DOLPHINS, fish, lions and a lizard are among wild animals captured in Cliffe Castle Park.

Artist Deborah Rehmat drew the creatures before they were removed from the Keighley park as part of its £4.5 million renovation programme.

Deborah is making dozens of sketches recording progress on returning the parkland to its Victorian heyday using Heritage Lottery Fund and Bradford Council money.

Working closely with the volunteer-run Cliffe Castle Park Conservation Group, she publishes the pictures as part of a blog on her website.

Deborah recently turned her eye to the two marble fountains near the bottom of the park, which have not worked for many years and are badly damaged.

Heritage Masonry this month (October) removed the stone sculptures – which used to spout water – for renovation by experts in their Skipton workshop.

Deborah closely examined the stonework to make several sketches and was surprised how many different “curious creatures” had been carved by the original Italian stonemason.

“I discovered a lot of things I’d never seen before. The south fountain has a carved mouse crouching under a lily leaf, so badly eroded it’s almost impossible to find, and the north one has a lizard.

“The middle part of both fountains – the first tier – are much easier to draw. These fabulous fishy creatures are curled around each other and water must have once spurted from their open mouths.

“I feel sure they’re dolphins, even though no dolphin ever looked quite like that.”

Deborah said the second tiers of the two fountains were quite different.

She said: “The south one has a cherub clasping what must have been a large fish, but both fish and cherub have lost their heads.

“I don’t know when cherub and fish were beheaded, but it’s said that someone climbed the fountain one night in a drunken state and knocked off both their heads.

“The north fountain is topped with a chubby cherub mounted on a huge feathery bird which looks to me like a goose – or could it be a swan?

“His fat little legs straddle its back and his arms are wrapped securely around its neck which stretches upwards as it flaps its wings – it’s wonderful. I can’t wait to see how it looks when water is once again spouting from the bird’s beak.”

Both fountains have lions' heads under the cherubs.

Deborah’s blog can be seen by visiting deborahrehmat.wordpress.com/blog, and a link is also available on the Conservation Group’s website at cliffecastlepark.org.uk.