A PRE SCHOOL which was hit by the consequences of Storm Bert saw the community come together to see it restored.

On the weekend of Saturday, November 23, a tree had fallen in the garden of Alderbury Pre School and onto the children's much loved pirate ship, ‘Pamela'.

On Sunday, manager Donna Clay was contacted by the cleaner to let her know what had happened.

Donna said: “The cleaner sent me a text message in the late afternoon on Sunday saying ‘just to let you know, we’ve got a tree down’, so I let the girls know at work and one of them knows Dynamite Scaffolding so she said they’ve organised for a tree surgeon to come in.

“The next morning, they arrived at half past seven, cleared it and even made log stools for us, bless the, because I can imagine they were quite busy after the storm.”

READ MORE: Seven photos of Salisbury as city is battered by Storm Bert

The clear up was carried out by Southern Tree Care Limited, and when the preschool asked for the invoice the tree business said that it had all been paid for by Dynamite Scaffolding. Unfortunately, the children’s wooden ship in the garden had been badly damaged by the tree.

Donna said: “We’re a charity preschool and we’ve had to do lots of fundraising as we’ve moved buildings and we’ve had to cover the costs of the gardens that needed upgrading. The ship was one of the only things that did not need touching.

The tree fell directly onto the pirate shipThe tree fell directly onto the pirate ship (Image: Donna Clay)

“It’s right in the middle and I was hoping we would be able to repair it but looking at it, it’s going to have to be a whole repair. 

“We went to the parents to say we’ve had this happen and one of our mums [Suzanne Wilkinson] rang me and said I’m going to set up a GoFundMe page.

“This time of year, for everybody to [help] I think, wow. It’s amazing really.”

She said the children were "gutted" that it had been damaged as it was a "favourite of theirs".

The GoFundMe is raising money for its repair or replacement and can be donated to here.

"We know childcare is not cheap but being a charity we have to cover everything," she continued.

"A big thanks to the community really, rolling round us again even though everybody’s got increased costs and it’s Christmas and everything."