The Bachelors of Avebury by Sean Crampton, Bronze, From edition of 6, 62cm high by 99cm wide by 27cm deep, Body, Figurative, Men sculpture

Throughout the war, Sean Crampton the soldier carried a small anthology of verse. One poem that he learned to love was The Song of the Ungirt Runners by Charles Hamilton-Sorely, who was killed in the First World War:

We swing ungirded hips,

And lightened are our eyes

The rain is on our lips,

We do not run for prize

….But we run because  we must

Through the great wide air

….And we run because we like it

Through the broad bright land.

With its freedom from restriction and inhibition, this poem ‘just hit the button’. So it was that many years later, walking among the stones of the ancient Avebury circle Crampton ‘suddenly had a visualisation of the young men tearing past me along the stone avenue – and because I’m a sculptor they formed a picture in my mind which was familiar – of course: the ungirt runners of the poem.

Sculpture of three male bronze figures running happily with interlinked limbs