The brief for the project was “To design and create a Swift Tower, for location on Shalford Common, which will be an attractive functional piece of public art”. The Swift Tower is a habitable sculpture. It combines an organic form with an ecological function, providing a nesting environment for a species of bird which is in decline. At the same time, it performs a placemaking role for the local community, creating a focal point for people to gather and learn more about swifts.

The Shalford Swift Tower is a collaboration between Guildford Borough Council, Shalford Parish Council, The Friends of Shalford, Guildford Environmental Forum and Surrey Hills Trust Fund. It was partly funded by a Section 106 contribution, a grant made by local developers to help provide amenities for the local community.

Shalford was the site for Will Nash’s first Swift Tower, he has now completed five and has several more Swift Tower projects in progress at sites across the country with variations developing from the original form.

For more information and costs for commissioning Swift Towers contact: will@willnash.co.uk

The ten-metre high tower has 45 individual wooden nest boxes, or ‘apartments’, elevated from the ground on a galvanised steel pole.
The top wooden section, which is four-metres high, is made up of 8 habitable storeys constructed from birch plywood with a larch exterior.

There are speakers in the wooden section of the tower, playing swift calls for a couple of hours in the morning and again in the evening when swifts are most likely to be active. The aim is to attract new breeding pairs to Shalford.

The audio equipment, powered by a solar panel, can be removed once occupancy has been achieved. The solar panel could then be left in place to power a camera allowing the nesting birds to be viewed from screens in a nearby café.

“Working with Will Nash has proved an incredible and enjoyable experience from start to finish for Guildford Borough Council. Beyond his obvious highly artistic ability, his relentless and reassuring creativity in solving practical problems and meticulous research on swifts has exceeded all expectations. The resulting swift tower not only looks amazing but has everything needed to provide a fantastic home for swifts. This includes installing solar powered audio to attract the birds to the tower, use of materials and numbering accessible nest boxes so we can monitor them in future. I would have no hesitation in working with Will again or recommending him to the other councils and organisations developing their own swift towers and art projects.”

Tom Childs, Guildford Borough Council SANGS Officer and project
manager on the Shalford Swift Tower

“Will has created a fantastic piece of public art and I am delighted that we are able to help this fascinating species by protecting long established parts of their habitat. The tower is an impressive feat of engineering and I am sure will also become a local landmark as well as being of significant regional importance to our wildlife. I look forward to seeing the tower become a thriving hub for an increasing local swift population.”

Cllr James Steel, Lead Councillor for the Environment

“We are delighted to have been part of this project and to see it come to fruition providing a haven for the swifts who are such an important part of the character of the village. We are grateful to all the parties involved for the hard work in completing the tower during these very constrained times.”

Cllr Alan Midgley, Chairman of Shalford Parish Council