Hi Simon. The horse thing was told to me by Donald Crossley who was a childhood friend of Hughes' and is the go to man on anything about him round here. (He appears in all the biographies) so basically it's hearsay.
Donald spent years trying to find the location of the horses, and with the help of Ted's brother had settled on our field. This obviously was after Ted's death.
The "Sacred Place" I believe was a Hughes quote. All this was told to me by Donald, I don't know if he has put it in print anywhere, but I will check next time I see him (next church Quiz night.)
Edit: found this at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/conten..._feature.shtml
It is perhaps in a letter to Donald written in 1985 that we discover the roots of Hughes' poetry. Thinking back to his childhood years in Mytholmroyd, Hughes writes: "I think a lot about those days. I can even remember odd bits of things we said and scores of little happenings." In the same letter he talks about a camping trip with his brother Gerald: "It was in Crimsworth Dean, camping on that level first. Beside what's now a council stone dump under a little cliff beside the lane going up, in around 1937 or earlier, that I had the dream that turned later into all my writing. A sacred space for me."
That's the place I was referring to, The Horses connection he mentioned to me verbaly. perhaps you could get a copy of the Elmet Trust booklet mentioned.
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