A WOOD carver has seen some of his work exhibited for the first time in his home city at the age of 69.

Allan ‘Buddy’ Brook’s nine-foot-long wood sculpture, called Together At Last, has go on display at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, as part of the venue’s Bradford Open exhibition.

The wooden structure, which he values at £1.5million, is carved from half of a sycamore tree which fell from his garden and on to his driveway at his home in Station Road, Baildon, in August 2015, while he was on holiday.

He started working on the sculpture straight after the incident and removed large areas of rot from the large branch to make his creation.

Mr Brook has since created a carving which includes a number of flowers, leaves and roses all hand carved. It also features two small figurines of himself and his partner, Anita Berry, 53.

He said: “I was born in Bradford and it’s great to be exhibiting in my own city.

“I wanted to show it to the people of Bradford.

“It almost looks like it’s made out of wax, rather than a sycamore tree.

“I started it in 2015 and finished it a few weeks ago.

“The sculpture features just suggestions of flowers, rather than specific types.

“People who seen it have said it looks like a dragon, rather than a tree.”

The couple were featured in the Telegraph & Argus in August 2015 when a carved figure of a young girl stolen in a burglary at their home was safely returned following an appeal. He carved the girl holding a bunch of flowers in 1988 and, after Ms Berry, lost their baby daughter during pregnancy 11 years ago, the art work became known as ‘Katie’ - the name their child would have had.

The knee-high carving was among items stolen while they were on holiday. This was also when they came home to discover the tree had fallen on their drive.

Mr Brook attended Bradford Art College in 1961 and was one of its youngest pupils at just 14, studying for four years and achieved a first-class degree in printed textile design.

He added: I planned to get my first exhibition together when we came back from holiday, as I wanted to say thank you to the city but then we came back to the burglary.”

The Bradford Open will run until November 12 at Cartwright Hall.

It enables artists aged 16 and over who live, work or study within the Bradford district to showcase artwork at the civic Cartwright Hall Art Gallery.

Work was submitted in any medium and judged for inclusion in the exhibition by an invited panel.