The county’s infamous weird and wacky world record competition returns to rural west Dorset next week.

The annual World Nettle Eating Competition will take place at The Bottle Inn in Marshwood.

The quirky event involves eating as many nettles as possible in one hour from two feet stalks cut by local farmers beforehand from fields around Marshwood.

New records were achieved at last year’s event with Philip Thorne from Colyton in Devon becoming the first competitor to ever munch his way through more than 100ft of nettles.

Philip also triumphed two years previous to that when he managed 86ft of nettles, but he excelled his personal best in 2018 by munching through an impressive 104ft of nettles.

The previous record holder, Pete Wellman from Axminster, who got through 96ft of nettles in 2015, didn’t take part last year, instead commentating on the event, but after announcing the results said he would be back this year to try and regain his record.

The 2018 competition also saw a new record set in the women’s event when Mel Lang ate 61ft of nettles, beating the previous record of 56ft set by Naomi Harris.

She was closely challenged by Rachel Woods and it was decided that Mel and Rachel should share the trophy.

The pub will open from 12 noon on Saturday, July 27 with the competition starting at 5.30pm before music from five-piece band Plain Sailing at 8pm.

For more information, search for The Bottle Inn on Facebook.