Have you ever wondered about this strange looking sculpture on the Parkland Walk?
walkaroundlondon
I have, but have never taken the time to research it – until now. Firstly, for people who aren’t familiar with the beast, he’s a Spriggan and he appears to be emerging from one of the brick alcoves of the supporting arches of the footbridge just before the former Crouch End Station.
What is a Spriggan?
www.darkcreations.org/forums/topic/8935-spriggans-of-yneslea/
Wikipedia came to my aide: ‘A spriggan, a singular borrowed from the Cornish plural spyryjyon ‘spirits’) is a legendary creature known from Cornish faery lore. Spriggans are particular to Cornwall.’
wendyjargonncom.blogspot.co.uk
It seems the main distinguishing feature of this mythic creature is its ability to expand from its normal goblin-like proportions of around 3 feet tall to an 8 foot giant. They don’t seem particularly attractive to me being described as relatively moody and neither deep thinkers, nor particularly social. Plus they tend to steal a lot, just because they feel entitled to stuff but they are rarely cruel for the sake of it and, in fact, are often seen protecting gentler fairies against vicious ones – or so I am told.
http://highburywildlifegarden.org.uk/parkland-walk/
Meanwhile, back in this world, I discovered that the inception of the sculpture goes back over twenty years when an Arts Officer working in Crouch End called Rob Grundsell had a dream to create a sculpture walk for Parkland Walk. It never happened but one piece was commissioned – The Spriggan by local artist Marilyn Collins. She was inspired by a local story that a ghostly ‘goat-man’ haunted the walk in the 1970s and 1980s. Local children playing out in the evenings would ‘dare’ each other to walk the Parkland Walk from the Crouch End Hill bridge to the Crouch Hill bridge in the darkness. Perfect fodder for the imagination of Stephen King who was inspired by all these elemnts to write his spooky short story ‘Crouch End’. So now you know – or do you?
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