You’ll remember the sad case of the theft of the Hare wood sculpture at Arreton, well there’s good news on it. It’s been found … on Culver Down.

A couple from Tarleton, Lancashire who have been coming to the Isle of Wight for 19 years found it.

Mr and Mrs Yates went to Culver Down to admire the stunning views and to their surprise found the Hare in the car park, the one before the artillery fort.

They weren’t sure what it was, so as they were staying at Beaper Farm camp site, dropped it into the Whitefield wood yard at Beaper Shute.

Having driven past the many wood carvings in the yard, like Guido’s giant Ball and hand or Erik Phipps’ IW Festival sculpture, the Yates’ thought the yard could help.

VB chatted to Russell from Whitefield wood yard who received the lost Hare from Mr & Mrs Yates, commenting, “It restores people’s faith in human nature when people hand things in.”

When the Yates’ took it into the yard, asking if they’d had anything go missing, Russell knew straight away that it was the Hare from Arreton as Paul Sivel, the Hare’s sculptor, was his tutor at the Isle of Wight College.

We understand that Paul hasn’t heard about the return of the Hare yet but it’s anticipated that he’ll be pleased.

The comments he left on VentnorBlog at the time of the theft made it clear he wasn’t happy about the theft.

I carved the hare and I was deeply shocked when I saw it was missing when I drove by today. I have never had so much feedback from any other sculpture that I’ve done. It seemed to bring so much joy to so many people.

I have already been commissioned to provide a replacement, but the original hare was carved very quickly and spontaneously and was obviously already there in the tree stump waiting to be released! Any replacement wont be the same. So very bad Karma to whoever stole it.

The hare is still at Beaper shute and we understand it will be reunited with the magpies in Arreton soon.

Have a listen to Russell recount the incident …

Thanks to Peter Barns, MD of Whitefield Wood yard for the top photo of the hare

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