Dartmouth's Old Dartmothians have been driven up the pole – for a flag-flying facelift.

The association's 74ft high flagpole in Royal Avenue Gardens has been laid low so that it can have a makeover for the first time in its life.

The aluminium pole was put up in 1987 and had never been moved since.

On Tuesday a team of Old Dartmothians moved in to haul the pole down so that it could be re-painted.

The pole was laid on trestles in Royal Avenue Gardens while it was given several coats of white paint.

It was due to be been re-erected beside the Boatfloat yesterday.

The flag pole is used by the Old Dartmothian ladies' and men's sections to fly flags on national holidays and for local events such as the annual regatta.

It is also used to fly flags as a mark of respect to members who have died.

When it was put in place the bottom of the pole included a built-in seat – especially installed for Old Dartmothian flag officer Stan Widecombe.

Former association chairman Richard Rendle said Mr Widecome had found it increasingly difficult to stand while raising and lowering the flags so the seat had been put there just for him and fixed in place with a padlock.

Mr Widecombe died a few years ago and Mr Rendle said: 'He had the key when he died and no one knew where it was so it hasn't been used since.'

The association members also discovered that their pole has been a bit of a 'prize' in a global hi-tech treasure hunt – without any of them realising.

The pole had been secretly used for geocaching – the modern equivalent of letterboxing where people use GPS to find hidden places where they can sign their name.

In this case an old camera film canister had been attached inside the pole at the bottom via a magnet and the paper inside contained dozens of signatures of 'hunters' who had managed to find it.