YOUNGSTERS at a Worcestershire school witnessed the final touches being put to a giant bronze tree sculpture in the county.

As part of Suckley Primary School's art week, six pupils visited the Fold at Bransford, near Worcester, to see the three-metre-high piece of art being put up.

Called Woodland Spirit by its creator Sarah Cotterill, the bronze tree with a human figure forming the trunk proved to be of particular interest to the pupils who have been focusing on art and the environment.

Ms Cotterill said: "It's really about green issues, reminding us that we are all part of nature. We need to work with nature, not against it."

The structure has a wing - or branch - span of 3.5 metres (11ft). It has found its perfect first home at the entrance to the Fold, Bransford's haven for creativity and healing which has opened a new eco-cafe to the public.

Ms Cotterill, who is a partly self-taught sculptor, hoped her sculpture would evoke empathy with all things green.

She said: "It's difficult to put it in words so that's why I sculpt. It's about the union of man and nature, redressing some kind of balance in my mind. We fight nature too much. Let's make up and work with nature. We're all part of it."

Ms Cotterill developed the cold-cast bronze work in her Bransford studio around a central steel structure. Taking the average height of the adult male and female it is one-and-a-half-times life-size. She said the artwork featured an acorn at its base, representing continuation, fertility and potential. There was also an oak leaf and a feather joined together to form a sprig, representing aspirations, "the tree thenturning into an angel, or something else".