Annie Green was tricked into letting the man chop down her 30ft tall conifers - which smashed her garden fence and destroyed her flower beds, borders and vegetable patch.

"I was heartbroken," said the 80-year-old. "I just sat there and sobbed. The hedge was planted with seeds we'd brought back from Italy."

The man called at Annie's Comberbach home on Saturday and asked if her hedge needed cutting.

"He started off saying he would take some off the top," added Annie. "I couldn't afford to pay him what he asked for at first but eventually I said I could give him £60. He told me I could owe him the rest."

The man eventually cut down all but one of the trees. After he had finished in the garden, he talked Annie into giving him the money, which she had saved up to buy a new pair of shoes.

He left the house after eating a sandwich, using Annie's shampoo to wash his hair and asking if he could have any of her dead husband's clothes.

When her neighbours found out they were furious.

"When I came home, her garden was absolutely devastated," said Bob Zaremba, who has only lived next door to Annie for the past four months.

"I knew I had to do something. There were no two ways about it."

So Bob went to his local, The Drum and Monkey, where a group of volunteers agreed to help out early the following morning.

"About eight or nine people turned up with chainsaws and we actually managed to get things sorted out in about three hours," he said.

The group cut the trees up and removed the wood in a van kindly loaned by Elliott Builders.

"People say community spirit is dead," added Bob. "But it isn't round here. Everyone was fantastic. Hopefully no-one else will let this man do the same thing to their garden."

And Annie agreed: "I couldn't have praised them more. They've been so wonderful. They've shifted everything."

The volunteers included Colin White, Bob Zaremba, John Holden, Leyton Davies, Steven Sherlock, Ken Hackett, Harry from Elliott Builders, Matthew Cowell and Becky.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.