A TRULY eccentric Monmouth pensioner, who had once had been a millionaire, has died at the age of 80 after a short illness.

Well-known for driving around town in his vintage tractor, Jack Roocroft had a passion for brightening the town with blooms, but his impatient nature with red tape often got him into trouble.

Jack originally made his money by constructing the barriers on many of Britain's motorways, as well as the A40/A449 midlands to Newport trunk road, during the 1960s.

He was the son of a Lancashire farmer, and later returned to the profession he knew well by running a farm in Trellech. However Jack was forced to sell the farm during an earlier recession and retired to urban life at Monmouth's Troy Way. 

Jack and his trademark tractor soon became a fixture of the urban environment and he came to prominence in 1999 when his efforts were behind the town's second prize in the small town category of that year's Wales in Bloom competition.

And in 2004 the chain saw wielding pensioner chopped down  five trees in Monmouth's historic Nelson Garden, claiming that the conifers were not part of the garden's layout in 1802. 

However, he breathed new life into the Monmouth War Memorial's 100-year-old ornamental Catalpa tree after it was threatened with being chopped down. Jack took matters into his own hands and cut off a large bough, enabling the tree to spring back to life and save it from being felled.

Frank Sutton, the proprietor of the locally based agricultural engineers, said: "I've known Jack for over 50 years from when he first arrived in the Monmouthshire area.

"He was always a man of his word. If he owed you a shilling he'd soon return it. I even sold him his tractor.

"Jack could be a cantankerous man, but I admired how the old boy always stood up to authority."

Sergeant Mike Gray of Monmouth police, who had known him for a number of decades, said: "Although he was a hard working and able man, Jack was very much an individual who became well known, often for the wrong reasons.

"His intentions were often well meant. However he did not follow the rules and with this and his mischievous attitude, it was not uncommon for upset to be caused."

Local archaeologist Stephen Clarke said: "It will be a duller world without ol' Jack. While he often went about things like a bull in a china shop, his heart was always in the right place. He loved Monmouth and was always trying to improve the appearance for the benefit of the community."

The pensioner, passionate about growing his own produce, helped establish a community allotment and turned unused plots of land into allotments for the benefit of the community. However, the local authority took exception to some of his activities and evicted him from the land and fenced these areas off.

In January 2009, after a prankster made a call to the police claiming they had seen a man brandishing a gun on a tractor, the armed police surrounded the Monmouth estate where he lived.

After a long standoff Jack came out of the house with his hands in the air. He told the Review that he thought the police would shoot him.

It was later revealed that it was a hoax call, as the pensioner's tractor had been taken away for repair a couple of days before the incident.

Jack celebrated his 80th birthday in September with family in Lancashire and locally with friends, but his fighting spirit finally ended last week following a short illness at Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny.

Debbie McCarty, the local authority's Central Monmouthshire area officer said: "It's very sad to have seen the last of Jack and his tractor. He was a real character of the town who truly made Monmouth what it is.

"We all shall sadly miss him and the town will not seem the same without his colourful personality being among us."