For Enfield’s Festival of Industry, Dan was commissioned to design a stained glass effect artwork celebrating a local industry. Responding to the community’s desire for a greener Southgate and her own love of plants, she decided to take inspiration from Cuthbert’s Seeds, one of the UK’s best known horticultural firms, which was based in Southgate for over 130 years. Cuthbert’s Seeds were the largest horticultural supplier to Woolworth’s for over 60 years.
The story goes that in 1797 James Cuthbert walked from his native Scotland to London to seek his fortune. He stopped a few miles short at Southgate, which was then a village surrounded by open fields. He established his company providing landscaping services and garden supplies for aristocrats. He subsequently branched out into cultivating and supplying seeds, bulbs, shrubs and trees.
James Cuthbert’s journey from Scotland to England is symbolised by a long winding stem with a Scottish thistle at one end and an English rose at the other. Other elements in the artwork are based on flowers and vegetables that Cuthbert’s were known for cultivating.