The things I do for spiders

I like spiders. I’ve never found them frightening and I don’t like to harm them. They are the gardener’s friend after all. (NB. I live in the UK so have no experience of giant hairy/poisonous species).

So there I am removing an old plastic mini greenhouse and I see mum spider with babies wrapped up in a cocoon suspended above her . Or mum and potential dinner wrapped up in a cocoon, but I prefer the former. Mum, babies, web and surrounding bricks must be transported to safety. This is my garden code of honour.

This involved catching mum in an upturned tumbler covered with a piece of cardboard. The two bricks with suspended cocoon are slid onto a piece of rigid plastic. Whole ensemble is carried into greenhouse where it is dry. Mum in tumbler is not happy and keeps jumping vertically and hitting top of glass (so glad she isn’t bigger!). Mum is finally taken into the greenhouse,released above cocoon and she drops down below it. If she had teeth she would be nashing them. Her lair is covered by an additional brick. Pheeew!

Does anyone know what species she is? She was very large, like a big house spider but she looks different. I’m assuming she’s female but I could be wrong. I hope she has settled in.

P.S. I’ve had a look online and I think she may be the Cobweb Spider (Tegenaria gigantea). She was surrounded by a huge cobwebby web (my scientific description) so that was a useful clue.