berwick Infirmary, wearing a crown by Deborah Boyd-Whyte
Roz Haddrill—proprietor of the Green Shop—wearing a crown by Jennie Howes
Brenda Collins—former landlady of the Freetrade pub—wearing a crown by Dave Purvis of Condotieri Glass
John Skelly—7th generation owner of W.R Skelly & Son Butchers—wearing a crown by Suzanne Wright.
Eva Simpson—Enterprise Graduate Trainee at Simpson's Malt—wearing a crown by Anna Corbett
The team at Pith Supply wearing a crown by Lucy Baxandall of Tidekettle Paper
I also made my own crown in bronze, sculpted from casts created while walking in the town.
From the coastal pebble dash of houses and outbuildings in Highfields, limpet shells, strands of broken fishing net and assorted sea junk collected on Spittal beach and toys and fridge magnets purchased from local shops, the textures of Berwick, its landscape and architecture are incorporated into the crown itself.
The installation ran during July 2026 and comprised an elaborately decorated ceremonial dais and a poem looped on a scrolling LED screen which proposes a new interspecies charter for living together on a broken planet.
Visitors were invited to stand on the stage and take their own ‘coronation’ picture.
CREDITS
Portraits by Charlotte Summers
Additional photography by Lucy Wright + Tilo Reifenstein
Archive photograph ‘Crowning of Salmon Queen, Mary Daly’ (pp.2–3) is reproduced with kind permission from Berwick Records Office, BRO 1944/1/2022/9.
Created by Lucy Wright, with
Stephanie Allen (Executive Director, Arts&Heritage)
Lauren Velvick (Associative Creative Producer)
With thanks to …
Andrea Oliver (Berwick CCZ Manager)
Ben + Oli at The Straw Yard
Rev. Lee Taylor
Winterburn Fine Art
Lynn Chivers + the Ashover Knit & Natter and Ashover Women’s Institute
Vic Jay
Mike Hankin
Marc Inglis
Jacqui Wicks
David Brookbank
Pictorial Photography
Linda Bankier
Ed Kluz
Kyveli Lignou-Tsamantani
Special thanks to …
Tilo Reifenstein
Gill Wright
Read the Our Wic publication …
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