THERE was a surprise on the faces of staff at RHS Garden Rosemoor when they came face to face with a 3ft turkey in the garden last week.

Although the turkey seemed perfectly happy strolling around the garden he was obviously not where he was supposed to be — the gardeners had an interesting task in rounding up and containing the large bird!

Phone calls were made to neighbours to see if they knew anything about his origin, but no-one could come up with an explanation. When no-one had come forward to claim him it was decided he go home with one of the gardeners, who also keeps pheasants.

But the mystery was solved when a week later a woman phoned Rosemoor on the off chance that staff may have seen her turkey! The Folley family from Little Torrington had been stranded in Madeira by the volcanic ash cloud and when they arrived home a week later were saddened to discover that their new rescue dog had 'surprised' the turkey and it had flown, somewhat clumsily, across the River Torridge and into the woods behind Rosemoor.

Fiona Folley said the turkey, called 'Handsome', was the last remaining one of 12 that had been hand-reared by her son Barnaby, 8.