NEPTUNE probably thought something fishy was going on when he spotted a group of volunteers approaching his peaceful spot.

And no doubt curiosity turned to alarm when the Roman God of the Sea realised they were armed with LOLLIPOP STICKS.

But although Neptune's pride might have been slightly dented, he didn't have too much to worry about - the sticks were for cleaning his limestone wrinkles.

"Lolly sticks are hard enough to get lichen and algae off the statue but instead of damaging the stonework they wear away," said Tatton curator Maggie McKean.

"Magnum classics sticks in particular are brilliant."

Maggie is always on the look-out for spare lolly sticks and even asked a group of visitors sitting in the stable yard for the leftovers of their chocolate treats.

"Of course I also quite like eating them myself," she said.

The cleaning team of nine balanced on plywood boards - over the limestone statue's basin - to stop them falling into the water.

And armed with various brushes, including scrubbing, washing up and even denture cleaning brushes, they soon had the job licked.

"It took surprisingly little time and by lunchtime the statue was looking better already," said Maggie.

The Neptune statue - brought over from Venice in 1920 - was chosen as this year's Tatton garden cleaning project.

But park staff would like the public to adopt other statues in the gardens. Call Maggie McKean on 01565 654822 for more details.

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