Eileen Springall, chairman of Aylsham Town Council, accepts a collection of tools from Paul Overton, donated by horticultural and garden equipment firm Ben Burgess to help the victims of allotment-shed arsonists make a fresh start.

A heartbroken pensioner whose allotment sheds were torched by arsonists, says he has been touched by the kindness of people who have donated tools to help him start again.

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Individuals and firms have been contacting Aylsham Town Council with offers after reading about Arnold Teague’s plight in last week’s paper.

And Mr Teague, 73, who said after the attack that he had lost the will and means to carry on, has now had a change of heart.

His two sheds were among four completely destroyed by vandals who ran riot among the allotments, off Aylsham’s Cromer Road,

Mr Teague also lost tools collected over a lifetime’s gardening, and an elaborate water-capture system he had designed himself.

When his story appeared in the paper it prompted calls to the town council, which manages the allotments and had appealed for donations to be shared among allotment victims.

Town clerk Mo Anderson-Dungar said residents had brought in “armfuls of stuff”. She added; “It shows that we’re still very much a community here.”

And their generosity has helped Mr Teague change his mind. He said: “I think I will carry on. I had paid my rent for next year the day before it happened and I’ve still got some produce there, and fruit trees, to look after.”

Among donors were an elderly man who brought along a collection of tools and said his own gardening days were over, a couple who pledged to turn out their garden shed for surplus items, and garden equipment firm Ben Burgess, which has an Aylsham depot and which has given a range of ex-hire tools including spades, forks, a rake and a bag of hand forks and trowels.

Paul Overton, who is in charge of horticultural equipment at Ben Burgess in Aylsham, said: “We were a bit disappointed to heard of something like this - you don’t expect it in Aylsham.”

And a woman who called the News’ Cromer office to find out where she could send a cheque, said: “My late father loved his garden and I can imagine how he would have felt if it had happened to him.”

Mr Teague, who lives in sheltered accommodation at Maingay House, about a three-quarter-of-a-mile walk from his allotment, said: “I am very impressed at people’s response. It shows there is still a good spirit among people out there.”

But he added that the tools would have to remain in the town council’s care for the time being as he no longer had a shed in which to store them.

Mrs Anderson-Dungar said the town council had contacted allotment land owners the National Trust who were willing to block off access from the adjoining Weavers Way footpath if the council would erect a sturdy, locked, gate at the official entrance to the site.