A BUSINESS owner who safely stored the last-remaining pieces of the legendary Port Glasgow Wallace tree has been honoured.

Bouverie Motors boss David Smith was presented with gifts from The Society of William Wallace for donating two large chunks of the oak to the group.

Mr Smith came forward two years ago to help Greenock man Cha Halliday and pal Sean Donnelly, who lives in Inverkip, after they appealed for information about the famous tree in the Tele.

To their delight, the last remaining sections of the oak were being stored on land owned by Mr Smith near to his Bouverie car garage.

According to local folklore, William Wallace is said to have been chained to the tree following his capture by the English in 1305 while awaiting transfer to London.

It stood in the grounds of Holy Family Church until it was blown down in 1995.

Mr Smith was called to help remove the tree at the time and salvaged two chunks which he kept on the former Gourock Ropeworks site behind the Port Lidl.

Following the appeal by Cha and Sean, who are members of the society, he donated the sections to the group.

In recognition of that, Mr Smith was last week presented with a limited edition print signed by the artist Andrew Hillhouse of his design for the

Battle of the Bell O’ the Brae in Glasgow.

He also received a society membership.

The Tele revealed last week how scientists have dated the tree chunks to the 1700s but believe the original oak they came from is likely from the days of Wallace.

They have now been removed and put into storage thanks to the help of local businesses.

The society would like to thank Mr Smith, Neil Lochiel and Fiona Maguire from Riverside Inverclyde, Robert Dowds at Newark Products, Fran Blyth and Michael Parker from Union Projects/Wallace Civil Engineering, Stuart McMillan MSP, his researcher Shaun Kavanagh and Charlie Sutherland from Sutherland Engineering.