‘I wanted to give back’ - Mother and daughter recreate fairy hideaway wrecked by vandals

A mother and daughter have recreated a ‘fairy hideaway’ after an earlier version was destroyed by vandals.

Last May, Jodie Jennings and her five-year-old son Oakley made their hideaway in Bluebell Woods in Gorleston – but a few weeks later it was ransacked and set alight.

Now, Emma James, with her husband and two daughters, have rebuilt the magical house among the trees.

Ms Jones said when she saw the report on the original being vandalised, her reaction was: “It was a little bit heartbreaking. I thought it was a pointless act.”

As luck would have it, though, during the first lockdown she had started making fairy doors with her three-year-old daughter.

“It was something to do, to keep us occupied. Trying to keep a three-year-old occupied during lockdown was challenging,” she said.

They made and decorated fairy doors, attaching buttons to look like door handles.

“It started off as something to do,” Ms James said.

“Then I remembered the old one had been destroyed, and we had never got to see the first one. Everyone had been raving about the first fairy garden.

“I just wanted to give back. This year has been very hard, I just wanted to do something nice,” she said.

Last Thursday (November 12), the family took their fairy doors to Bluebell Woods and reassembled the hideaway.

“My daughter helped me with it, she pointed where she wanted the pieces to go, and daddy put them up.

“Bluebell Woods is a saving grace for us. During lockdown we would go there for fresh air. It was lovely, because it felt like you were completely on your own in the place.”

Response to the new has been mostly positive, Ms James said.