A team of volunteers have lovingly restored a sculpture of a horse who lay long-forgotten after being damaged by vandals and hidden in vegetation. ‘Rosie’, as it has since been called, is now back to its former glory and ready to be reinstalled for the public to enjoy.
Rosie was one of 12 iron horses installed along the Wolverhampton to Birmingham railway line in 1987, but had become hidden from the public eye when vandals tried to remove its legs and left it lying in overgrown bushes. A group of friends from nearby Bayer Street Allotments discovered the iron horse in a sorry state and decided they would give it a transformation.
After a three-year restoration project, involving removal, metal repair work, sanding, priming and repainting, Rosie is now ready to find a new home. The team of animal lovers, comprised of Nat Partridge, Ron and Maria Wedgbury and Dave Williams, hope it can be sited at Coseley Station.
The group voluntarily maintain the gardens at the station and think it would be the perfect “forever home” for the sculpture, who was named after Roseville village, where they are based.
“She’s beautiful now, I can’t wait to see her back installed,” Nat told Your Horse. “I don’t think she has been seen in over 20 years, she was probably in the worst condition of all the 12 horses.
“I would really love to see another group like us to restore one of the other horses in their area, even if it was just to repaint them to cover the graffiti.”
