Naturists open their garden of earthy delights

Ian Pollard, 60, a property developer and his 53-year-old wife Barbara, a former model, threw open the five-acre gardens at their historic home, Abbey House in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. Earlier this year the Pollards appeared in an ITV documentary on people who go to work in the nude.

Afterwards they were flooded with requests to open their garden to naturists. The garden, once the site of a Benedictine monastery, is open all summer but, for yesterday only, naturists were invited.

Clad in nothing more than boots and a gardening belt, Mr Pollard, who normally wears a thong during opening times, said: "People have said it is like the Garden of Eden."

Mrs Pollard added: "There's nothing wrong with nakedness. People get mixed up with nakedness and sex. Just because I'm naked doesn't mean I want sex."