"The Stamford Bull Run"
The Stamford Bull Run is a local project I have undertaken. The Bull Run was the last ever in the UK and Stamford celebrates it as part of the Georgian festival biannually.
On one side the grusome story is read through when the booklet is folded, on the reverse a poster depicts the way in which the town celebrate today. The artwork was created using drawing with pen and ink, combined with printmaking, photography and digital collage.
The Tradition of the Bull Run in Stamford began in the 12th Century. Every year on November 13th, at the sound of St Mary’s bell a bull was taken from its field and chased through the streets by men, dogs and horses, baited and taunted by the cheering crowd towards the River Welland and meadows where it was often bludgeoned to death and butchered.
The bloody and disorderly event was finally
stopped in 1839 due in part to the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals whose continued petitioning of Parliament was an eventual success. It was the last known Bull Run in the United Kingdom.
The town gather in the streets and follow the bull sculpture with lanterns and figures as it is paraded to its destination led by the soldiers and accompanied by the sounds of the drummers.
As the crowds gather in Red Lion Square, the story of the Bull Run is retold through a theatrical spectacle projected onto All Saints church, illustrated by actors and dancers.
The finale arrives with an explosion of fireworks across the sky. Red confetti rains down into the cheering crowd. The biannual celebration remembers the tradition that once was and the terrible fate that awaited the bull.
