Britons face a Halloween pumpkin shortage after the hottest summer on record as one Suffolk farm grew just 50 instead of 10,000

Liz Paterson and Andrew King of Ruffins Farm in Bury St Edmunds gave their water to 500 breeding ewes, and the pumpkins 'just didn't grow'. Data suggests 2026 could be England's worst harvest on record. Pumpkins are about 90 per cent water. Some 24 million are sold in the UK each year, and growers warn shoppers to expect much smaller gourds.

RHS chief horticulturalist Guy Barter: drought 'stretched their tolerance to the limit'.

Picking Patch in the New Forest says its pumpkins came out 50 to 60 per cent smaller.

Riverford founder Guy Singh-Watson urged Britain to question its 'obsession with giant carving pumpkins'.