For the last 10 years, a group of volunteers have been planting annual flowers in raised flower beds and tubs in Sardis and one of the volunteers is Heulwen Thomas, the artist. She has painted, in watercolours, one of the seats in amongst the wild flowers.

Lots of people walk through Sardis and rest on this seat and are asking why it has been moved. Road works are planned and the move is temporary. It will soon be back near the corner. It is a special seat and has carvings of Sardis history.

The scenes depicted are about movement up and down lanes.

If you have ever walked from Wisemans Bridge to Sardis via Back Lane, you will have traced the steps of the people carved on the seat. One person carries a water jack with water from one of Sardis's seven wells and the other person carries a sack of cockles. Cockles were a source of free food and many ended up at the cottages of Cockle Street which were at the top of Back Lane in the field behind Woodside Farm.

When the field behind the farmhouse is ploughed, the garden paths made of cockle shells are to be seen and also the blackened remains of the hearths where the cockles were cooked.

The back of the seat is carved to show a plough and the curve at the back of the seat represents the steepest part of Back Lane, which is appropriately called Painful Hill. Anyone who has walked up this hill will appreciate the name. The slow climb does, however, give time, while drawing breath, to appreciate the wild flowers on the verges of one of Pembrokeshire's most beautiful lanes.

The views from Painful Hill across Carmarthen Bay remain the same, but the lifestyle has moved on and the carvings on the seat remind us of a very different lifestyle and water is no longer carried up Painful Hill.

The village scheme, Sardis Parks and Gardens, has been sponsored this year, once again, by Action Earth, supported by Morrisons Supermarkets. Small grants make a big difference and it is thanks to the sponsors that volunteers can carry on the work of planting flowers year after year.