SHOPPERS at Penrith's Saturday Market at Skirsgill are accustomed to being greeted by the extraordinary, but even the hard-bitten stall-holders may raise an eyebrow when they spot the latest eye-catching crowd-puller - a huge white gorilla overlooking the market area.

Spook Erection Ltd, which operates the Saturday Market, was originated by the late Nigel Maby - himself something of an eccentric, and a lover of all things different'. He was always easily identifiable at the market by his black shoes, black trousers, black shirt, and white jacket. And his methods of attracting visitors to the market were just as quirky, with big yellow roadside banners exclaiming messages such as Welcome To Cross-Dressers', etc. Nigel died in November 2004, but like most men of stature, his name crops up in conversation at the market almost daily.

His widow Lesley now runs the multi-million pound business, which includes 29 markets across Britain, and it was a long-standing intention that the gorilla statue should finally find a home at Penrith Market, where the coupled settled just outside the town. Lesley continues to live at Penrith, as she loves the area and its people.

Lesley said: "My husband bought the gorilla from King Kong Garages in Birmingham, and from there it was taken up to Edinburgh, where we had an outdoor market near the airport. We used it as a mascot for the market, and it became a recognised meeting place as market people would arrange to meet their friends below King Kong."

The 20ft-high fibre glass statue was brought down from Scotland to Penrith on a low-loader last summer and has been undergoing some renovation work since. Spook Erection employs 30 people, and its Penrith team has been busy sorting out a potential site where the gorilla will be fixed.

"Things like this bring humour, and we like the markets to be not just for shopping, but social venues where people meet as we've a lot of regular people coming to our markets," says Lesley. "It's just a bit of fun."

Lesley explains the Spook Erection name came into being because Nigel, in the early days as a market trader, was a very pale-faced and he became known by other traders as Spook. He decided he could run outdoor markets better than was the case back then in the 1960s, so he began his own market business opening his first site at Warwick. The Erection part came about because he would go in with a team and erect the stalls overnight ready for the next day's business. The company logo is a pregnant ghost to signify that the business is always expanding.

Lesley's next objective at Penrith is to expand the Sunday car boot market. She has built up Sunday markets before, knows how it is done, and plans to re-launch the Penrith Car Boot next spring on a much better footing, drawing in local businesses and tradesmen.

Nigel, she says, was a chain-smoker of a phenomenal 80 cigarettes a day, and both he and Lesley had stopped some few months before he died: "I'm convinced it was stopping smoking that killed him. He'd smoked since he was 12, and smoking suppresses things in your body. I think if he hadn't stopped smoking he'd still be alive, and I really believe that."

  • Penrith Market is one of the Spooks markets portfolio's four biggest outdoor markets across Britain: Chelford and Beeston in Cheshire, and Ayr are the others. The company own several sites, some operated on behalf of local authorities, and others run on racecourses, at auction marts, and football grounds.