ImpactSeptember 10, 2026 · 3 min read

The Bench That Got a Name and a Waiting List

A single reworked stump on a hilltop is now the town's most requested seat.

A carved tree stump bench on a mossy hilltop at sunset

By Maya Okonkwo · Field editor

The storm took the beech in 2023. A joiner named Hal Whittaker asked the council if he could keep the stump where it was and carve it into something to sit on.

He worked weekends for a season. The result is a two-person bench with a back that follows the grain of the tree, facing the water.

It now has a name — everyone calls it Beech — and an informal booking sheet in the village shop, because too many people wanted it for proposals, anniversaries, and one memorial at dawn.

Whittaker has been asked to carve five more. He has agreed to one. "The point is that there's only a few," he says. "That's why people walk up."

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