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A giant Peter Rabbit sculpture has been taken down - two years after it had to be rebuilt following an arson attack.

The instantly recognisable 40ft straw bunny has stood tall on a field outside Snugburys ice cream farm in Hurleston, near Nantwich, for three years.

But the landmark has now been removed to make way for a replacement although the details have not yet been released.

Peter - which took more than 1,000 man hours to build - was created in 2016 to honour Beatrix Potter's 100th birthday and proved one of the farm's most popular sculptures, with hundreds of customers from Stoke-on-Trent, North Staffordshire, South Cheshire and further afield stopping for a selfie next to it every day.

However, disaster struck when arsonists completely destroyed the sculpture within just 10 minutes in February 2017.

But thanks to community volunteers and local helpers, Peter managed to be restored back to his former glory and placed back in the field where he remained until last month.

Kitty Sadler, one of the directors of the family-run Snugburys farm, told CheshireLive : "Peter Rabbit has been much loved over the past three years and so many have travelled from afar to see the sculpture up close, standing tall across our field.

"But now we are saying a fond farewell to Peter Rabbit to make way for a new sculpture this year.

"We have been building straw sculptures for over 20 years and it has now become a tradition; we try and recreate a new structure every two to three years and always look forward to seeing the customers reaction when a new one goes up.

"The structures when we first started making them were straw bales stacked on top of one another to create straw people and we have moved on quite a bit since then and now have reinforced metal structures created by the very talented Mike Haper from Harbrook Engineering in Burland.

She added: "The metal structures are then sent to Snugburys, where a team of straw stuffers stuff the metal structure with straw. The whole process can take up to six months.

"Our next structure will be going up in the next couple of months - it's top secret but keep your eyes peeled!"

Other popular sculptures have included a DaLick to mark the 50th anniversary of Dr Who, a Meerkat and the Millennium Wheel.

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