Chat Moss - Cultural References

Cultural References

In 1994, the British composer Peter Maxwell Davies, who was born in Salford, wrote a seven–minute tone poem for school orchestra, titled Chat Moss. Chat Moss was also the subject of a ceiling painting produced as the result of a research project at The University of Nottingham, exhibited in 2004. The project was a collaboration between artist Derek Hampson and geographer Gary Priestnall. Hampson chose the moss as their subject for two reasons: its 19th-century significance to the industrial revolution, and "its present unpicturesque nature – its resistance to viewpoint, to being made pictorial." The artwork is painted on 108 two-foot (0.6 m) square tiles, and measures 18 feet (5.4 m) by 24 feet (7.2 m).