NEXT week sees the opening of a major exhibition, The Meaning of Stone, by one of Britain’s most respected sculptors, Stephen Cox, RA, in Ludlow Castle.

Stephen, who was elected a Royal Academician in December last year, works in a variety of stones, which, while very different to look at, have one thing in common – a history that fascinates.

One of them, the very beautiful hammamat breccia, was used by Xerxes and Darius of Persia and Philip of Macedonia, Alexander the Great’s father, to make funerary objects.

More thought-provoking still is to look at a simple bowl, deceptively simple as it is the first sculpture to be made from a stone last used 4,000 years ago for funerary statues of Pharoah Kephren, the builder of the second Great Pyramid of Giza.

There will be about 20 sculptures in the exhibition, which opens on September 25, and is curated by Stephen’s wife, Judy, who was responsible for two earlier exhibitions at the castle by Michael Sandle and Allen Jones.

“When Judy started doing these exhibitions, I did try to resist,” says Stephen, whose exhibition in the castle is complemented by a parallel exhibition of his drawings and reliefs, Meaning in Drawing, at The Drawing Gallery in Walford near Leintwardine.

Among the exhibits in the castle is an important and locally significant piece representing the sarcophagus of Prince Arthur, the older brother of Henry VIII who lived at Ludlow Castle with his wife Catherine of Aragon, dying there when he was just 15.

The work is hewn out of a hard black stone quarried on Clee Hill, a stone known locally as Dhustone and of the same geological composition as the stone Stephen has spent years working with in India. “Though he was too young to be a warrior I’ve created a shield as a tribute to his status.”

Also in the exhibition will be a ten-part sculpture based on a little-known Indian sect, the Yogini, whose philosophy was to remove caste divisions among themselves and, for further anonymity, to cover their faces with animal masks.

Some exhibits still have to be agreed on as Stephen and Judy debate what is most appropriate for the Ludlow setting, with one beautiful alabaster sculpture a case in point, as they try to reach a decision about whether it might be a little explicit.

Stephen can be found most days out in his stonecutting yard at the old farmhouse on the side of Clee Hill where he and Judy live.

“I do like the almost soporific effect of concentrating on my work – I do it because I love sculpture and making art,” says Stephen.

“I believe in the whole process of making art and feel that what I do is part of the body of art in the world.

There is a self-portrait of Rembrandt in Kenwood House in London, and when I look at that picture and look into his eyes I know that what I am doing is the same as what he was doing.”

The Meaning of Stone opens on Saturday, September 24 and runs until Sunday, November 6.

For opening hours at The Drawing Gallery, call 01547 540454.