The Ballad of Sophia

Sophia Constable was an 11-year-old girl, who was sentenced to three weeks of hard labour followed by four years in a reformatory for stealing a loaf of bread in 1872. This Ray Lonsdale sculpture is on the site of the old prison in Northallerton. I’m quite used to seeing his sculptures all over County Durham on my travels to schools but this one is quite apart from those, and near my sister’s. I love his work, they’re always thought-provoking. I think I’ll make an effort to photograph them all. They’re not tricky to find although I do come across new ones in places I didn’t know they existed.