The mainstay of British gardens for decades, the wheelbarrow, has been reinvented here in the Isle of Man.

Frank Thompson of Douglas has designed and patented the world’s first flatpack wheelbarrow of its kind and requires no nails or plastic.

The design of the new wheelbarrow follows the basic principle of flatpack furniture: it comes in half a dozen pieces with pegs and glue that hold it together.

Mr Thompson, of Hutchinson Square, designed the wheelbarrows with his wife Keely, who also paints them.

He told the Examiner the idea came from his experience making garden furniture and having looked at the existing market, he found a gap for flatpack wheelbarrows.

Mr Thompson said: ’I want to have them on sale after Christmas.

’We’ve made templates by hand and then that can be transferred to a machine to cut them. They’re all Manx-made, designed on the island, so everything going into them is Manx and it’s a world first.

’I hope the flatpack style encourages people to buy them so they can build them themselves and could paint them to any design they want.’

The wheelbarrows come in a variety of sizes, from small ones that could make ideal flower pots to larger ones which can be used in the garden for light work.

Currently, Mr Thompson is displaying the wheelbarrows in his front garden and he has plans for them to be displayed at Mustang Sally’s in Castletown and Riley’s Garden Centre on the Cooil Road ahead of them going on sale.

For more information on Mr Thompson’s design, email [email protected].