Play fort two towers

Decking and tower

Giant pencils

When Sue Lewis was Head Teacher at Liphook Infants School she commissioned these projects.

Giant pencils; something interesting for each colour 'house' to line up in front of. These are 150mm diam. and 2m high. Made from 150mm machine round stakes sharpened with a chain saw and hand planed primed undercoat and gloss.

This decking is to provide a safe corralled area for rising 5s with level access from 2 classrooms and ramp approach each end. Includes a raised play area with storage below and flag pole. An existing birch tree pierces the decking giving some shade. The ribbed decking was specified for small toys and foot traffic but didn't stand up well to solid tyre trikes & bikes so after 4 years I took it up and replaced it with smooth surface deck.

Fort

This was my idea to bring in to use an area of coppice, a small area of playground. and grass which regularly flooded and was unusable.

I gave Sue a very small sketch, Sue gave me a budget, waved away talk of  committees and tenders and allowed me a completely free hand on the back of the success of previous projects. I had a rough idea of area, shape and what to include. There were some strange looks as a forest of seemingly random posts grew but it soon took shape following my tried and tested 'make it up as you go along'.

There is plenty of seating, a shallow pitch staircase to the first tower, a timber decked wobbly bridge to the second with seating below. A two stage climb down to the deck avoids excessive fall height. A gate opens on to a boardwalk which leads to a  seating area in the middle of the coppice. A small amount of clearing was necessary for supervision sight lines but the impression of a private area remained.