A real life ‘Robin Hood’ has given an Ottery pensioner a belated birthday present after responding to an appeal to fix his 91-year-old pendulum clock.

Don Ryan contacted the Herald to see if anyone would be able to restore the clock which has been part of his family since the day he was born.

After seeing the article, Rick Hastie, of Salcombe Regis, made contact to see if he could use his knowledge to repair the family heirloom and did not charge for his time.

Rick first fell in love with repairing clocks three decades ago and at one time repaired all the clocks in Alderney in the Channel Islands. He currently has 15 clocks at his home that he is working on, and has fixed grandfather clocks that are more than 200 years old.

Rick said: “I just needed to clean all the wheels and fix some wear and tear. It is a hobby and work because there’s not many clocks about. It’s a dying trade.”

Don, 91, said: “I was relieved and amazed and grateful to him for doing it, I offered to pay but he said it was free, which is wonderful, he’s like Robin Hood.”