A Stallion for Appleby

Drive 2 Survive has made a sculpture of a Gypsy cob Stallion to go next to Fair Hill in Appleby. Please take two minutes to register your support for this permanent reminder of our contribution to British rural life, writes Jake Bowers.

If you think the town of Appleby should have a permanent celebration of the contribution Gypsies and Travellers have made to the town, please take 2 minutes to help us get planning permission by registering your support here:

https://planningregister.westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk/Planning/Comment/2025/0944/FPA

Working with expert planner Mark Simmonds (and with support from Appleby Town Council, Bill Lloyd and Billy Welch and local district councillors and employees, we have identified a place next to Fair Hill where we would like to erect the statue as a permanent reminder of the importance of the fair to Gypsy and Traveller culture.

Although planning permission to have the stallion next to the River Eden was refused by the local council In April, we are confident that the new location will get planning permission if it gets enough support.

The area of land which is the proposed alternative home for the Appleby Stallion is

known as Salt Tip Corner by local authorities but as Millionaires Corner by Gypsies and

Travellers whose families have been attending the fair for hundreds of years. This is

because it was the place where horses of high value, such as stallions, were bought and

sold for a cash with a slap of the hands, and perhaps some luck money given back to

the buyer.

A red square marks the proposed location of the sculpture at the bottom of Fair Hill and next to the slip road coming off the A66 from Penrith. Just metres away from the Appleby sign, the sculpture will be the first thing many visitors see as they enter Appleby from the west.

The Stallion has been created by Drive 2 Survive co-chair Jake Bowers who has submitted the following artists statement with the application. Planning has been done for this application pro bono by Mark Simmonds, who specialises in helping Gypsy and Traveller families get planning permission for their homes. See: https://www.vardointelligentplanningservices.co.uk/

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Artists statement on the Appleby Stallion

“Appleby Fair is a central event in the life and history of Appleby in Westmoreland for

both residents and the Gypsy and Traveller communities that make the pilgrimage

to the annual horse fair every June. The fair has a long history. It was first held in 1775 as

an event for sheep and cattle drovers and horse dealers to sell their stock. By the 1900s

it had evolved into the biggest Gypsy and Traveller fair in the world where horses are still

traded, usually for cash. Over the course of fair week tens of thousands of Gypsies and

Travellers and tourists come to Appleby to see the spectacle of Gypsy families trotting

their horses from the fairground to the banks of the River Eden where they are washed

before being returned to the hill.

But come to Appleby outside fair week and very little tangible evidence exists of the

central importance of the fair to the town and it’s Gypsy and Traveller visitors. As a

permanent fixture in the life of the town and the culture of Gypsies and Travellers, the

Gypsy and Traveller community would like to donate a public sculpture to the town of

Appleby to make this crucial part of the town’s intangible heritage more tangible and

visible.

To this end, I took a mobile forge to Appleby Fair in 2023 and 2024 and started the job of

making a forged sculpture of the Appleby Stallion, it was completed and galvanised in

the autumn of 2024. It is one of 12 sculptures the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

has funded the Drive 2 Survive Community Interest Company to make. Over the next

three years these are to be installed throughout the British landscape to make Gypsy

and Traveller culture and history visible, celebrated and tangible. In the 2024 Appleby

Town Council was approached to discuss a suitable site for the Appleby Stallion and an

area opposite the place where horses are taken into the river was identified and agreed

upon. In April 2025 planning consent was refused to install the statue on the area

between the footpath and the River Eden by Westmoreland and Furness Council. In

consultation with local elected representatives, community members and the Gypsy

and Traveller community we have now identified an alternative site.

The area of land which is the proposed alternative home for the Appleby Stallion is

known as Salt Tip Corner by local authorities but as Millionaires Corner by Gypsies and

Travellers whose families have been attending the fair for hundreds of years. This is

because it was the place where horses of high value, such as stallions, were bought and

sold for a cash with a slap of the hands, and perhaps some luck money given back to

the buyer.

Whilst large sums of money still exchange hands at Appleby such dealing is now

conducted in other places such as the flashing lane where horses are put through their

places. The exact location on Salt Tip / Millionaires corner is opposite the entrance to

Roman Road and the bottom gate of Fair Hill. The horse will be oriented to face Fair Hill,

the traditional part of Appleby Fair where many horse drawn travellers and traditional

families gather. The site is the crossroads where all those at the fair pass and where

traffic coming o􀆯 the A66 from Penrith enters Appleby. It is hoped that in time this

symbol of symbiosis between the fair and the town will be embraced by all as a neutral

symbol of animal loved by all.

This sculpture, made collaboratively by Gypsy and Traveller community members from

across Britain, together with public sector workers from the Police and Fire Services in

Cumbria, is intended to make the contribution of the Gypsy and Traveller to Appleby

visible, permanent and celebrated.

It celebrates our history, culture and horses, and is intended as a thank you to the town

for hosting an event that is like a spiritual pilgrimage for us. Each year most of us move

on to return a year later, and we wish to leave a fitting memorial to the beauty and

vibrancy of our culture behind in the spirit that we will always work together to celebrate

and preserve a crucial part of Britain’s sustainable rural heritage.”

Jake Bowers, Romany Artist Blacksmith