Sultan The Pit Pony

Noting a break in the showers, and having an hour spare, I made my way to Penallta Park, near Ystrad Mynach, South Wales.

It is the site for Sultan the Pit Pony, a stunning 200M earthwork sculpture, constructed from coal shale, stone and earth by Welsh Artist Mick Petts. It was carved about 12 years ago and is the UK's largest earth sculpture.

The pony sculpture, affectionately nicknamed 'Sultan' after a well-loved pit pony from the local mines, is more than 200m long. Built out of coal shale from those mines, it is a reminder of an industrial past that changed Britain, and the world, forever. Coal was the fuel of the Industrial Revolution; coal-powered steam engines put Britain ahead of the world for more than a hundred years in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The steam engines were probably one of Britain's greatest contributions to human history.