Giant pumpkin that needs two people to carry it helping to raise money for Pontefract hospice

Lee Ward, landlord at the Robin Hood Inn, Pontefract, has been handed the pumpkin by regular Sean Carter.

The pumpkin is on display at the pub throughout October and is the subject of a guess the weight competition, with entries costing £1 and the proceeds going to the Prince of Wales Hospice in Pontefract.

Lee said: "Sean has an allotment and every year he tries to nurture as big a pumpkin as he can.

"It took two of us to get in here. It's a magnificent beast.

"It's the weight of a full grown adult, put it that way.

"It had to sit in a wheelbarrow and we brought it in through the back door.

"It's been in display about two weeks now and everybody walks in and just says 'is that real?', 'that can't be real!', and I just say 'believe me, it's real'.

"We've had to put a sign up saying 'please don't attempt to pick it up', not just for health and safety reasons but also, it's that heavy, when it gets dropped back down it's damaging the skin on the underside."

Lee says he hasn't decided what will happen to the pumpkin once the competition has finished.

"They asked me at the hospice whether the winner gets the pumpkin - I don't know what they'd do with it," he said.

"Unless you could make something out of pumpkins and then freeze it, it'd last you for a year!

"I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but there has been a competition prize donated by Kirkstall Brewery who supply us of a beer hamper and a brewery tour."