Newbury's newest landmark 'lights' up Andover Road

Wooden lighthouse carved by local artist

Newbury’s first lighthouse was unveiled this week... but all is not what it seems.

The fantastic wooden sculpture has been carved from a stump of a huge cedar tree outside Kevin Crocker’s house in Andover Road.

Mr Crocker said the tree, which was dying, had been felled due to concerns that it posed a danger of heavy branches – or the tree itself – falling on to the house, passing cars or pedestrians.

He said: “If branches, or the tree, had fallen on to someone’s car, or in the road, it could have been horrific.

“Bits were falling off, it was rotten and decaying, so we had it felled at the beginning of the year.”

The lighthouse sculpture was created from the remaining 10-foot tree stump by Shaw-based wood carver, Nick Speakman, after other local sculptures by Mr Speakman, including owls, and foxes, had been spotted by an impressed Mr Crocker.

The resulting lighthouse sculpture is a purely ornamental, solid structure he said and would not be painted.

Mr Crocker said: “It’s been treated to stop it going rotten. The roots are still in the ground, but the tree is dead. We were joking about putting a number on it.”

No negative comments have been received about the sculpture, but Mr Crocker said it had aroused a great deal of curiosity, while his two children had proclaimed it “fantastic”.

He said that two years ago, a large branch had fallen off the old cedar tree, triggering alarm bells about the dangers it posed.

A Tree Protection Order on the cedar tree had been lifted by West Berkshire Council on condition that a new tree was planted – and also another local landmark established in its place.

Mr Crocker said: “We have to plant another tree – it doesn’t have to be the same sort.

“Andover Road is a tree-lined road, so the council is trying to ensure that when trees come down they are re-planted.”