SALUTE TO HEWN FROM

AT 200 metres from hoof to muzzle, a galloping pony frozen in time is an imposing monument to the industry which drove Britain through the industrial revolution and put Wales at the centre of world shipping and trade.

Sultan the Pit Pony sits on the site of the Penallta Colliery, which is now a country park popular with dog walkers and families, a few miles north of Caerphilly.

Its magnificent mane, hooves and slender body are shaped from the tons of waste shale rock that was left on the site when the colliery closed in 1991.

From ground level, the giant pony looks like an unremarkable set of small hills that you might walk right over without knowing what is right under your feet.

However, with the recent growth in the use of drones, the true scale of the great sculpture is much easier to see, having remained difficult to view in its entirety since it was created in the 1990s.

Designed by Welsh sculptor Mike Petts, it took three years to complete the earthworks between 1996 and 1999. Sultan was designed to serve a dual purpose. As well as a path for walkers trailing along Sultan’s spine, a seating area in its giant nostril and a bench in its ear, the imposing mass of the sculpture acts as a wind break to protect the Parc Penallta events area adjacent to it.

Giant hoof prints are scattered around the field above Sultan’s head. In rainy periods, these fill with water and become pools to attract wildlife to the park.

Sultan’s body is covered in grass, but the black coal shale it is made of is exposed at points to give definition to the hooves, tail, mane and eyes.

The name Sultan comes from one of the last pit ponies in Wales. When the sculptor of the Penallta pony designed the earthwork, the nowretired Sultan was still alive, and a well-loved reminder of the lost coal industry. The sculpture was soon christened Sultan by people locally.

In total, 60,000 tons of coal shale rock were used to bring Sultan to life and be enjoyed by the descendants of the miners who hauled the coal out of the earth at Penallta to power steam engines in trains and ships.

Great earth mounds made from millions of tons of waste material dragged out of the mines by men and