The initial idea for A Secret Sculpture came to me in a dream. Thinking about the project one night, I dreamt about divers swimming beneath the surface of the Reservoir. At the time I was reading Don Quixote (still unfinished) and my imagination was ignited by stories of quests and chivalry (albeit parodic.) In local history books I had read about The Whispering Post or Lawless Court in Rochford, and its roots in feudal Essex - the story behind The Whispering Post being to do with the Lord of the Manor returning unexpectedly and overhearing his tenants plotting to murder him. As a penance the Lord of the Manor instructed his tenants to assemble annually to ‘do homage to their lands in a whisper’ (from Rochford Remembers by L.E. Jerram-Burrows). Wikipedia has this description to hand:

‘They are all to whisper to each other, nor have they any pen and ink, but supply that deficiency with a coal; and he that owes suit and service, and appears not, forfeits to the lord of the manor double his rent every hour he is absent.’

Sounds like a way of controlling gossip to me!
The secrecy of the design process relates to the original meeting of the tenants – that is, that it is a secret, or closed process. Participants will be using pen and ink (as well as clay and wood) to create their designs. It is hoped that the project will generate discussion and rumour in the Rochford area.

So thinking about chivalry, divers and gossip I proposed the idea for A Secret Sculpture: a sculpture that would be designed in secret and then concealed in the reservoir before being made public-again.