Artist and wood carver Raymond Wirick is counting the cost of two thefts.

He had already lost the chainsaws he uses for his wooden sculptures and on Sunday some of his works were stolen.

Mr Wirick, who lives in East Kennett, sells paintings and chainsaw carvings and is well known in Marlborough, having sold his work at the town’s the twice-weekly markets.

He is appealing for help from people who visit boot sales or might see carvings for sale in laybys. Much of his work is commissioned like the carved benches by the Kennet in the Priory Gardens.

Father-of-two Mr Wirick has become known for his bear benches, carved bears with a plank between.

Two of these were stolen with five or six owls and three life-size carvings. They are worth about £3,000 and the theft came six months after five chainsaws worth £2,000 were stolen from his shed in Church Street.

They were insured because they were locked up, but Mr Wirick, 47, said it was not possible to insure his carvings because they were kept in an open barn.

He said it was impossible to carry the heavy carvings – some made from whole tree trunks – to a safe place.

“I never worried too much about the larger pieces being stolen because they were too heavy to cart off, or so I thought,” said American-born Mr Wirick, who studied at the Merlin College of Arts in Baltimore.

“Whoever stole them used a trailer because I could see scuff marks where it was turned round and there must have been at least two of them to pick up the pieces.”

Other carvings were thrown around and had limbs broken off.