Bury St Edmunds roundabout wolf statue gets refurbished

Suffolk artist Ben Loughrill spring cleaning the St Edmunds Wolf on the Southgate Green Roundabout in bury st Edmunds. Pictured with Melanie Lesser of Bury in bloom

The sculpture has been in place since 2013 but this week the original sculptor returned to give his creation a spruce up and return it to the original colour.

“He has become very iconic for the town,” said Bury in Bloom’s Melanie Lesser, who came up with the concept of the statue as a celebration of Bury’s heritage.

Ben Loughrill was the man responsible for creating the model and Melanie said when he returned he was impressed at how well the statue had lasted on the Southgate roundabout.

“It was a good position for it,” said Melanie. “A lot of people now refer to it as the wolf roundabout. It’s almost renaming that roundabout.

Suffolk artist Ben Loughrill spring cleaning the St Edmunds Wolf on the Southgate Green Roundabout in bury st Edmunds. Pictured with Melanie Lesser of Bury in bloom

“Also it was very old oak. The oak came down in the 1987 storms. Ben commented that it really had done very well. There’s very little cracking.”

Melanie puts this down, partly, to the fact the Bury in Bloom team have been treating the sculpture with tung oil to stop the wood from drying out.

The rub down on Tuesday was to remove the darker colouring that had started to appear on the wolf, partly attributed to its proximity to vehicles and their exhaust fumes.

Melanie believes Bury has really taken the wolf to its heart, especially given last year’s popular wolf trail.

Bury’s link with wolves goes back to the days of St Edmund. After the death of King Edmund of St Edmund, a wolf is said to have looked after the fallen king’s severed head so it could be reunited with its body.

“It makes people ask why a wolf, so they look up the legend,” said Melanie.

Bury has taken the statue to its heart, with it even sporting a team scarf on matchdays at the nearby Bury St Edmunds rugby club.