A landscape gardener and artist from Byfleet village has raised £700 for Surrey Search and Rescue by selling his hand-turned Christmas trees.

Austin Steer, who has been turning wood for 30 years, sells his beautiful wooden bowls at ArtHouse Galleries in Victoria Place, and last year he produced sets of charming wooden Christmas trees which he sold to support the charity.

All the timber is sourced from his work as a gardener and tree surgeon with the occasional donation from friends.

Austin, 48, became hooked on wood turning when his uncle let him “have a go” on his lathe as a lad. Austin bought a lathe with his first pay cheque and has been building his skills ever since.

He has also been volunteering for Surrey Search and Rescue, a voluntary specialist team which assists emergency services in finding missing vulnerable adults and children, for three years.

“I’m a search technician proficient in first aid, navigation, radio communications and search techniques,” he said. “There are other roles including search dogs, drone team and water team that need further specialist training, or team leader or search planner.

“Call-outs come through the police. They call a search planner who decides if we will be put on standby/call out.

“If yes, members on call get a text with a location – normally a rainy car park in the middle of nowhere at 2am!

“We are put into teams ensuring all skills are covered (normally four to five per team) and given an area to search. The search continues till the person is found or new information comes to light.

“I was lucky enough to find someone last year and after a medical assessment he was able to return to his family albeit a bit cold and hungry.

“They are an amazing organisation and I’m proud to be part of it.”