Final pieces put to lime sculpture

This March at Westonbirt Arboretum, renowned artist and sculptor Richard Harris has been creating a sculpture to celebrate one of Britain’s oldest trees – the arboretum’s 2000 Year Old Lime located here in Silk Wood.

After over two weeks of work, the final lime stems are now being positioned into place. The tallest stands at over 10 metres high, with around two hundred stems used to create the final piece.

The last few days have seen artist Richard Harris and his small team of volunteers checking the wire fixings and adding depth to the walls of the sculpture with smaller stems of around five metres upwards in height.

These extra stems have been carefully placed to add to the thickness of the sides of the sculpture, but with gaps left to let light through.

Once the sculpture is complete, the scaffolding will be removed, leaving the metal frame to support the mass of wood.

Once cut into smaller pieces, many of the remaining lime stems will be available to purchase through our monthly volunteer-led wood sale or at Treefest in August. The finer branches will be put through a mobile wood-chipper by the Westonbirt tree team and laid at the sculpture to add a final touch and alleviate compaction.

A new interpretation panel will also soon arrive at the site – help to further tell the story of this historic tree and how coppicing plays such a big role in its longevity.