A FELLOW gardener has paid tribute to Tom Hooper — a Buckland Monachorum man who died last month — after spending a lifetime helping to create one of the most respected gardens in the country.

Tom, aged 74, amassed a staggering 53 years of continuous employment at The Garden House — just a hop down the road from where he lived — until illness stopped him last year.

'To those of us who had the pleasure and the privilege of working alongside him, Tom Hooper was an institution, the stuff of Garden House folklore and a central foundation stone of the whole place,' said garden manager Keith Wiley.

Nine months after its initial conception in 1945, Tom began to build the garden from humble beginnings into the popular attraction it is today.

'He took enormous pride in all that he did and no weed dared show its face in any bed Tom had just finished clearing,' said Keith.

'It was like it had been steam-cleaned.

'Like his physique, there was something reassuringly solid about Tom — there was never any danger of the ladder moving with "Big Tom" anchoring the bottom.'

For many years he could be found every weekend helping the village football side in every conceivable role, from president to all those unglamorous backroom jobs, as well as running his yearly tombola stall at the local fetes.

'Tom was a true country man, unsentimental yet sympathetic and wise in the ways of the wild animals of the beloved parish where he'd spent all his life,' said Keith.

'He was a thoroughly good man who will be sorely missed — not just by his adoring family but by a whole community.'