A 64-year-old tree carving has been saved from the road builders' chainsaws when the new A3 tunnel is built under the Devil's Punchbowl in the next few years. A carving in a 400-year-old beech tree which stands two feet high and depicts a charicature of a World War II pin-up was believed to have been made by London-born Gerald Wadham, who ran the Black Fox pub for many years in Liphook and died five years ago. Gerald bought the pub in 1969 and had to close it down for a few months to complete a major refurbishment. When the pub reopened, Mr Wadham had added a restaurant and it was not long before his business venture became the talk of the town. Mr Wadham's daughter, Christine Oliver, who still lives in Liphook, believes the inscription "G Wadham", along with the word Southall, and the date 5/3/43 all point to her father as the sculptor. Mrs Oliver said: "It's very interesting and I think there's a high probability that it was him. He would have been living in Southall in 1943. He always told me that he was very upset because he had to leave school and go and work in his father's shop after his mother died when he was 15. "He would have been nearly 16 in March 1943, but I have no idea what he would have been doing at the Devil's Punchbowl. It has always been a very popular place, so maybe it was just an excursion or they wanted to see the soldiers. "There was obviously something about the place, because he moved out here after the war. He certainly loved the outdoor life and used to go out on coach trips." The Forestry Commission, the National trust and local historians have known of the existence of the tree for many years, but kept it secret to protect it from vandals and it has remained in the forest, hidden behind bushes, for decades. Conservationists, in consultation with the Highways Agency, have managed to get the boundary of the new road moved a few feet in order to save the tree, which will now stand proudly marking the entrance to one of the entrances to the tunnel.
