'Tree Sculpture' was built in the spot where we now find the playground, just by the visitor centre, an area which used to be the nursery. A chunky sculpture which was apparently made up of one hundred and thirty-two pieces, it stood proudly in the middle of the lawn, and was there four years before Andy Frost's play area arrived. It was removed in the early nineties, possibly because children understandably thought it to be part of the playground and started clambering up it. After all, like all the best trees, it did look enticingly climb-able.

​

Helena Stylianides spoke about 'Tree Sculpture' in 'A Sense Of Place':

​

"The sculpture was not primarily conceived of as a tree, but as the form that embodied ideas of the fundamental concepts of polarities, infinity, growth - life itself on a basic level.

Personally it is a symbol of growth, it is a 'human' tree (I was not out to compete with nature - rather to reflect my situation in it).

I sited the sculpture in the nursery, where it was also made; I liked the paradox between the growing plantation of trees having just started life and the constructed tree which was recycled - a reincarnation from a single old oak tree that had been felled. This expresses the cyclic nature of life (and death) inherent in everything around us; and the presence of man is felt through his creativity - planted and constructed."

​

Also by this artist:

Grizedale Boar 1984