Bristol students build 25ft snow sphinx

If you go down to the Bristol Downs today you are in for a big surprise – a 15ft high sphinx made out of snow.

The structure, which is about 25ft long, was built by a group of University of Bristol students to raise money for Comic Relief.

Ashley Coates, 19, of Leigh Woods, began building the snow sculpture on Friday with four pals.

Over the next three days they worked on it for 14 hours, and were expecting to finish it on Monday.

Ashley, formerly of Clifton College and currently on a gap year, said: "When the snow came down heavily we decided we had got to do something, so decided on a sphinx.

"We put floodlights up so we could see it.

"I think it's been worth the effort, we've put out a red box and have started collecting money for Comic Relief.

"We got £20 in the first hour."