A widow he wouldn’t mind, but not an eight-legged one.

That was Kingsdown resident Andrew Thorne’s response to finding what he believes was a venomous false widow in his bedroom.

Mr Thorne, of Kings Close, discovered the creepy crawly running across the ottoman in his bedroom on Monday.

He said: “It frightened the life out of me.

“I ran out and got a jar. When I got back it had stopped. It knew I was there. I just put the jar over it.

“I’ve been abroad a lot. I’ve seen some animals and creatures but not a spider as big as this.”

Mr Thorne, who says he reads a lot, then checked his newspaper to compare it against pictures in recent reports of false widows.

He claims the spider matched the pattern as well as the colour of a venomous false widow.

He said: “I put it down as that.”

He kept it under the jar for three days until it died.

“I don’t like spiders. I wouldn’t mind a widow, but not one with eight legs,” he said.

Mr Thorne is keeping it to show his sons and grandchildren.