THE sculpture of The Water Boy is back where he belongs, perched with his fishing rod beside the West Okement River, after being sent away for repairs.

The much-loved statue lost a leg back in August last year, when heavy rain flushed debris and tree branches down the river.

Now, following repairs by the sculptor who created him, he is back near the weir where he’s been for nearly ten years.

‘During the floods in August last year, a big piece of wood from the tree must have come down. We think it must have hit his leg and it got broken,’ said Christine Marsh of the Okement Rivers Improvement Group (ORIG).

‘He survived several attempts by the locals to bend his fishing rod but not this. He’s sitting with one knee up and one knee down over the bank, and it is the one down over the bank that was damaged.’

She got in touch with sculptor Alan Biggs, who ORIG commissioned him to create the sculpture back in 2008.

Now living in Oxford, he made a special journey to Okehampton to collect the damaged sculpture and take it back to his workshop for repair. Following the work, which cost ORIG £400, he has returned The Water Boy to Okehampton as good as new.

‘There was a delay because of the weather conditions and so it took us a little bit longer to put him back than expected,’ said Cllr Marsh. ‘Some locals call him Trevor because a local person in his youth was always been seen fishing their down by the weir. We’re pleased to see him back where he belongs.’

Mr Biggs, who used to live in Belstone, has also created two other public sculptures for Okehampton, the mother and child sculpture outside the hospital and the deer and fawn in Simmons Park.

Picture of The Water Boy by James Bird.