Family of popular Peterborough pensioner who recently passed away shocked after his hand-made benches vandalised

Peter (84) died peacefully at his home on November 10 after a battle with cancer. He was a much-loved figure in the village and was best known for crafting a series of benches, which he placed along the popular walking route, The Wykes, to allow people who struggle to walk long distances to take a rest.

There were five benches in total placed along the public bridleway and all were made from recycled materials. They were placed there in July as Peter, also known as Knocker, undertook the project as a way to give back to the community and to keep busy after losing his partner Diane to cancer and receiving his own diagnosis.

This is not the first time the benches have made the news as one of them was stolen in August, only to mysteriously reappear in October.

Bench crafted by pensioner stolen from popular Peterborough walking route

Mystery as stolen bench hand-made by Peterborough pensioner returned

Peter’s granddaughter, Lisa, told the Peterborough Telegraph that her grandfather held no ill feelings against the culprits and said that “it took more guts to return it than steal it.”

Now though, the benches have been vandalised and Peter’s family have taken three away to be repaired and will decide whether or not to return them. The damage, which looks to be deliberate, was spotted by a dog walker on Friday (November 20).

Peter’s family have received a number of positive messages offering help in having them returned and say that returning them would be their preference.

Lisa added: “He was very much loved in the community. Facebook groups such as the Yaxley Gazette and Peterborough Heavy Haulage, where he worked for many years, have shared their support and an appeal to find a walking frame for him led to a mass of messages sending love and sharing their memories of him.

“Those messages meant so much to him during the last week or so and my Mum would often sit and read all of the comments to him to let him know how much people thought of him, to which he’d often reply ‘I don’t know why.’

“We have had so many people messaging offering to fix the benches, which has been lovely. We really want to get these repaired and put back in the hope that they will be left alone for the community to carry on enjoying.

“Although it is in bad circumstances, thanks to mindless vandals, the way people have pulled really really shows the community spirit and we as a family are extremely grateful to all those wonderful people for such heartfelt messages.”

Peter’s funeral took place on Tuesday (November 24).