THREE workmen struggled for more than an hour-and-a-half to save a stricken hedgehog stuck in a small hole in the pavement.

Matt Tew, Dominique Bryant and Ian Watson swapped tools for a pair of rubber gloves, goalkeeping gloves and finally some pliers before freeing the creature from its prison in Spearing Road, High Wycombe.

The trio of plumbing specialists had been fitting a heating system in a neighbouring house when Mr Tew, of Hillary Close, High Wycombe, went outside to try and find the stoptap to the house.

Mr Tew, 29, said: "I found what I thought was the hole for the tap when I saw the hedgehog. It frightened the life out of me.

"He was stuck and covered in mud. There was no way he was getting out so we had to do something otherwise he would have starved and died."

Attempts to pull the hedgehog out with a pair of washing-up gloves failed as the creature's spikes kept piercing the rubber.

The workmen then managed to borrow a pair of goalkeeping gloves from a neighbouring resident but they were foiled for a second time.

He added: "I'm not an animal lover but the thought of that thing stuck down there to die was horrible. We couldn't leave him.

"I imagined myself down there and hoped someone might do the same for me.

"It sounds cruel, but we had to use the pliers to grab his spikes and pull him up through the hole."

Mr Bryant, 29, of Rowan Avenue, High Wycombe, added: "The hedgehog had rolled up into a little ball by that point so we were able to use the pliers.

"It was either that or start pulling the road up."

The hedgehog was then washed down to rid him of his muddy coating before being released into a nearby wood.

Neighbour Margaret Ray, who'd watched the whole rescue operation from start to finish, described the three men as "heroes".

She added: "I think what they did was amazing. They weren't going to give up.

"It was a tiny hole and the hedgehog would have died.

"They are all heroes."