Iron Ridge Sculpture Park
Created | Updated Apr 24, 2011
Seven or eight cars carrying about twenty of us took a day out to visit the Sculpture Park. It isn't a difficult drive, just a bit bumpy over the last, dirt track, part and has some some stunning views.
Yes, Iron Ridge, not Ironbridge. It used to be the Amberley (South Island, New Zealand) Limeworks Quarry, which was worked from 1938 until the early 90s. Amberley is some tens of km north of Christchurch and you then turn off, north-westish and soon find yourself on a dirt track. Use your map to find Ram Paddock Road and follow that until you pass the small sign saying 'Iron Ridge Quarry'. That was an omen so turn around – carefully - and take that track.
The quarry is not exhausted but presumably became uneconomic. It covers some 13 acres, less than a quarter of which could be described as flat -ish. The rest is quarry~ and cliff~ face.
The present owner (initials RH), an artist, fell in love with the location, bought the quarry from the bank in the late 90s and set about making use of the buildings and machinery for his work. His preferred medium is steel so he kept the workshop and equipment that was there, acquired more, suitable old equipment, built himself a forge and set to work. Hence the new name, one assumes.
Nearby, a vineyard excavated a dam and RH bartered ownership of the small mountain of soil by making entrance gates for them. To cut a long, budget-less story short, 350 truckloads of soil later he landscaped, planted and worked the reasonably accessible parts into what it is now a very pleasant place to live – and to visit.
He plans to build a new house on a part of the unused, actually flat (well, nearly) part in a corner between quarry face and near vertical cliff overlooking the valley. From that vantage point, several of us commented on the effect of perspective on our vision – is that a clump of trees or just shrubbery? Sheep or limestone boulders? It takes a minute or so to sort itself out.
We drove up the lower valley on the way there and have determined to go again, bypassing the quarry and continuing through and over the pass. We will then turn around, pause at or over the top of the pass then continue down, pausing here & there – simply for the view.
His work is, as mentioned, in steel. Fairly large-scale wind-mobiles, quirky, humorous contraptions and some lovely natural studies. He made a fire-poker for us with forge, hammer and anvil, saying that since the advent of heat pumps the bottom had fallen out of that market and people wouldn't buy them just for pushing the buttons.
All said and done? No, not yet – I just have to tell you about the horse.
It was intended for a showpiece at the Ellersley Flower Show (the big Christchurch show in Hagley Park). He was in process of delivering, with that steel wind-blown tree in the pickup and horse in the trailer, over maybe 20km of dirt track before hitting paved roads, when the flower show was cancelled (due to the second earthquake – the, luckily partly prepared, site was used as sanctuary).
It's a life-size Shire Horse in mild-steel plate with a silvery protective finish that is intended to last for a few weeks, perhaps months. After that, it was to be stripped, allowed to rust naturally, then have a clear, no-maintenance finish applied.
The attached picture does not do him justice – he is, In my opinion (and others'), quite special and in the right setting he could be magnificent. As it is, he's standing there in the shed alone, alone, all all alone, waiting for someone to love him.
