‘Our street sees more drama than Coronation Street’

A father whose son was impaled on a door handle in a freak accident has told how he was left astonished when a bull was left impaled on their garden railings after going on the rampage.
Bull on the loose in a resident garden. Pictures taken by Rebecca Hermolle on TwittterBull on the loose in a resident garden. Pictures taken by Rebecca Hermolle on Twittter
Bull on the loose in a resident garden. Pictures taken by Rebecca Hermolle on Twittter

Simon Tattersall, 59, was stunned to see a bullock wandering around his property and even more alarmed when, having​ already​ wandered into the family home,​ it then attempted to escape and became stuck on their railings.

The father-of-six, whose teenage son William trapped his arm on a door handle in a freak accident last summer, joked how their home on Heron’s Reach, Blackpool, “sees more drama than Coronation Street.”

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But he told how seeing the young bullock distressed and in pain while trapped on the railings​ on Monday evening​ was no laughing matter at the time​,​​ as the animal was injured.

Bull on the loose in a resident garden. Pictures taken by Rebecca Hermolle on TwittterBull on the loose in a resident garden. Pictures taken by Rebecca Hermolle on Twittter
Bull on the loose in a resident garden. Pictures taken by Rebecca Hermolle on Twittter

The incident has left the Blackpool Transport worker with a bill running into hundreds of pounds to have his car and garage repaired and cleaned.

He said: “My wife came running in saying ‘there’s a cow in the garden’. And sure enough, there it was, a bullock.

“It was so weird. Though this has happened before, a few years ago.

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“There’s a farmer with a field near the De Vere and someone must have left the gate open, it’s wandered out and found it’s way here.​ It was just walking around the garden.​

“Suddenly it opened the garage door, it must have headbutted it, and he’s gone wandering in and left his mess everywhere.

“It’s made a heck of a mess of the car too.

“It tried to jump over the gate but became impaled, stuck on the spikes with its legs either side, so it was panicking and kicking the car.

“He was starting to get quite distressed by then but it seemed there was nothing anyone could do, it was a big animal, four or five feet tall.

“It was terrified and kicking seven bells out of the car.

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“Someone called for the police but we needed a vet or a farmer, someone to calm it down.

“Then a man appeared, he was brave, or maybe stupid.

​“He used a knife and cut the bull from the spikes. It sounds cruel, and we all had to look away, but it was the only way to cut it free.​“

The owner of the bullock, a farmer, later apologised to the Tattersall family and the father is now looking into costs for repairing the damage to his wife’s Ford Fiesta.

The family are no strangers to unusual goings on though.

Mr Tattersall added: “We had a peacock on our roof for three or four days a few years back too.​ ​It just wouldn’t come down.

“Some weird things have happened here.

“My son says we have more drama than Coronation Street.”

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And in July 2014 young William, a Baines High School pupil, made the headlines after trapping his arm on a door handle in a freak accident.

The teenager had been running along a corridor at home when he caught his arm on the handle, and it sliced into his skin, leaving him impaled on the fitting.

Firefighters were called to assist, having to remove the door and then the handle, before William was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital where medics carefully removed the piece of metal.

Amazingly, the handle landed just millimetres away from a major artery, causing no lasting damage.

His father said: “It’s hard to compare the two being impaled, the handle went straight into William’s arm while the cow was just stuck on the spike.”

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