It’s often said walls have ears, but in Iwade they contain fangs and long hairy legs, too.

Living amid the brickwork of Kevin Friend’s home in Chetney View is a spider he calls Boris.

The tube web creature, officially known as segestria florentina, has occupied the same porch-based spot for the past four years.

He’s so familiar with the owners he’s become part of the family, with Kevin and son Luke feeding him as they do their other pets.

His popularity is all the more unusual because not only can Boris carry a painful bite, Kevin, 44, is an arachnophobic.

He said: “Even though I’ve got a fear of spiders, I’ve got this sick sort of inquisitive interest in them.

“I’ve held a fly to feed Boris. Instead of being aggressive, it wrapped its legs around my finger and took hold of the fly before returning to its hole.

"It was amazing and I went cold because I couldn’t believe what I’d just done.”

Dad-of-one Kevin said although pictures paint a monstrous figure of Boris, he’s nothing more than “good-sized”.

Kevin, a land driller, puts Boris’s longer-than-usual survival down to mild winters.

“He’s getting quite fat now,” Kevin said, while admitting he thinks there’s something special about Boris after talking to him the other day.

“He completely emerged from his hole and I thought, ‘he’s listening to me’.

“Everyone’s got a Boris in their house if they look hard enough. Our one can stay as long as he likes.”