A PUB landlord has been left shell-shocked after discovering an eggstremely large egg - four times the size of a normal one.

George Jenkinson, who runs the Three Crowns, in Darlington, made the cracking find in his weekly egg delivery.

The whopper weighs a hefty 8oz and is four times the size of an average 2oz hen’s egg.

The 65-year-old said: “I haven’t seen an egg this big before – it’s huge. I’ve been keeping it in a mug it is that big.

“I am going to let people have a look at it first then I might get it blown out and maybe even put it on eBay. I’m definitely not going to be cooking it.”

The egg was laid by one of the 16,000 free range hens at The Good Egg Fellas at West Newbiggin Farm, in Sadberge, near Darlington.

Owner Phil Twizell said the egg was laid by a young Bovan Brown hen who has just started laying.

“It takes them a while to get used to the cycle,” he said. “We probably get about two huge eggs a year while they get into the swing of laying, but I haven’t had one that is bigger than this one.

“It could either be a double yolker, or two eggs in one.”

The largest hen egg ever laid was a five-yolked egg weighing in at nearly 12oz (340g). It was laid by a Black Minorca at a farm in Lancashire in 1896.