NATURE lover Billy Woods dug his toes in when the man from the council arrived to inform him that his old countryside cottage was to be demolished and that he would be re-housed on a local council estate.

Billy made it clear to the official that he had no intention of being separated from the flora and fauna of the woodland belt bordering his native Haydock and the neighbouring Parr district.

In the end, Billy lost the battle to keep his Waggon Lane cottage, bulldozed as being unfit for modern-day occupation. But he won the right to adopt a "fresh air existence" not far from the site of his demolished cottage.

He trundled an ancient, gipsy-type caravan down the lane, setting it up as his permananent home in the shadow of old colliery spoilheaps which glowered down on Cannis Wood, once a popular haunt of young lovers and adventurous, tree-climbing schoolkids.

The authorities apparently turned a blind eye, for Billy lived on for many years amid the sound of birdsong and the drone of summer insects. The only clue, from the public footpath, as to the location of his thicket-concealed habitat, was a thick curl of blue woodsmoke issuing from the tall iron chimney of his unconventional dwelling.

A lady pensioner, who was brought up in Haydock and knew Billy's family well, spelled out the remarkable story of that almost hermit-like existence after spotting a brief reference to Billy on this page recently.

Mrs A. C. (she provides full identity but requests to be referred to by initials only) adds that it was only in extreme old age -- "late eighties or even in his nineties" -- that Billy quit his personal paradise and went to live with a relative.

"His wife, who was a lovely woman, lived with him in what looked like a shack on wheels up to her death," adds Mrs C., "but for many years he was alone there."

Over that period, he became increasingly "territorial", she says. Though normally a harmless, pleasantly-spoken character, Billy apparently had a stubborn streak when the mood took him.

"There was a pond by the side of the track leading to the wood from Waggon Lane where children and their fathers used to fish for perch, roach and sticklebacks," says our correspondent. "It was a very popular angling spot, but one day Billy took it upon himself to claim the pond, plus part of the wood, as his own. He put up a barbed-wire fence to keep people out and chased off any kids who ventured inside, waving a walking stick at them which he had made from a tree branch."

But the fence eventually vanished and Billy settled down once more to his harmless routine. "It was said that he grew his own vegetables and also ate herbs and berries which he gathered from the wood and the farm hedgerows," says Mrs C., who now lives at Dentons Green.

"I remember that he used to drink from a stream that was so clear and pure that water-cress grew in it. He used to have his trousers tied up at the knees with string (bo-yanks) and he wore an old cotton trilby hat and puffed on a clay pipe."

BILLY Woods, it seems, was not just one of the great characters of past decades, but he also looked the part, too!