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Island bench for a monkey

15/ 9/2004

EX-HEYWOODITE Kenneth Gill found a little piece of home at the bottom of his garden in the Isle of Wight.

For the bench seat, placed by the island's Rotary Club on a cycle way which runs past his house in Merstone, looked like an import from the "Monkey Town" Kenneth left behind more than 50 years ago.

In the legend of old Heywood - handed down through the generations - the men were all supposed to sport tails. And in the pubs where they supped their ale, benches were provided with holes in, so that they could sit comfortably with their tails dangling through.

That was exactly what Kenneth, 73, found at the bottom of his garden.

So when his sister Mrs Edith Rothwell - known throughout Heywood as a leading fund raiser for cancer research - paid a recent visit, he posed with a banana in his hand and a piece of trawler rope hanging through the hole.

"We had a real laugh about it," said Edith, of Greenmount Drive, Hopwood. "There used to be a railway running right round the island. But now it has been made into a recreational path for cycling, jogging and walking and the Rotary Club have provided the seat for people to take a rest on. It's just like the seats in the Monkey Town legend of Heywood, with holes for the tails. Kenneth says it has really made him feel at home."

Kenneth lives with his wife Jackie, an islander, their son Richard and daughter Vicky.

But it is not only the new bench that makes Kenneth feel he's not far from Heywood.

Edith said: "You'd be amazed how many ex-Heywood people live on the island. They include a man called Jackson, who used to be an ice cream seller in Heywood."