IT'S a problem any householder must ponder, especially if he or she has been sitting up late watching the latest Poltergeist movie: how to keep the devil off your private property.

But Old Nick won't be paying any calls on David and Wendy Graham, after plasterer Rob George added one or two artistic touches to their new garden wall, in Salisbury Road, Shrewton.

The couple have just added a new drive and parking area on ground previously occupied by an old shed, and local builders Trevor Chapman & Sons have erected a traditional Wiltshire roofed wall.

Rob, of Precise Plastering, Nett Road, Shrewton, rendered the wall and added two moulded heads, called 'Hamptons' in the trade, and echoing the thatcher's custom of putting straw 'dollies' on a new roof.

"I was always told not to make faces when I was a kid," said Rob.

"Now they are my trademark!"

He said the heads recalled a local legend about the devil getting his comeuppance when making his way west to do mischief to the town of Devizes.

Getting thirsty on the way, he called at every dairy farm and demanded a drink of milk, which the farmers, all frightened of him, handed over.

But when the devil got to West Kennet, he met a farmer called Hampton, who refused to part with any of his milk. The devil got his revenge by turning all the farmer's milk sour, and Mr Hampton, enraged, picked up a huge load of earth and dumped it on top of the devil . . . thus creating Silbury Hill.

"Now we make these little images of Hampton on rendered walls, so the devil will think he's still around and steer clear," said Rob.