TUCKED away in a quiet corner of the south Essex countryside, a group of expert carvers are at work.

But far from it being their hobby, the Essex School of Woodcarving members have turned their skills into an art which has brought them national acclaim.

On a Wednesday morning, the scent of wood is the first thing which greets visitors to the small, but well equipped, workshop in Billericay, which was rebuilt in 1992, after a fire ruined the previous one.

Walls are lined with sharpened chisels, block cutters, gouges and other tools from a tradition stretching back centuries, as well as examples of the school’s careful craft.

There is an atmosphere of quiet concentration, where members have spent countless hours over the years.

Former PE teacher Peter Benson was giving classes in woodcarving before he finally set up the school in 1997.

Mr Benson, 73, said the appeal of working with wood was an old passion for him, going back to his wartime evacuation from Ilford to Suffolk.

He said: “I started carving when I was about ten. I only had a penknife, I didn’t have any toys.

“I used to pick up bits of fire wood and make things. It was just one of those things I used to stick at and it changed my life.”

His passion has proved infectious, as many of his pupils have become part of a circle of friends which work on special projects.

The first work that brought them into the spotlight was around ten years ago.

Former Army corporal Ray Pell asked Mr Benson to create a statue in tribute to the 31st Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the Polar Bear regiment because its soldiers were first stationed in Iceland during the Second World War.

Mr Benson surprised the former corporal, who has now died, by bringing together some of his students to create a huge polar bear.

Word of the giant bear, which weighed two-and-a-half tonnes and took around a year to finish, soon spread and visitors from as far as Holland visited Mr Benson’s home to see the animal.

It went on to become the first statue at the National Memorial Arboretum garden in Staffordshire, which remembers fallen servicemen and women.

The statue was produced free of charge by the skilled and generous group, starting a relationship with the garden which would see them producing other exhibits, including a 6ft tall depiction of a storyteller at work, and a large eagle.

Members of the group are currently putting the final touches to a large wren, an impressively detailed 3ft tall bird carved out of laminated Brazilian cedar wood, which will be unveiled in the garden in April.

Mr Benson said: “What’s special to us is that in the arboretum our work is seen by about 200,00 people a year.

“Everyone of those people will see our carvings and it hopefully gives them some pleasure.”