CWMGIEDD-based sculptor Oliver Annally is creating a rose hewn from stone to go with a fountain in a police memorial garden in Hampshire.

The garden, at Hampshire Constabulary’s headquarters in the village of Netley near Southampton, has been partially designed by TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh who lives nearby on the Isle of Wight.

The rose design was created by Oliver and is carefully being hand-carved by him into a huge 2.15-tonne block of red sandstone quarried in the Black Mountains.

Oliver chose red sandstone for the sculpture because of its ability to withstand water erosion.

Oliver trained as a sculptor at Weymouth College in the 1990s after developing a passion for carving in south west France.

After a spell working in the south west of England he decided to move back to Wales – his father’s homeland – where he spent some of his childhood and in 2004 became the head mason of Craig Y Nos Castle. During his five years there he led a major renovation of the castle’s stonework and arches.

Since becoming a self-employed mason in 2009 he has worked on a number of major projects, including building new windows for Gwyn Hall in Neath after the 2007 fire, restoring the fountain on the National War Memorial in Cardiff and restoring the memorial to the Aberfan disaster. He also made stone roses for the pierced screens at Margam Park in Port Talbot.

The Aberfan project, he says, was “particularly poignant” as his grandfather was a collier in the Merthyr Vale and worked there.

Other restoration projects he has worked on include Cardigan Castle and the SAS memorial in Hereford.

He is also an accomplished ice sculptor, recently leading the British team at the 29th Dolomites Snow Festival.