St Luke’s Church Great Crosby
Grounds Project

“to create a place of beauty and a haven for people and wildlife”

4 Community garden – complete with eagle!

The community garden is the main part of our Lottery funded bid. A little used part of our grounds seemed the ideal spot to transform into a community garden.

The community garden before work began

We engaged a landscape architect from a local garden centre to draw up plans for the garden. We decided to use reclaimed materials where possible. The garden features re-used paving flags and granite setts. A planter was constructed from reclaimed York stone and an adjacent bank was edged in York stone kerbs.

The community garden during construction

Envirolink provided 15 tonnes of compost (through Hightown Composting), made from green waste generated in the local area. We began to plant up the garden in May at one of our monthly, Saturday morning, work parties.

Planting up the community garden

The community garden following planting in May 2008

The garden matures (mid-August)

What sets the St Luke’s garden apart, however, is the eagle carved from a sycamore tree! The tree had suffered fire damage and we were about to reduce it to a stump when we heard about Simon O’Rourke, a very successful chain-saw wood carver. Simon grew up in the local area, but now lives in Wrexham. He has taken part in international chain-saw carving competitions as far afield as the USA, Germany and Japan.

How to carve an eagle from the stump of a tree in ten easy steps.
Take a tree stump and a chain saw…

The finished carving

Inspiration for the eagle was drawn from the words of Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

From the same tree Simon also carved a lion and three linked benches carved with the words of Matthew chapter 11, verse 28: ‘Jesus said: Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest’. We hope that people will find rest both physically and spiritually as they relax and contemplate in these beautiful surroundings.

A lion carved from the next part of the tree stump.

Simon takes a well earned rest on the benches he has just carved.

A close-up of the script – an appropriate verse

We have placed the benches near the rose and butterfly gardens at The Northern Road end of the grounds where they will provide an opportunity for visitors to sit and contemplate.

Benches overlooking rose garden and butterfly garden

Simon returned later in the summer to carve bench seats for the community garden. People have sponsored these in memory of family or friends - see below.

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This page was last modified on 18 August 2009.