The Rocking Horse Shop

In November 2024, owners of The Rocking Horse Shop, James and Becca had the absolute privilege of joining world renowned actress, Susan George and friends at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London for an evening of entertainment and auction to raise money for her fabulous charity ‘Lasting Life’. As part of the event Love Letters, the Rocking Horse Shop were honoured to be able to donate a specially created horse now known as “Spirit of Lasting Life” to be auctioned in aid of funds. The evening was certainly one to remember and the horse raised over £10,000 to support this amazing charity. 

We hope that “Spirit of Lasting Life” continues to be a popular design. We are thrilled to announce our pledge, that being that, for every horse we sell 10% of the funds goes to Lasting Life charity in memory of Simon MacCorkindale.

We hope that you will be able to donate if you can and please do check out their website for ways in which you can support their work.

This sounds like we have done it???? Who did it??

One of the main reasons I bought it is that I’m a former seafarer who worked for Union-Castle Line which operated passenger liners between Southampton and South Africa. The horse came from the first class playroom of their passenger ship “Capetown Castle”. When launched in 1937, “Capetown Castle” was the largest motor ship in the world as most vessels were steam-powered at that time. The ship was built at Harland & Wolff’s yard in Belfast and the horse was made by craftsmen in the shipyard’s joinery shop.

When the ship was scrapped in 1967, the horse was bought by Union-Castle Line’s technical manager David Aris (who is now 95) for his young daughter. It remained with the family until 2017 when David gave the horse to a local hospice who placed it in the front window of their charity shop in Garstang. It was purchased by a farmer from Stockport who stored it in one of his outbuildings until I bought it from him in March this year. I have since been in touch with David who is delighted that the horse is back with someone who sailed with Union-Castle Line.

The horse has now been fully stripped, repaired and is ready for many new riders!

The Beginning

In early July 2019 we were contacted by Mary Chatburn on behalf of The Vyne, a National Trust site in Hampshire, who had a very interesting proposition for us. The Stone Gallery was to be restored to its 19th Century interior, depicted from a family painting completed in 1877 (as shown on the right), and they needed the central focus, an extra-large Rocking Horse on Bows, and who else better to talk to than us!

With only a short time period until the opening of the exhibition, we got straight to it. It was clear the painter has used some creative license but we were excited by the opportunity.

Construction

As all of you know , everyone at The Rocking Horse Shop are always eager for a fresh challenge, so he set straight to work, developing new plans, constructing and carving this unusual horse design. It isn't often we get to carve such a large horse on bows... especially for such a unique home and client, therefore as you can imagine it was a job we were only too happy to undertake.

The finished Horse

The horse was transported south in late July for its final painting by the experts at the National Trust. Whilst this is not the biggest horse we have ever done, it only JUST fitted inside our van!

The finished horse now rightfully sits in its new home in Hampshire, reports suggest it has become a photo favourite especially with children! If you are ever in the area, make sure you pop into The Vyne and see our work. It was certainly a very rewarding project to be part of. Make sure you send us your photos, we’d love to see our Guild Members with this project!