TWO baby elephants became one big dragon in a special competition to find the North Of England’s biggest pumpkin.

Specimens came from all over the north with the winner weighing in at a mammoth 309 kilograms, the equivalent of two baby elephants, grown by gardener Peter Geyelin.

The competition was organised by York Maze, based at Elvington, near York, who are also running a carving competition fronted by chainsaw sculptor Lorraine Botterill.

Tom Pearcy from York Maze said: “We realised trying to carve the giant pumpkin using traditional tools was going to be impractical, so we called on acclaimed sculptor Lorraine to tackle the job.

"Even with the help of the chainsaw it still took her a full day to carve the intricate design of a dragon into the giant pumpkin.

Ms Botterill added:“I’m usually carving wooden sculptures so it was a new challenge to carve a pumpkin and quite messy, pumpkin was flying everywhere as the chainsaw bit into the fruit. I was able to make good progress with the chainsaw eventually and finish off the details with hand tools.”

She also judged the pumpkin carving competition with first prize going to Simon McMinnis from Blackpool with his carving of Frankenstein’s monster. Second prize was won by Christian Russell from Sheffield with his alien creation and the children’s category was won by Logan Stephenson aged nine from Helmsley.

Mr Pearcy said the bad weather has not affected its pumpkin crop, with more than10,000 pumpkins in their carving competition which is being held as part of a special Halloween event until November 1. One pumpkin has a golden ticket with the prize of a real gold pumpkin worth over £1,000.