Forging at Preston Park

Gongs of Teesside revolves around the sounding of gongs made of the material of the place – steel. Iron ore mined from East Cleveland was once smelted in Skinningrove and in the many blast furnaces along the River Tees, a heartland of rapid industrial growth, producing steel that was shipped across the world to build bridges, railways, ships, and entire industrial centres.

Master Blacksmith, Peat Oberon, is based at Preston Park Museum, Stockton. Along with Blacksmith, Matt Snape, he has worked with us over the last couple of years to develop and refine the creation of three large steel gongs. Over a series of day long visits to the forge we planned the work and observed the blacksmiths hammering, shaping and tempering gongs, fashioned from locally sourced discs of flat steel, testing and refining the sound quality as we went. Along the way, we were given expert guidance and technical support by Filipe Alves, who has developed his technique for making steel gongs over several years, in turn, learning from gong-makers across Europe.

Peat has also taken time to share his immense knowledge of local history, industry, networks of makers/suppliers/metal-workers, geology, chemistry, physics, as well as an extraordinary wealth of anecdotes brilliantly shared. He has also spent time educating and entertaining the different young people we have been working with.

The gongs carry the region's material history and skills heritage. The story of how and where they have been made provides a point of connection — a way for people to engage with a participatory process that might otherwise feel too unfamiliar — while their resonance is immediate and arresting, allowing people to create out-of-the-ordinary experiences for themselves or with others.

The forging process was photographed by Rachel Deakin and once the gong making was underway we engaged young adult creatives from Tees Valley Young Producers in documenting the gong making through audio, video and photography.

When the gongs were complete the young adults helped take a lead in a public engagement event in the Museum grounds, where members of the public sounded the gongs and talked with us about meaningful local places they would choose to do soundings.

The gong stands were decorated with designs created in collaboration with welding students from Redcar & Cleveland college, out of steel discs cut by waterjet.