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4 (0%) of Registered Dartefacters have visited this item. They are: Dave Hamnett, Sheron, Dartmoor Paul, Chris Taylor

Notes: By artist Henry Bruce of ‘The Giant’s Chair’ fame.

Once Upon a Time, in a small field overlooking Widecombe on Dartmoor, there was ‘The Giant’s Chair’. But it proved too popular with the common folk and so was removed under orders from the Dartmoor National Park (Boo! Hiss!!). Next came ‘The Giant’s Ladder’, which has now also ‘fallen’ into myth and legend. The Christmas Storms put paid to this magnificent wooden artwork from the artist Henry Bruce. He cleverly used a distorted perspective construction to create the illusion of a ladder disappearing loftily into the sky. It was a mixture of David Nash meets M.C. Escher! As you walked along the narrow, muddy lane (between Jay’s Grave and Natsworthy Manor) to the field it stood in it suddenly peaked high above the trees. Anyone walking that way immediately grinned – they realised this was something magical, impossibly tall, how was it done? Standing next to it the illusion took time to work it out. As the ladder got higher it narrowed and the steps came closer together and became more frequent. This distorted perspective construction gave it the appearance of even more height, as if it was disappearing far, far away. I wish I had been there on a misty day, when it would have certainly disappeared into the clouds. Fee Fi Fo Fum. Perhaps we should not be surprised that it didn’t stand for long, for even as I first approached it I noticed worrying cracks in the side rails and in even a mild breeze it was swaying and creaking loudly. Looking to its full height, when standing below it, a peculiar feeling of ‘reverse vertigo’ could be felt as clouds skidded by. I wonder, when a Giant’s Ladder falls, and no one is there, does it make a sound? The splintered pieces seen in a nearby field suggest so. Perhaps Henry Bruce will next make a ‘Giant’s Beanstalk’? As how else will the Giant return home to his Castle in the clouds?

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