'Shock' as new ornamental bench vandalised

Community members have expressed "shock" and "disappointment" following the vandalism of an ornamental bench, which was only installed five months ago.

Two large metal horns have been ripped off the bench in Amesbury which is in the shape of an auroch, a large extinct bovine that used to roam south Wiltshire thousands of years ago.

Police are investigating the incident, which caused an estimated £1,000 of damage and took place on Thursday morning outside the local history centre.

Centre co-chair Andy Doig said that the "horns make the bench what it is" and that he was "really shocked" that anyone would choose to vandalise it.

"Every day I walk past and I see people sitting on it, ranging from the elderly to young school children and people use it far more than the old bench that we had there," he added.

"I was walking past and just happened to notice that it looked different."

He added that crowd funding was a potential option if the horns needed to be remade as "the history centre really doesn't have to spend on something like this".

The bench was only installed outside the centre in May.

Bench creator and metal artist Dan North said the vandalism was "very disappointing."

"There's lots of visitors coming through [Amesbury] who could've seen seen the completed bench. Missing the horn, it's not so great for them.

"I've had so many nice comments about the bench from all the local people since it was installed.

"It's just such a shame."

He added that he hoped the horns would be recovered as repairing the bench would be time consuming, expensive and likely require temporarily removing it from its current position.

Wiltshire Police is investigating.

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