War Horse ... at Chatsworth

In my last blog about Chatsworth I mentioned there were a number of things that caught my eye whilst I was there, other than Barry Flanagan's sculptures.

One of them was Dame Elisabeth Frink's War Horse. 

It is sited near the restaurant and it can be touched and children can sit on it and have their photograph taken, apparently.

There is more information about the sculpture here ...

  

I rather like it. It's strong and self assured.

Chatsworth ~ Beyond Limits ~ 2012/13 ...

A change from the hares ! 

Exhibit No. 13 is Barry Flanagan's 'Bronze Horse' ....

Once again though the 'line that mustn't be crossed' gets in the way and spoils some of the photos ...



Just think how much better the photograph above would have been without the chain and metal pegs.

The horse isn't quite life sized ...



... or even lifelike ...



Even so I rather like this horse ...



You could almost imagine him springing to life.

It rhymes with 'totem' ...

... that's Gotham, a few miles south of Nottingham.

I set off down the M1 last Sunday, thinking I'd be there in next to no time ... and I would have, if the motorway hadn't been subject to a 50mph speed limit because it's being widened.

Parking near the church, I walked along the road towards the south. Just on the edge of the village is the site of some gypsum mines. I walked up the bridleway to the side ...

The bridleway comes out into a field below the Cuckoo Bush. The view behind is fairly flat ...



I'd been following the Gotham Heritage Trail and saw their waymark quite a few times ...



The Cuckoo Bush is an ancient tumulus but in more recent times, but still a few hundred years ago, local people tried to cage a cuckoo nearby in the hope that summer would last all year round. Then the crops would grow and there would be work and food for the peasants ...

On reaching Leake New Wood I could just see the tall chimney of Ratcliffe on Soar power station sticking up above the woodland.



I'd already seen more walkers and horse riders than I had on the whole of my last walk in Nottinghamshire.

Underfoot there was a crunch of dead leaves ...



I came out of the wood, looking towards [somewhere in the distance] Kegworth and Sutton Bonnington ...



I followed the footpath in the photo above as it ran alongside the hedgeline. The path had not been ploughed up !  Now what's the betting that if we had been in Derbyshire it would have been ploughed ~ or overgrown and uneven.



At the far side of this field I turned round and looked back from whence I had come ...



As I walked back towards the woods, on a different bridleway, there were signs of violent death strewn across the track ~ the remains of the prey ?



Not all of Nottinghamshire is flat ...



As I was passing Hillside Farm, I caught a glimpse of Gotham again in the valley ...



I climbed Soldiers Lane and noticed a pillbox to my right. Hard to believe that 70 years ago, we were afraid of being invaded.



There were a couple of horses at the gate, just dying to be photographed.



Also by the gate was another Gotham Heritage Trail interpretation panel. You may have to enlarge it to read it ... but it's worth it ...



A bridleway runs along Gotham Hill and beside Gotham Hill Wood there's this block of stone ~ a boundary stone or a mounting block ? Too small for the latter surely ... 



 Back in Gotham, near the church, I saved a life. I say it modestly ... it was just an insect, a shield beetle I think. You can just see it on the right hand side of the photo below ...



It had been caught in a tatty cobweb.

Then I had a burger in the Cuckoo Bush [a pub].

Date of walk ~ 11th October 2009

Length of walk ~ 5 1/4 miles.


Total since 1st September 2009 ~ 43 3/4 miles