A RETIRED teacher who lives in Ledbury has built two miniature Viking boats for a former pupil, himself now a teacher.

Chris Bell, who used to be a business studies teacher at the Chase in Malvern was contacted by Kurt Doyle, once a pupil of his, who is now teaching at a primary school in Gloucester.

Mr Doyle had seen a story in the Malvern Gazette in April last year about a boat Mr Bell had built in memory of a deceased colleague, Derek Lang.

Mr Bell said: "In December 2016 I received an email from ex-student Kurt Doyle who explained after a career in football, including coaching, he had qualified as a teacher and worked at Widden Primary School, Gloucester.

"His students were studying the Vikings and having seen the Derek Lang in the Malvern Gazette, asked if it was feasible to build a Viking ship replica.

"I looked into the feasibility and found I could modify an open canoe design and exaggerate the sheer strake in order to resemble the iconic Viking ship bow and stern. This agreed, Kurt then asked if I could build two, half size, as he teaches Year 5 students.

"I approached SP Systems, Travis Perkins and Aztec Adventure for support and they supplied, respectively, epoxy resin, plywood and buoyancy aids and/paddles."

Mr Bell went to work building the ships at the Gloucester school, and finished building them on Tuesday, February 28.

The next day, the Year 5 from the school successfully tested the boats, which they named Doyle and Bobat, after their two class teachers, in the pool at a Gloucester sports centre.

Mr Bell said: "I did the work at the school, and all the students were absolutely fascinated by how it was done. I think they found it quite inspirational."