The Old General given a facelift after a decade in the doldrums

NEW LOOK FOR PUB STATUE REDISCOVERED BY REAL ALE CAMPAIGNER

- By LYNETTE PINCHESS

AN ICONIC Nottingham statue has been fully restored after being left to rot for a decade.

The Old General was stationed above the entrance of a Hyson Green pub of the same name for more than a century and during the festive season he would be dressed up as Father Christmas.

After the statue was removed when the pub, on the corner of Radford Road and Bobbers Mill Road, was redeveloped in 2016, locals were told it had been safely stored in a secret location.

An agent for the developers reassured them it would be incorporated into the new build so future generations could see it.

However, the Old General, based on an 18th century eccentric local character named Benjamin Mayo, was left languishing in a wooden box in the backyard of a charity shop next door run by Haven Housing Trust.