As a child I remember with great fondness walking to school hand in hand with my mother and peering over the low fences of our leafy suburban neighbourhood.

We would look for garden gnomes every morning - naming them, making up stories about them, imagining the world they came from, or the world they exist in when our eyes weren’t trained on them.

I remember the morning dew dripping from blades of grass on manicured lawns, the low hanging mist floating across the gardens, hiding the gnomes further still as they nestled within bushes and privets, but mostly I remember how happy we were when we spotted a new gnome on our commute.

Nowadays I have over a dozen gnomes nestled away in my front and back garden. I like to think that occasionally a young boy or girl walking to school might get some kind of pleasure from seeing the little fellas tucked away under the bushes or sitting in a plant pot.

Sadly, I have noticed that I am the only person keeping garden gnomes in my small cul-de-sac and indeed in the wider area I would be hard pressed to tell you when I last saw a garden gnome in its natural habitat.

When we think of gnomes we think as I do, of quaint little decorated clay characters, often mass produced, often spattered with a dash of bird waste, but more traditionally gnomes have a long history in folklore, with tales as far back as the days of oral storytelling. These Gnomes are tiny and rare creatures, as opposed to the modern garden gnomes which are plentiful on account of their mass production, if not nowadays a rare sight. They are said to be small humanoid creatures who live underground and guard great treasures. But above all, they are said to bring the owner of the land they occupy great luck and good spirit.

Does it not therefore make sense that we should do all that we can, in times of a cost of living crisis and fuel poverty, to bring ourselves good luck and, if nothing else, a smile to the face of a small child?

Should we not, in droves, head to local garden centres and buy up their garden gnomes?

CHRIS SHEA