THE sight of four burly men wielding bolt croppers and axes charging into your garden would give anyone a fright. But 65-year-old grandmother Joan Taylor was only too glad to see the rescuing firefighters.

Parkinson’s Disease sufferer Mrs Taylor, of Court Close, Bridport, was tending flowers in her garden when she slipped and got her hand trapped in a wrought iron table.

She said: “I went to put my hand on the table and my fingers went straight down through. I said to my nine-year-old granddaughter Ellie go and get me some water but she came out with a cup and I said we’d have to try washing up liquid.

“That didn’t work so I said she’d have to call the fire brigade, which she did. She was wonderful.

“We got the fire brigade out and control said they’d send a paramedic but I said I was alright, but she said you don’t know.

“The first response team came followed by four burly firemen.

“They did laugh and one of them, I can see him now, had a pair of bolt cutters nearly as big as the table and a ruddy great axe.

“I thought: ‘You’re not coming anywhere near me with that!’ But they used a hacksaw and they got me out.

“They were so wonderful because it could have been nasty. My table has an extra hole in it now. You couldn’t do it if you tried – it was so funny.

“But I think the firemen are wonderful and I really wanted to thank them.”