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High Fell House

Andrew Sabin 2013

This piece never actually happened, but we do at least get a small hint of what it would have been like. Andrew Sabin was commissioned to create a large sculpture in 2013 as part of the 'Art Roots' programme. A site was selected, up near Moor Top, but the project was never carried out. The single rectangular frame at the start of the Ridding Wood Trail was intended merely as a sort of teaser for the full thing - the fictional 'High Fell House' was meant to consist of many of these frames joined together to give the impression of a massive ruined mansion. It was planned that it would be built facing south, and be visible from the top of Carron Crag. Sabin was quoted as saying:

"I propose to bring together the emotive texture of these abandoned stumps and the idea of the 'Grand Country House' to create a new vision of a stately home that is part temple of the dead, part fairground catacomb, part moor-top mausoleum and part lovely place to visit.

The wispy branches of the roots will catch the rain and mist and the wind will blow through the open window frames; the fine statuary and ornamental vases will be seen to be chaotic and punctuated by voids. There will be grandeur, but a grandeur of a different order."

The work may still happen of course, but it's looking unlikely now. In early 2018 the board which outlined the proposal was taken down, and a few months after that, the work itself vanished, the strongest signal yet that the full sculpture will sadly never see the light of day.

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