'Massive' stag sculpture stolen from Walton

An artist who spent 150 hours creating a life-size ornamental stag which has been stolen from a roundabout has said it going missing has left him "gutted".

The 7ft (2.1m) high sculpture was installed at the junction of Carrwood Road and Valley View in Walton-le-Dale, near Preston, in August 2022.

Danny Lyons, who created the work, said it was taken overnight on Sunday.

He said he could not understand the theft as he was not sure there was "much of a market for massive deer".

Mr Lyons told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the theft had been reported to Lancashire Police and his friends in the scrap metal industry were keeping an eye out for the sculpture, which is known locally as Walt.

He said it was taken at some point between Sunday evening and Monday morning.

"It looks like whoever has taken it has gone through the bottom of the legs with an angle grinder," he said.

"Whenever they did it, they must have been making a lot of noise, because angle grinders aren't exactly quiet.

"Hopefully someone heard or saw something, because it is a busy road."

He said that whoever was responsible was unlikely to get whatever they were hoping.

"If it's been taken for scrap, then the value will be next to nowt," he said.

"[For] the amount of effort it will have taken, it's completely pointless.

"And I'm not sure there is much of a market for massive deer."

He said even if it had been "stolen to order", the eventual recipient would "need to have a big garden and be able to put it somewhere far enough away from the road and your neighbours, so that nobody sees it".

He said it would also be pretty useless as a sculpture "because they cut it off at the legs [so] it's not even going to stand up properly".

He added that even if Walt was returned, the damage meant it would be "a bit of a job" to restore the piece, which was originally funded by South Ribble Borough Council.

Walton-le-Dale West councillor Matt Campbell said he thought he had "misheard" when he got a call about the stag's disappearance.

"Whoever did this must have been quite brazen," he said.

"I'd appeal to anyone who saw anything or knows anything to get in touch with the police."

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South Ribble Borough Council