Embracing what is

As I end the search for Goldsworthy’s sheepfolds and pinfolds in Cumbria, I had to leave those who have been following me with this one.

Yes! It is a sheepfold! Honestly!

We are in Wigton, a town between Carlisle and West Cumbria and the sheepfold is a triangular construct on the exact spot that old maps show there was a pinfold centuries ago. Without the buildings, this would be on the edge of the fells and just outside the town, so the right spot for a place to gather stray animals. It is now in front of a petrol station and at the junction of several busy roads!! (Might be best seen large)

This was the final sheepfold in the project and it took 12 years from proposal to completion, the reason apparently being all the planning problems, because of its position. For a long time it was feared the fold would never be built - the local paper at one point reported: Uncertainty has plagued the Wigton pinfold for more than a decade. . . But Goldsworthy was still keen to complete it and eventually in 2009 it was given the go ahead and built the same year.

The red sandstone walls deliberately embrace the modern day clutter of street furniture – BT junction box, poles, road name sign, lamp post etc. This, taken from a different angle, shows that it is not quite as squashed as it looks. I wonder how many people have any inkling as to what it actually is though. I have to admit we have driven past this spot many, many times and never noticed it!

That’s the end of the sheepfolds (for the moment anyway), and I hope you like this one to finish off with. Goldsworthy certainly did. I think he felt it was a bridge between the past and the present; a memory of what has been embracing what is.