Green-fingered pensioners Tom and Susan Gould have been left scratching their heads, following a rare garden invasion.

The couple, of West Hendred, near Wantage, are struggling to accommodate a mysterious influx of garden gnomes.

Mr and Mrs Gould started off with under a dozen of the cheery chappies two years ago, but in the past year they have witnessed their collection multiply to 54.

Yet despite almost weekly new arrivals at their Bankside home, neither has any clue where they are coming from.

The bizarre migration took a further twist this week when 65-year-old Mr Gould discovered a four foot-tall newcomer on his doorstep.

The retired road-roller driver said: "They keep appearing but I haven't got a clue where from.

"It started on the Millennium Eve when two strange ones arrived, but since then they have been turning up two or three at a time. Then at the weekend this giant four-foot tall one appeared."

Mrs Gould said she was delighted, if bemused, that her well-tended plot had become a gnome haven.

The mother-of-two said: "They are over-running the garden. We have got gardening gnomes, fishing gnomes, gnomes riding pigs, ones that nod, and ones that tell the time.

"We have got Snow White and two sets of all seven dwarves, and a family of them sitting on a toadstool.

"It takes me half an hour to pick them up to cut the grass, and every time I try and count them, I find new arrivals."

A villager, who asked not to be named, said: "It has been so much fun for the couple, but it is getting out of control. It makes a change in this day and age when it's more common for things to get stolen."