AN extraordinary tale has emerged from the Uley archives about the time villagers adopted a lowland gorilla.

The ape - called John Daniel - played with children, went to classes, ate roses from gardens, enjoyed cups of tea and drank cider with the locals.

Uley Society archivist Margaret Groom has unearthed a collection of unique photos of John which have been published in her book about the history of the village.

He would be carted around by kids in a wheelbarrow and hang out with the local cobbler watching him repair shoes.

Raised as a boy John had his own bedroom, was potty trained and even knew how to make his bed and do the washing up.

John was later found for sale at London department store Derry & Toms in 1918 and bought for £300 - now £25K - by Major Rupert Penny who named him.

Rupert's sister Alyce Cunningham nurtured and brought him up at her country house in Uley - and nicknamed him "sultan".

She raised him as a normal boy in the village and he regularly used to go for walks with children of the Uley Junior School.

Villagers in Uley adopted the lowland gorilla after he was captured as a baby in Gabon when his parents were shot by French officers.

Sadly his adoptive owners were later tricked into selling him to a circus and he moved to America where he died pining for Alyce.

Margaret a grandmother-of-three, said: "He grew up in the village with the school children. They were exceptionally fond of John Daniel.

"We have a file in the archives with all these photos in. I think they were collected by people in the village at that time.

"Until recently we had people that remembered him walking around the village with the children. He used to go into gardens and eat the roses.

"The children used to push him around in a wheelbarrow. He knew which house was good for cider, and would often go to that house to draw a mug of cider.

"He was also fascinated by the village cobbler, and would watch him repairing shoes.

"He had his own bedroom, he could use the light switch and toilet, he made his own bed and helped with the washing up."

John, was known for his perfect manners - at 5 o’clock he never missed drinking a cup of tea and after dinner always drank coffee.

During the day he was used to drinking three large shots of whiskey and sometimes a glass of sherry or port.

Local resident Kathryn Talboy's lives in Uley and remembers her family talking about John.

She said: "Our family lived in Uley until the 1950s.

''I remember my great aunty, Dolly Cornford telling me the sad story of John Daniel and her memories of him in the village."

Miss Cunningham would take John to her London home in Sloane Street where he would attend her VIP dinner parties, drinking cups of tea the afternoon.

But after three years he grew from a manageable 32lb infant to a colossal 210lb gorilla, and Miss Cunningham couldn't look after him anymore.

She sold him to an American in 1921 for a thousand guineas believing that he would be sent to a home in Florida.

But she was deceived and instead he fell into the hands of Barnum and Baileys circus and was also displayed in the Ringling zoo of Madison Square Garden.

However his health deteriorated and it was believed he was pining for Miss Cunningham.

An urgent message was sent to her from the zoo which read: "John Daniel pinning and grieving for you.

"Can you not come at once? Needless to say we will deem it a privilege to pay all your expense, Answer at once."

Miss Cunningham set sail immediately, but he died of pneumonia before she arrived, aged four and a half years old.

His body was stuffed and given to the American Museum of Natural History for preservation.

He went on display in the New York museum in 1922, where he remains today.

John Daniel is to be the subject of art exhibitions to be held later this year at Prema Arts Centre in Uley.

Margaret's book is called Notes from the Uley Archives.