A talented chainsaw sculptor has carved a nine-foot-tall grizzly bear to reside in the grounds of a Wrexham care home.

Paul Morris, 59, is a long-standing member of the gardening and maintenance team at the Pendine Park care organisation in Wrexham and has created the creature which weighs three-quarters of a ton.

Over the years, Paul has carved nearly 150 sculptures – mainly of animals, birds and insects - out of naturally fallen timber.

It’s helped him create a charming menagerie, including an owl, a squirrel and a gorilla in Pendine’s 11-acre grounds on Summerhill Road.

But the gigantic grizzly standing upright on its hind legs is by far his biggest and most challenging project to date and has taken a total of more than 60 hours to finish.

The Leader: The bear sculpture The bear sculpture (Image: Ceidiog PR)

Paul turned his hand to carving the bear as a tribute to Franz Kreft, the late father of Pendine Park owner Mario Kreft MBE, who was a world-renowned circus lion and bear trainer.

When a sycamore tree fell down in the midst of Storm Arwen in 2021, it provided the perfect opportunity to put the wood to good use.

“It was just a question of waiting for the right piece of wood to come along and when the Storm Arwen hit we sadly lost a number of trees from Pendine grounds, including this massive sycamore. I knew as soon as I saw it that it would be perfect for a grizzly, “said Paul.

He described the process as 'like therapy' and said creating it has served to 'satiate the soul'.

"I guess the modern word for it would be mindfulness," explained Paul. "It's definitely time well spent. I could have sat in front of the TV after work but once you make the effort it's really enjoyable and it's an amazing feeling to finish something like this.”

It's been more than a decade since Paul made his first sculpture, which came about as a complete accident after he decided to make his wife a birthday present instead of buying her one.

After trying his hand at carving an owl, the result was so impressive, soon all his wife's friends were asking him to make sculptures for them.

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His previous creations have also included some fun projects like a six feet silver surfer figure which he produced specially for a Caribbean style carnival which staff organised to cheer up Pendine Park residents during the pandemic lockdown.

Paul was determined to do justice to the grizzly bear and described completing the colossal sculpture as a lovely moment.

Mario is “absolutely delighted” with the finished masterpiece.

The Leader: Mario Kreft MBE with a scrap book full of memories Mario Kreft MBE with a scrap book full of memories (Image: Ceidiog PR)

He said: “Paul is incredibly talented and our next task is to find a suitable spot in the grounds where this magnificent beast can be seen in all its glory as a focal point, along with his other fantastic carved creations.

“It really is a superb and fitting tribute to my dad so this means a great deal to me.

"I am sure he would have loved this sculpture because he was always very good with animals and kind to them and seemed to make a connection.

"He was the most unassuming guy you could imagine but he took on a different persona in the ring.

"When he got into the ring, he just went into his circus artiste mode as a bear trainer.

"He always seemed big to me but he wasn’t particularly tall - but he was very strong and he had that presence, he had an aura and he looked the part.”

Mario’s mother was also a show woman, having studied at a private school in Rhyl. He added: “There are some interesting pictures taken of going shopping with my father and my mother and a bear. I’m not sure that they’d have carried out a risk assessment but I don’t think that Health and Safety was in the ascendancy in those days. It was quite amazing.”