Joseph Prater is the artist to whom the National Trust attributes the female figure carved at Piper’s Hole on Crantock Beach. A more detailed local account describes a London artist visiting relatives in Crantock and places the work probably in the early twentieth century.
The carving later acquired a romantic drowning story, but that story does not securely identify the woman. Naming Prater gives the feature a documented artistic attribution without turning every later legend into biography. The horse carving is attributed separately to James Dyer, showing that the cave’s familiar composition developed in stages.
Sources
Source 1: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cornwall/crantock-beach/things-to-see-and-do-at-crantock-beach Source 2: https://www.iwalkcornwall.co.uk/pi/pipers_hole_crantock
Connected subjects
Read on
- The Woman in Piper’s Hole: The Crantock Carving and the Story That Grew Around It
The woman, the horse and the verse at Piper’s Hole look like one tragic story. Their chronology tells a more complicated—and rather revealing—one.