Fallen 100-year-old tree in Gazeley, between Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds, could help save ancient carvings

Villagers are hoping that a Cedar of Lebanon tree which came down earlier this month having stood for more than a century can have a new lease of life and help with fund-raising for repairs to a church roof.

The tree fell in the garden of Gazeley vicarage and Wendy Childs, whose husband Chris is the vicar, said she hoped wood from its trunk could be made into carvings which could be bought by villagers as a memento of the tree of which many of them have fond memories stretching back decades.

Money raised would be used towards the cost of repairing the chancel roof of the village’s 14th century church and so safeguarding the future of the rare medieval wooden carvings which adorn the inside.

Mrs Childs is now hoping to find wood carvers able to make use of the tree’s timber in the hope that, not only would the tree be remembered, but that it would have help save the other carvings in the church whose future is under threat.

She can be contact by email on wendyachilds@aol.com