British grandfather breaks his own world pumpkin record with a 1,295kg gourd grown solo for the first time

From the Newshound archive · first published 6 October 2026 · last updated 7 October 2026.

Ian Paton, 65, from Lymington, Hampshire, has grown the world's biggest pumpkin — a 2,856.8lb (1,295.8kg) specimen roughly the same weight as a female hippopotamus — smashing his own previous record at the Wargrave Nursery Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off in Berkshire on Saturday. It is the first time he has achieved the feat without his twin brother Stuart, who retired to travel the world this year. Paton knew he had a winner when the telehandler he used to lift it lit up 'like a Christmas tree' with weight-overload warnings.

Every entry at the top of the all-time rankings belongs to Paton: Saturday's gourd is his third consecutive pumpkin to hold the record for heaviest ever grown.

Over two months he spent up to six hours a day burying vines — a technique aimed at enlarging the root system and driving the pumpkin to its maximum potential size.

Etta, five, and Martha Syrett, seven, his granddaughters, were left 'amazed' and were the first people he rang after the victory.