Giant pumpkins to help our heroes

These two giant pumpkins have taken pride of place at a South Staffordshire butchers shop - and are being put to good use to raise money for charity.

The 3ft-wide pumpkins are grabbing attention from the other produce on sale at W Maiden and Son butchers, in Brewood.

And customers are now being asked to pay 50p to guess their weight to help boost funds for Help The Heroes.

The winner will receive a £20 voucher. Proceeds are going to Help for Heroes — the charity helping wounded servicemen and women.

Shop owner Bill Maiden, whose family started the business in 1946, said: "My wife Barbara grew them on her allotment.

"People keep asking us if we gave them some special plant food or watered them in a certain way but we're at a loss to explain how they got so big.

"Barbara just went there every other day and treated them the same as she would normally. We've decided they can help us raise some money for a very worthy cause."

Among those to have a gusess was Bill Harding, a 97-year-old bell-ringer at Brewood's St Mary's Church.

The Brewood pumpkin is a good effort, but it is nowhere near the size of the winner of this week's Stillwater Harvest Fest in America, an annual event which claims to hold world records for the largest fruit and veg.

A pumpkin was this week weighed in at a mighty 1810.5 pounds - or almost 130 stone.

The giant vegetable best last year's efforts at the festival at the event in Stillwater, Minnesota.

That one weighed in at just 1,725 pound pumpkin, or 123 stone.