The Atrium monoprint at The Sherborne is 11metres high and shows the rocks at Kimmeridge Bay which were once the floor of a deep, tropical sea rich in pre-historic life. They were formed in the Jurassic period, 155 million years ago. Hung in the Atrium stairwell, it shows that rock layers are like the pages in a book and the fossils they contain tell a story on each page.
As you ascend the stairs you experience a vertical slice through the landscape, each rock layer providing a window to look back through geological time. The sequence of rocks at Kimmeridge provides such an excellent record of this part of the Jurassic Coast, that geologists have adopted Kimmeridgian as the term for rocks of this age all around the world.
Kimmeridge monoprint hanging at the atrium of the Sherborne by the staircase
Gardiner with Paul Newman (left) and John Gammans installing the Kimmeridge monoprint at the atrium by the staircase
Contour lines of Kimmeridge going up the stairs, seen from the first floor