WE sat on a moss covered wall on a beautiful spring day, sipping gin and tonics and admiring the view across towards Malham Moor, writes John Sheard.

In this magical garden, rare butterflies sipped nectar from wild flowers, a kestrel dropped in to bathe in the fish pond, and in the copse behind, no less than three different species of woodpecker were busy raising their young families.

Under the trees, a group of otters played, two tiny deer fawns took their rest, and a few fat sheep ...

Hold on a second. Otters, deer, sheep? All sharing the same garden? Waxing lyrical on a miraculous May day in the Dales may be one thing but surely the sun has addled the man's brain? So I shall explain.

The birds, the butterflies and indeed the bees in Judith Bluck's rambling wild garden at Hanlith are real flesh and blood. The otters, the deer and the sheep are sculptures or, to be more precise, "master moulds" of sculptures that have added immeasurably to the lives to millions of folk far less fortunate in their surroundings than the people of Malhamdale.

Judith, you see, is an artist of national repute and one of her specialities is creating so-called "architectural sculptures", designed to bring glimpse of Mother Nature's wonders to the jaded eyes of city dwellers.

Those sheep, in their final casting in bronze, grace the centre of Rochdale. The otters feign play in down-town Carlisle. Behind our wall was a life-size horse which was unveiled in the centre of Ealing by none other than The Queen (who keeps another of Judith's bronze horses in the Royal Mews).

We will not say just how old Judith is, although she spent her childhood years dodging V1 doodle-bug flying bombs falling on London, but during the past 30 years in Hanlith she has established a huge reputation amongst architects, town planners and city fathers for breathing country air into their bricks and concrete.

She lived an early, and I suspect somewhat turbulent, life in the arts, being variously an engraver, a wall-paper designer, and a skilled restorer of masterpiece paintings - "if I had stuck at that, I would be much richer today because if someone entrusts you with the care of paintings worth millions of pounds, they expect to pay well".

She exhibited at the Paris Salon, did wood carvings in Bermuda and the USA but, in all her travels, one place remained dear in the back of her mind: the Yorkshire Dales.

Her favourite uncle, you see, was the late Harry Banks, a Skipton jeweller and watch-maker. When the London Blitz became too dangerous for children, her parents sent her to stay with uncle Harry and his wife Patience.

"They became a sort of second father and mother to me," Judith recalls with a grave smile. "Wherever I went after that, and whatever I was doing for a living, I would always remember Uncle Harry, Auntie Pat - and, of course, the Dales."

One stormy night almost exactly 30 years ago, Judith jumped into her car and set off for the Dales. Coming down the road into Hanlith, she saw a pretty but ramshackle house and barn for sale. She has been here ever since.

"I suppose my life had been somewhat cosmopolitan," she recalls, stroking the head of her Sussex spaniel Brookie, named after the poet Rupert Brooke. "I had always loved nature and in particular nature here in the Dales.

"As a child, I had began to carve in wood as a hobby. Later, I experimented with glass and metal. But strangely enough, it was a Yorkshire clay that finally turned me into a sculptress.

"You see there are many types of modelling clay and they all have different sorts of properties, rather like the difference between types of pastry. The one that suits me best is Ripon clay so here, back in North Yorkshire, I found my ideal setting, my inspiration in nature, and the material I like to work with most."

Now modelling a full-scale horse in a clay must be quite a task but that is just the start. From the original clay model, a master mould is made. That, in turn, is used as the basis for other moulds which, eventually, turn out the final bronze statue.

Those bronzes cost a few bob - Judith's clients include lords and ladies, Arabian businessmen and blue-chip industrial companies as well as town planners. Just how much, she will not say - "the materials are very expensive and the time and labour involved is fantastic" - so the clients get the bronzes and Judith keeps the master moulds amongst the living creatures in her magical garden.

I was enchanted but not so my hostess. She is a lady who uses honest straight speaking like a cosh and she insists: "I am never proud of anything I have done because I always think I could have done better. But if I have made a few people happy, then I am happy with that."

There are weary workers in Rochdale, Ealing and Carlisle, amongst many other towns and cities, who should raise a glass to that.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.