Abbey gargoyles created from cars

The sculptures are modelled on Shaftesbury Abbey gargoyles

An artist has used scrap cars to create replicas of gargoyles that once adorned a famous Dorset abbey.

Anthony Wilson, from Heytesbury in Wiltshire, used material from a scrapyard to create the artwork.

He says he was inspired by stone carvings that once adorned the now lost Shaftesbury Abbey, after seeing them in the abbey museum.

The abbey was founded in 888 by King Alfred but the foundations are all that remain.

'Deterring thieves'

"The cars were destined to live again as recycled metal, but with a little imagination they have be reborn as a piece of art, rather than being crushed and turned into baked bean cans," Mr Wilson said.

The three monsters have two faces each, one staring over the fence of Langford's dismantling yard in Shaftesbury, the other facing customers arriving there.

Mr Wilson added: "The finished sculptures are quite spooky, and they should be more effective at deterring thieves than the traditional grizzled Alsatian on the end of a large chain."