‘I’ve been rescuing hedgehogs in my garden for 25 years’

For 25 years, Joan Lockley has run a hedgehog rescue from her Staffordshire garden.

The 82-year-old says she helped more than 600 of the animals over the past 12 months from her “hosprickle” at her home in Cheslyn Hay.

This year, she was awarded a British Empire Medal for her efforts in running West Midlands Hedgehog Rescue.

She says she will never stop doing what she can to protect the animals.

“It started with one hedgehog that walked across my garden,” she said.

“And the only thing I knew about hedgehogs then was that you should never see them in the daytime.”

She boxed the hedgehog up, she said, and sought advice from a vet and another hedgehog rescue about how to care for it herself.

“And then I got hooked on them,” Joan added.

“People started bringing them in, I became a member of the Hedgehog Preservation Society, and over the years the numbers grew and grew and grew.

“They are magic, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like hedgehogs.”

Joan has space for 36 hedgehogs at home, but says this year she has seen fewer than in previous years, having rescued more than 800 in 2024.

According to the latest State of Britain’s hedgehogs report, numbers of hedgehogs have fallen by up to 30% in urban areas and 50% in rural areas since the Millennium.

For her efforts in caring for hedgehogs, she was rewarded with a British Empire Medal.

“I couldn’t believe it, I thought somebody was pulling my leg”, she said.

“You don’t realise that people can see the work that you’re doing.”

And despite describing running the rescue as “hard work”, she says she has no intention of stopping.

For anyone who wants to help the hedgehogs in their garden, she said: “I always recommend cat biscuits, or kitten biscuits, and always water.

“People think that come the autumn hedgehogs hibernate, they don’t all hibernate.

“So keep feeding and putting water out 12 months of the year just to attract them and look after them.”