Gnomes looking for homes traumatise neighbourhood

Dozens of homeless gnomes have been surprising and terrorising residents of a housing estate in Somerset.

Vikki Henderson, who lives on the Wembdon Grange estate in Bridgwater, inherited the garden ornaments from her grandmother but, unable to look after them all, she decided to put them in her front garden and offer them free to anyone passing.

Since then, the cheery, red-cheeked gnomes have been spotted all over the neighbourhood - playing in the playground at the park, appearing in the dark on people's doorsteps or popping up behind the wheel of parked cars.

"I went on to Facebook and saw the initial post [about the gnomes] and thought, 'Oh, no, I'm going to be to blame for this'," she said.

Henderson said her grandmother - or Nan, as she called her - had dozens of gnomes in her garden.

Her gnome army included a bride gnome, a Manchester United gnome, several police gnomes, a Rainbow Pride gnome, several Christmas gnomes and a London Beefeater gnome called Steven.

"The gnomes gave her a lot of joy, she just loved them," said Henderson. "And when she was able to, the carers would get her out into the garden to sit with them."

When her grandmother died a couple of years ago Henderson said it was she who "ended up with them all" in her back garden.

"I've got nowhere to put them inside and I couldn't bear to see them getting battered in the garden by my dogs or the British weather," she said.

In a bid to rehome the gnomes she decided to put a dozen out in front of her house with a sign in the window saying: "Gnomes available to take for free. P.S, please take them".

It was only a couple of days later, while checking Facebook, that she realised the gnome mayhem she had unleashed on the neighbourhood.

It was a post put up by a neighbour on the Bridgwater Matters group that first alerted Henderson to what the gnomes had been getting up to.

In an encounter reminiscent of Doctor Who's scariest foes the Weeping Angels, the neighbour describes their horror at opening the front door to let the cat in only to find two large gnomes looming out of the darkness on the doorstep.

And they were not the only ones.

Kieran Simpson said he was visiting his dad when he was "surprised" by a mystery lady behind the wheel of his car.

"I went to go get in my car and all of a sudden there was a bride gnome in my driver's seat," he said.

"My windows were open so I could only assume someone passing by decided to gift me a little present."

Henderson said her gnomes had also been spotted playing in the nearby park.

"Apparently there's videos of Santa Claus and Mrs Claus going down the slide in the park down the road," she said.

She was glad, though, that "the gnomes haven't caused actual mischief", she said.

"Everyone's just laughing and people have kept them. They've all gone."

As for her Nan, Henderson said she would have loved knowing her gnomes had "been getting up to mischief" as she was a "bit of a mischief herself back in the day".

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