The finished sleigh awaits delivery to Echo Ridge Farm in Lee, N.H. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Thirty years ago, when his family lived in Boxford, Slough Road resident Bruce Perkins found an old sleigh at the town dump and brought it home. Even though it was in a state of disrepair, the sleigh remained in the front yard of the Perkins home during the winter months for years, as a decoration. Perkins always intended to restore it someday, he said, but always managed to put off the project—until last year. After seeing a similar sleigh in a front yard in Littleton last fall, he finally developed a vision of what the finished product should look like, and where it belonged: at his daughter’s horse farm in New Hampshire. In October he began restoring the sleigh, with the intention of presenting it to his daughter, Kelly Perkins, as a surprise for Christmas.

With no experience in a project of this scope, Perkins enlisted the aid of about a dozen people, from Harvard and beyond, to bring the antique back to life.

Among them was Fairbank Street resident Ken Harrod, who was Perkins’ “inspirational adviser,” according to Perkins’ wife, Elisabeth. Harrod said he became interested in the sleigh project after meeting Perkins at the Lions’ Fall Festival. He subsequently provided Perkins with original sleigh bolts that his own great-grandfather had made in the 1880s as a blacksmith in town. It was a fortunate find for Perkins, who had been looking for those same bolts on the Internet for many weeks. Harrod also made another key contribution to the project after learning that Perkins needed green ash to make the body of the sleigh.

“My son and I have a sawmill,” said Harrod, and, with his son, Greg, he surprised Perkins with a delivery of ash logs.

“All they wanted as a thank-you was a case of Labatt’s Blue Beer!” Perkins laughed.

Woodside Road resident Chris Ashley, who works in boat-building and repair, undertook the process of steaming the wood for Perkins so it could be bent for the sleigh blades.

Perkins credits Ashland resident and blacksmith Neil Mansfield with repairing and creating the copper-and-brass-front scrolled grill, lettered with the name of his daughter’s farm.

The wood remaining from the original sleigh rests atop the new sleigh. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

One of the hardest items to track down was sleigh bolts. This one was found in Ken Harrod’s barn. Sleigh bolts are unusual in that they are smooth on the top and come with square nuts. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Bruce Perkins sits with daughter Kelly in the restored sleigh on delivery day. (Courtesy photo)

Elisabeth said her husband also got help with some of the metal work from students at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School in Marlborough.

Perkins worked meticulously on rebuilding the sleigh throughout the fall and into December, when the ice storm put a dent in his plan to have the restoration completed by Christmas. But he eventually finished the project and on a sunny Saturday in January took the belated gift to his daughter at Echo Ridge Farm in Lee, N.H.

To maintain the element of surprise, Perkins delivered the sleigh to the farm of John Hutton, about a mile away from his daughter’s. Elisabeth joined Mansfield’s wife, Priscilla, as a passenger high up in the small sleigh, which had been loaded onto a larger one and secured by hay bales. The restored antique and its passengers were transported to Echo Ridge Farm aboard the big sleigh, driven by Mansfield and drawn by a horse named Charlie, who was decked out in sleigh bells that could be heard about half a mile away, according to Perkins.

Elisabeth said, “It was a very emotional day. Kelly knew something was up—she could hear the sleigh bells in the distance. Her farm has a winding driveway and her horses started to go crazy. They knew something was up too.”

As the sleigh rounded the curve in the driveway, Perkins said, about 10 horses in the pasture galloped up to the see it, whinnying excitedly, and trotted along next to the pasture fence as the sleigh made its way to the house.

Kelly said she had a suspicion that her father was working on the sleigh, but was still touched. “He told me I was going to cry and I did,” she said.

Perkins said he got a lot of satisfaction out of the sleigh restoration project. “It was in our front yard for a long time and it was pretty well rotted,” he said. “I get the most satisfaction when I can bring something back to life. When something is gone, it’s gone. This sleigh’s going to be around for a long time.”