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If you go down to the woods...

Nick Towle
1/11/2007

TREE sculptors turned an old paupers’ burial site into a winter wonderland for children.

The amazing animal sculptures were crafted by Simon O’Rourke and Tim Burgess at Paupers Wood in West Didsbury.

The small patch of woodland was bought two years ago by mother-of-two Mary Maclachlan, who feared housing developers would build flats on it.

On Saturday Mary was one of dozens of people who turned up to watch the wood sculptors carve their intricate designs.

She said: "The sculptures are just amazing and the kids were enthralled by them."

Mary invited Simon and Tim, both professional wood sculptors, to Paupers Wood after seeing them take part in the English Open Championships Carving Competition at Tatton Park.

There were five sickly trees that needed felling on the Nell Lane site and Mary came up with the idea of turning them into something creative.

A tree surgeon felled most of the trees and on Saturday the sculptors carved the tree stumps with their saws, fashioning them into stunning animals shapes. The finished works included an owl, a rabbit and a fox.

Mary runs the Paupers Wood Project, a conservation scheme for local people and their children.

Paupers Wood is protected by a six-foot fence all around and is not open to the general public. The Nell Lane site is thought to be the final resting place of Victorian paupers from the old Withington Workhouse.

The woodland is sandwiched between the Didsbury Point housing development and the old Withington Hospital on Nell Lane, where work on a new housing complex has just begun.

In 2005 Mary bought the plot of land for over £10,000 from Countryside Properties to preserve the woodland for future generations.

Since then she has hosted a number of conservation days and events for children, including an Easter-egg hunt in April.

Mary, who has two daughters Rosie, four, and two-year-old Charlotte, has recruited 150 volunteers onto the Paupers Wood database.

She’s now planning to set up a Forest School based on a Scandinavian model whereby children are given the chance to learn about nature under their own steam. Mary, of Central Road, West Didsbury, said: "It’s about giving them freedom in an outdoor environment."

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