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By Tom Pugh, Press Association

Visitors from as far afield as Australia and Japan are flocking to a
sleepy village to see a mosaic created from pumpkins and squashes as
part of an annual festival celebrating the fruits.

Since the early 1990s, people have visited Slindon, near Arundel, West
Sussex, to marvel at the remarkable natural creations of Clifford Ralph
Upton on the roof of a shed.

He would decorate the roof with pumpkins and squashes of all shapes,
sizes and colours under different themes, such as the universe and the
pyramids, as the highlight of the Slindon pumpkin festival.

But since his death aged 87 in June, a five-strong team of locals,
including his son Robin Upton, decided to keep his tradition alive and
preserve Slindon's reputation as Britain's pumpkin capital.

The team spent time designing the idea on paper and about a fortnight
erecting scaffolding measuring some 12ft by 20ft to keep more than 400
of the fruits in place.

This year's theme is sunflowers and butterflies, both of which were held
dear to Mr Upton Senior's heart and which inspired his display back in
2002.

His son Robin, 63, said today: "We get a lot of minibuses from charities
coming to the village and even had 14 buses at one time to look at the
display.

"My dad started out by putting the pumpkins on the roof to help them
ripen up, but then it went from there and he decided to start making
displays out of them.

"Since we lost the village post office, the pub and a shop, there's not
much else around here so the pumpkin festival is important locally. It
has certainly attracted a lot of attention. Some people plan their
holidays around the festival.

"The festival lasts until Halloween night. Certain pumpkins and squashes
will by then become rotten but a lot of them are recoverable because
they are a hardy winter fruit."

Published by courtesy of the Press Association