Welcome back to our woodland sculpture trail series!
If you read our blogs about the Pages Wood commission, and the Meadow Park woodland sculpture trail, you will know that sculpture trails are a great way to encourage people to get outside. They also encourage engagement with the environment and its care – something Simon and Liz are both passionate about. At the moment, we obviously can’t get out to enjoy our beautiful woodlands and parks, so we thought we would bring them to you!
Last time we visited the Wirral and Meadow Park. This week we take you to revisit the Pages Wood sculpture trail….
About Pages Wood
Pages Wood is the Forestry Commission’s largest site in Thames Chase and home to 100,000 trees. The wood offers 6.5km of walking and cycling paths and 2.2km of bridlepaths. This valley of green space offers excellent views as well as a rich mosaic of habitats for wildlife – all reflected in Simon’s sculptures.
Extensive views, an excellent path network, developing woodlands, and (of course) Simon’s woodland sculpture trail all make Pages Wood a “must-visit” site – either for some brisk exercise or just simple relaxation.
As with Meadow Park, Simon and Liz wrote a story to engage the viewer. The trail follows the adventures of Horatio Hedgehog and Verity Vole as they meet other animals in the forest.
Verity Vole Woodland Sculpture Trail
This is Verity! She wanders through Pages Wood, and teaches about the friends she meets through verse, and the visual of the sculpture. See how many of the animals you recognise and knew inhabited the south east of England.
What do you think? Did Verity teach you anything new? And which was your favourite sculpture from her story?
Horatio Hedgehog Woodland Sculpture Trail
Next we have Horatio! You can scroll through and follow him on his adventure, not only as he meets his woodland friends, but also from his concept sketch to fully installed sculpture!
We love that each trail ends with a bench so people can sit and relax and enjoy being in our great British outdoors. It also gives time to ponder on anything they learned it the trail. Our hope is that when Simon makes a woodland sculpture trail, it isn’t just fun to look at, but actually inspires people to action too.
If you are involved in running a local conservation area, and would like to consider adding an educational sculpture trail, why not check out the Meadow Park Case Study on on website for ideas and information?
To talk more about specifics, email Simon on simon@treecarving.co.uk Can’t wait to hear from you!