TALES have long been told about the Black Dog of Hergest, some people have even laid claim to glimpses of its ghostly form around Kington.

Now for the first time in a thousand years, the dreaded hound has taken up residence, smack in the middle of town.

Sniffing the air from his rocky plinth in Mill Street, he has been warmly welcomed by shoppers, visitors and schoolchildren alike. Could this be the terrifying spectre of legend, and key inspiration for Conan Doyle’s fearsome Hound of the Baskervilles?

The arresting sight is in fact Fly, The Walking Dog of Kington, and his arrival in the town of walks is the result of an enthusiastic team effort by those keen to produce a representation based on the spectral dog which has been interwoven into local folk history for centuries.

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Crafted with affection by award-winning local sculptor Rachel Ricketts, he is a manifestation of ancient legends such as the fearsome Black Dog of Hergest and Black Vaughan, whose ghostly appearances with his hound were said to have tormented this border country.

A local businessman suggested the idea, and Annie Gamble and the Marches Makers Committee took it up with the sculptor. Rachel praises Dave Ray for his expertise with the installation, Dean Benbow for sorting out planning permission and the Gore Quarry for donating the three-ton lump of gritstone. Kington Chamber of Trade and Kington Town Council gave their support and funding came from the Lottery Community Fund and the Elmley Foundation.

Rachel says she has been “making dog sculptures for ever” and undertook the project with gusto. “I was longing to do something for the town, and we have achieved this together.”

Rachel hopes that he will become a well-known point on the map for the town. “Kington is famous for walkers and I hope they’ll be saying, Meet at the Dog!”