Sculptor based near Bury St Edmunds tells how horses are helping to forge a more stable future for his business
Radiating awesome power with their rippling muscles sculpted in steel they will soon gaze out over scenes as far apart as the Suffolk countryside, the lobby of a boutique hotel, and the vast landscape of rural Texas.
But wherever they stand, the life-size stallions created by John Goadby cannot fail to become a landmark.
The horse sculptures emerging from John’s workshop are now attracting international attention with commissions gathering pace from a gentle trot to a gallop.
His order book is filling up rapidly as more and more customers are captivated by the beauty of the structures - most of which start life in a truly surprising form.
From nose to tail they are built from hundreds of recycled wheel rims. The thin strips of curved steel, cut and placed with painstaking care, are perfect to mimic the fluidity of movement he aims to create.
His regular repertoire of sculptures also includes giant pine cones and dandelions, and spheres of all sizes made up of horseshoes or oak leaf shapes, using new materials as well as reclaimed ones.
But many are one-offs for individual customers. “The business has grown organically in that people say ‘can you do that’, and I say I’ll have a go,” he says.
John, who lives in Ingham, is currently completing a rearing stallion which will provide a stunning centrepiece for inside an upmarket hotel due to open soon in Cambridge.
The sculpture reaches almost floor to ceiling in his workshop at the back of an industrial estate in Fornham All Saints near Bury St Edmunds.
It is destined for The Hobson - a conversion of a listed Victorian building that used to be the city’s police station. The site was once the yard of Elizabethan carrier, stable keeper and philanthropist Thomas Hobson from whom the phrase Hobson’s choice originated.
Legend has it that in order to make sure customers took the most rested mount in the stables they would be told they could have any horse … “as long as it’s that one”.
“Using wheel rims to make the sculpture links in with Thomas Hobson and his livery stables because of the transport association,” John explains.
But he had only just set up his business, JG Sculpture, and had never produced a horse before when he got the first stallion commission.
The owners of Park Farm Business Centre at Fornham St Genevieve saw some of his work online and pitched the idea to him. The three metre-tall sculpture was so big he had to move from his original workshop.
“My first workshop, in Chedburgh, was tiny,” he says. “Then I was lucky enough to get the commission for the Park Farm stallion.” Fortunately Charlie Stennett, a member of the family which owns the business centre, was able to give me space in one of his barns.
“They specified they wanted it based on a Friesian horse which are massive powerful animals. The pose of that horse is very different from the Cambridge one.
The stallion’s eventual home will be as the focal point in a field outside the business centre. But it has already been on display in two iconic horse racing locations.
Last year it was at the Grand National after the Jockey Club arranged for it to be transported to Aintree. It has also been on show at Newmarket racecourse.
“I’m getting a reputation for horses, which is lovely because they are such a lovely thing. They can have both power and a gentle nature.
“Recently I got a phone call from Texas … a little Suffolk company working out of a couple of sheds getting recognition from halfway around the world.
“They had found my website and saw some photos of the stallion that’s in the workshop being built and his words were ‘I have got to have one’. To send the stallion to Texas it will probably take a week to box up to stop it being damaged.
“I’m going to have to do another one for someone in London, hand-forged from new steel, which has to look as if it’s in mid-gallop, and also have another big job for multiple horses lined up in Suffolk.”
Since then he has received two big new UK public commissions for property developers the Berkeley Group.
One which will be sited in Reading is so large at six metres high it will have to be constructed off site in a barn. Made from 25mm plate Corten steel, the Wayfinder will be a curved structure acting as a marker to the entrance of a new development.
John grew up in Warwickshire and studied art at Birmingham. He worked for a sculpture company in the Lake District, before moving to Suffolk to work for fantasy figure makers Clarecraft in Woolpit.
“Then I went into teaching, and taught graphics and fine art at West Suffolk College, before going to work for a communications company which was a complete change.
“In around 2018 I decided to set up this little business producing sculpture and it has grown organically without any real effort.
“I’d decided I had done my bit with teaching. Sometimes you just have to do things or you end up kicking yourself, wishing you had done that.
“It was a bit of an experiment. I tripped up with all the usual pitfalls of running a business. But it’s slowly starting to find its feet and we are getting bigger and better commissions.
“And the intention is to eventually move somewhere I can turn it into almost like a destination, so people can come along and see how it’s done, and have a go, maybe have a sculpture trail. I also want to bring the education back into the business as well.
“It’s a bit of a gamble but I feel that if we have a more salubrious premises reflecting the standard of work that’s created that will add to the business as well.
“Only two weeks ago some people phoned and said do you mind if we come and look at your workshop. They have now placed an order.
“Now the order book is looking up and I have to look almost 12 months ahead. I’m moving more into corporate commissions.”
His work is already installed all over the British Isles from Guernsey in the south, up to the Isle of Skye.
“Doing something for myself is lovely apart from the sleepless nights, and I’ve had a few of those … waking up at 2am thinking how am I going to pay for that, or how am I going to get this dandelion to Guernsey.
“If you’re not careful you end up with too much work. You want to please people. Now I’m not worried about saying to people yes, I can do it, but I can’t do it until next year.
“But you have to be quite tough to carry it through. If making a living by creating artworks and selling them was easy there would be hundreds or thousands of people doing it.
“It helps if you have really good friends and a really good network around you. My daughter Libby is a great source of inspiration.”
Libby (22) sometimes helps her dad in the workshop and has developed her own range of forged metal jewellery. “She’ll be helping me with the London horse,” he says.
The tools of his craft include a gas forge. “If you heat steel until it’s cherry red it’s like Plasticine and easy to bend. I also use a plasma cutter and I’ve just bought some new kit that will enable me to work in stainless steel.”
Outside his workshop stand two of his horseshoe spheres, made from racehorse shoes which are lighter and more delicate than you might expect. He makes no effort to clean them up - traces of mud and grass are part of the charm.
“They really came about by accident. I made a couple of small ones, put them on Etsy and they started to sell. I have a good relationship with a couple of yards in Newmarket where we get the shoes” said John.
He enjoys using different materials for his sculptures, which also include abstract pieces. “I like to mix things up.
“What I’m doing now and which is working well is my own lines like the Mighty Oak and other designs based on leaves. One of my oak leaf spheres has gold leaf inside.
“There are lots of companies out there doing things that just go rusty, but very few doing things that are more durable, for instance aged bronze or copper.”
But if a rusty finish is required it can be helped along by using “pickle” made from vinegar and salt.
The horses involve months of work. “You always start with the head. You can’t work on it full time, but it’s probably three or four months of work spread over a longer period.”
The Hobson stallion in his workshop is attached to the ceiling by a hook but if it was detached it would stand up on its own.
“If you want something to look balanced you have to start off in the right way. At first I rammed a piece of steel all the way through it to make sure it wasn’t going to topple. You need to get the centre of gravity right. It has to look like it’s very comfortable.”
Knowing when something isn’t quite right is vital, too. “Placing the pieces of metal it has to work from all directions. It has to convey the rhythm and power of the animal.
“You have to be prepared to walk away from it, then go back in and in that split second you have to be brave enough to say that’s wrong, and redo it.”
If ever the going gets tough the feelings of uncertainty don’t last long. “In my work there are points when you think surely it would be better to just go and get a job. Then you go down to the workshop and see something like the stallion and think yes, this is what I’m doing,” he says.
For more information go to jg-sculpture.co.uk
