Attenborough pumpkin mosaic breaks world record

A farm has broken its own Guinness World Record after unveiling a giant pumpkin mural of Sir David Attenborough.

Sunnyfields Farm in Totton, Hampshire, used more than 10,000 pumpkins and squashes to create the portrait, marking Attenborough's 100th birthday.

The mosaic measures 218.19 sq m, beating the farm's previous record of 212 sq m, set last year with a portrait of the late Ozzy Osbourne.

Guinness World Records senior adjudicator Pravin Patel confirmed the new record at Tuesday's unveiling.

Artist Andrew Bega, who designed the portrait, said it was a challenging task.

"We went through a process of selecting different images of David and eventually landed on this," he said.

"We had to go through a few to find the best that was going to be easiest to simplify but keep most of the features so we could recognise that it is Sir David, and I think we did a good job."

Farm director Thomas Nelson said the annual display had grown from a small idea into a fixture of the farm's calendar.

"My dad started putting pumpkins on a pyramid eight years ago," he said. "I thought it was a daft idea, and people seemed to like it. Now we have to do it every year.

"We're always just really nervous about how it's going to turn out. So far we haven't messed one up, and we're very pleased with this year's."

The farm asked the public via social media in August who they would like to see on this year's mosaic, with Attenborough quickly emerging as the clear favourite.

The annual artwork marks the start of the farm's Pumpkin Time event, which runs from 4 to 31 October.

Founded by Nelson's parents in 1990, the farm has staged the pumpkin pyramid display for the past 10 years, and first entered the record books in 2023 for the largest mosaic created from squashes.