Couple from Knott End held prisoner in own home - by seagulls

RICHARD HUNT

Published: 11:13 Thursday 20 June 2019

Pensioner Roy Pickard had only just walked out of his own front door when he was hit hard on the back of the head - hard enough to draw blood.

Shocked and confused about who or what had hit him, he whirled around and was confronted by a squawking seagull, circling close above him.

A ferociously protective seagull prevented Knott End pensioner Roy Pickard from leaving his house after its two chicks ended up on the canopy directly above his front door.

And then retired ambulance man Roy, aged 77, realised what the commotion was about.

He saw that the two seagull chicks, which had previously been on the highest point of the bungalow roof, had somehow slipped down and were now on the canopy directly above Roy's front door, only about nine feet off the ground.

It was the start of a six-day siege in which Roy, whose wife Brenda is not mobile and relies on him to get out and about, were unable to do what most people take for granted - get out of their front door.

Frantic Roy phoned the RSPCA, the RSPB, Wyre Council and even a number of national newspapers in a desperate attempt to get help, before Graham Liver, of BBC Radio Lancashire, came to the rescue.

After Roy spoke to him, the BBC man and a firm crew visited the couple's home and arranged for a gazebo to be set up temporarily, right outside the door, to provide some relief for the couple.

Roy, of Wyresdale Road, Knott End, said: "It started on the Friday last week and it's been absolutely terrible.

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