The Moonstones (grid reference SP062949) are a set of eight carved sandstone memorials to various members of the Lunar Society. Made in 1998, they can be viewed in the grounds of the Asda supermarket in Queslett, Great Barr, Birmingham, England. They are visible from the road, when driving up Queslett Road from the Old Horns roundabout toward the Scott Arms.
Working from Aldridge Road round to Queslett Road, they depict eight members of the Society and attributes connected with their work:
- Josiah Wedgwood: Portrait and three women from a Jasper ware design
- Erasmus Darwin: Portrait and design for horizontal windmill
- Samuel Galton: Colour wheel
- William Murdock: Steam road locomotive
- Matthew Boulton: Medal with his portrait
- James Watt: Portrait and steam engine
- Joseph Priestley: Laboratory equipment
- James Keir: Crystals
- William Withering: Foxglove (with words from his book An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses)
The stones also each have a phase of the moon carved on them, with Watt's being the full moon.
The designs are by Steve Field and were executed by two stonemasons, Malcolm Sier and Michael Scheurmann.
Great Barr Hall, Galton's home and a venue for meetings of the Lunar Society, is nearby.
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Moonstones around edge of car park
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Matthew Boulton
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Joseph Priestley
Famous quotes containing the words lunar and/or society:
“A bird half wakened in the lunar noon
Sang halfway through its little inborn tune.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The difficult and risky task of meeting and mastering the new—whether it be the settlement of new lands or the initiation of new ways of life—is not undertaken by the vanguard of society but by its rear. It is the misfits, failures, fugitives, outcasts and their like who are among the first to grapple with the new.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)