PLANS to erect a statue of a gorilla, named John Daniel, that lived in Uley in the early 1900's will now go ahead.

John Daniel lived in the small village from 1918-1921 and the Uley Society was looking to commemorate him by building a statue on the village green.

The true story of the gorilla, who was raised like a child, went viral last year after archivist Margaret Groom published a collection of pictures of his life in the village.

Uley Society submitted the plans to build the statue to Stroud District Council on March 29, but that application has now been approved after a meeting on August 14.

Dr Rod White, treasurer of the society, had previously said that something needed to be done to mark the centenary of John Daniels life.

"It is one of the more romantic stories of Uley," he said.

“A lot of young people in the village had never heard the story before it went viral in January 2017. Since then, there has been a lot of interest.

“We hope that highlighting this unique chapter in the village’s history will further enhance the strong sense of community spirit we have here.

"People sit on the green on summer evenings and hopefully it will add to the ambience there."

The statue has been sculpted by Sebastian Rasch and will now be placed on Village Green in Uley, near to the pub the animal used to frequent.

Alyce Cunningham, from from the town, adopted John Daniel after he was captured as a baby in Gabon when his parents were shot by French officers.

Her brother bought the lowland gorilla for £300 in London.

Raised as a boy, John had a bedroom, was potty trained, made his own bed and drank cider.

Sadly, after he grew to over 210lbs, Ms Cunningham was tricked into selling the gorilla to a circus in the US - thinking it was a zoo.

A year on John's health deteriorated, so his former owner made the trip to see him, unfortunately he died of pneumonia before Alyce arrived.

In New York Museum, nearly 100 years on, John Daniel is still on display.