West Hunsbury Parks have SIX new benches !

From a couple of grand old oak trees that were cut down in Green Lane over 2½ years ago, the Friends of West Hunsbury Parks have managed to get 6 new benches for the parks, plus a sculpture.

We are most grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund, which gave us a grant to enable the log cutting & moving, and the sculpting of the benches, to happen.

Dan Brown, with his son, Toby, and a pair of beautiful Comtois horses, Anna and Tookie, cut the felled trees into moveable logs and hauled them to the locations chosen by the Friends ~ a couple in Wootton Brook Park and a couple in the Country Park.

Two of these logs were taken to the Drovers Return, to complement the outdoor seating in the car park there, and Toby shaved the bark from the tops and ends to turn them into basic benches.

Peter Leadbeater, with his friend, Alex, then carved four of the logs into sculpted benches. The two smallest logs were stripped of bark and routed with flower designs which were then painted. One of these simple benches is at the picnic area in Wootton Brook Park whilst the other is near the play area in the Country Park.

The largest log, located at the entrance to the Country Park, looking West towards Pineham Village, was sculpted by Peter into “a pair of hands” bench, whilst the remaining log, located next to Ladybridge Drive near Teal Close and overlooking Shelfleys Lake, he sculpted into “an acorn with oak leaves” bench.

All of these sculpted benches have been securely fixed in place, to make sure they can’t roll away. They all have a small plaque acknowledging the funding from National Lottery Community Fund, and also the Friends of West Hunsbury Parks acorn logo.

Peter Leadbeater will be returning in September to carve the single remaining log adjacent to the Country Park play area into a dinosaur sculpture. This has been funded by West Hunsbury Parish Council.

We hope you will enjoy these benches and the dinosaur sculpture for many years to come.