Hedgehog village

IN the village of Authorpe, Lincolnshire, there are more hedgehogs than people.

Elaine Drewery, the village postmistress, started feeling sorry for hedgehogs squashed on the roads or lying injured. She took wounded ones home, then people started taking them to her. Now, seven years later, Hedgehog Care - which she runs with the help of Nigel Brocklesby, a former postman - cares for up to 140 at a time at her house. Humans in the village, however, number only about 100.

Hedgehog Care receives visitors - including school visits - and Ms Drewery, 53, gives talks to groups such as scouts and women's institutes. And it has a fund-raising shop, Hogsfam, which sells second-hand clothes. The stock room is the former bedroom of her daughter Corinne, the singer with the pop group Swing Out Sister.

(Photograph omitted)