An enormous vegetable is set to raise money for a local hospital thanks to a pub landlord.

Leavening farmer Dave Abrams, left, with the giant turnip and pub landlord John Parkinson. Picture: Frank Dwyer

A regular at the Jolly Farmers in Leavening brought in an over-sized turnip which has now taken pride of place on a Guinness tray in the pub.

Landlord John Parkinson has invited drinkers to attempt to guess the weight of the turnip and the £1 they pay for the privilege will be donated to Malton Hospital to go towards a new ECG machine.

The person with the closest estimate to the correct weight will win a gallon of the pub's ale.

To date about 50 punters have had a go, and the wild guesses have ranged between 13 and 56 lbs.

The ugly-looking turnip is providing a lot of fun for drinkers at the pub, and one regular said "it reminds me of my ex-wife."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.