A WOODEN sculpture of an owl created by Ollie Adams was officially unveiled by Lady Lansdowne at Westmead Open Space in Chippenham last week.

Ollie is a student at Wiltshire College and University Centre, specifically a horticulture apprentice at Lackham, and his sculpture can be seen near the car park at Westmead. The artwork, made of Western Red Cedar with a beech base, celebrates a new partnership between the college and Chippenham Borough Lands Charity. It took him a day to carve with a chainsaw, and a week to treat.

He said: “I love carving and was pleased to be able to do this for Chippenham Borough Lands Charity to celebrate the work we are doing with them.

"In this job I get to work with natural materials every day and I love that.”

Phil Tansley, CEO of Chippenham Borough Lands, said: “We had heard how good Ollie was at carving and thought it would be a lovely way to celebrate our new partnership. It is a fantastic opportunity for the students to gain work experience working with a real client. Following on from this we will be inviting local Primary schools to take part in a competition to design more sculptures to create a trail through some of our woodland.”

Ollie is one of several apprentices in the college’s garden team who will be working on the land at Westmead Open Space to enhance it for community use.

Ian Revill, assistant principal at Lackham said: “We wanted our students to be involved as the College is so close and it is a great opportunity for them to gain work experience off site.”

Lady Lansdowne said: “I’m delighted to be here, it has grown so much since I was last here two years ago to cut the car park ribbon.

"The sculpture is absolutely brilliant and I think the partnership between CBLC and the college is wonderful.”