Picture Post: Gunpowder, treason and plot marked in art

While it’s York-born Guy Fawkes whose name is most associated with the attempt to blow up Parliament, two of the plotters John and Christopher Wright, lived at Plowlands Farm in Welwick.

The 8ft steel sculpture, which features Fawkes, the Wright brothers and Robert Catesby, who led the plot, was designed and created by members of Welwick and Weeton Art Group.

“The plot was designed to blow up the House of Lords and kill King James I to enable a Roman Catholic monarch to take the throne,” says artist Larry Malkin, who was responsible for the drawings from which the sculpture was made. “The Wright brothers not only travelled to Holland to recruit Guy Fawkes where he had been fighting in the Eighty Years War, but they also visited the King of Spain to ask for his support following the killing of James.”

The plan was undone when an anonymous letter was sent to the Baron of Monteagle, warning him not to go to the House of Lords. A search of Westminster Palace was ordered and in the early hours of November 5, Fawkes was discovered guarding the explosives.

Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured and eventually confessed. Immediately before his execution on January 31, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the mutilation that followed.

On hearing the plot had been uncovered, Catesby and the Wright brothers fled to Staffordshire, seeking refuge at Holbeche House. However, they all knew it was only a matter of time before they were found and on November 8, all three were sot dead by a company of men led by the Sheriff of Worcester. Historians believe they would have survived with medical treatment, but the trio were simply left to die.

The sculpture at Plowlands Farm has been funded by the Arts Council and was and manufactured by TJC Engineering Services.

Technical details: Nikon D3s, Nikon 70-200mm lens, 1/500th sec, @ f11, ISO 200.

Picture: James Hardisty

Words: Sarah Freeman