Resting Dove

If you are in Ipswich anytime soon, make sure you see the city’s newly unveiled sculpture of a dove carrying a sprig of olive in its beak carved by Antonia Hockton. Commissioned by Suffolk County Council and St Mary le Tower church in Tower Street it’s the focal point in the town's Covid garden of remembrance which is in the church’s north yard and was transformed and cultivated by residents.

Carved from a block of Ancaster Weatherbed limestone, the dove is resting and at peace. Smooth and tactile, it invites being touched, encouraging people to reflect on the pandemic: what we went through and those we lost. The sculpture itself was inspired by the comfort people took in birds and their freedom to fly, a freedom temporarily lost by humans but now regained.

The sculpture was unveiled by the mayor of Ipswich on Saturday 23rd March 2024, the fourth anniversary of the first lockdown.