Sheep Pig

For today’s walk we went to Graffham Common in search of the Sheep Pig. That is, the new sculpture there which forms part of the South Downs sculpture trail, which I’m doing an article on for the next issue of the archaeology society’s newsletter (which I edit a section of). I think the trail is a really nice initiative and you can read the official line on the history behind the sculpture below:

The Sheep pig is inspired by a map, drawn in 1629 during the reign of Charles 1, showing the heath as common land.

It reflects the former use of the site as grazing land but also refers to the rare map of the vicinity.

A volunteer working with the project found the original archive copy of the map in the West Sussex Records office.

On the primitively drawn map of the area, tiny drawings of animals (almost appearing to be standing on top of one another) can be seen. Based on this, the sculptor created a replica of the drawing in carved stone.