This weekend I witnessed two Guinness world records when I visited the Egremont Crab Fair.

Ever since I first moved to Cumbria, in July 1992 when I moved to Barrow-in-Furness to work at the paper which was then known as the North West Evening Mail, I was aware of the event and always wanted to visit to photograph it.

One of the highlights is the World Gurning Championships, where regular members of the public try to distort their faces into the most grotesque visage for the judges, was the two world records.

Basically, Egremont is around 45 miles south west of Carlisle and, the event returned this year after a four year break due to Covid-19 and the death of Queen Elizabeth II last year.

Craig Glenday, editor in chief at the Guinness Book of World Records, was on hand to dish out an award to recognise the fair with the event being officially recognised as the world’s longest running World Gurning Championships.

In addition he also gave the defending champion Tommy Mattinson the record for the most titles, as he had won 17, only for him to break his own record as he has now gained 18 titles at the event.

As well as the men’s competition there was also the women’s contest, where Claire Lister retained her title, and they even get the youngsters started early with the youngest entrant at just three years of age.

If I am being honest I love our quaint British traditions such as gurning because that is what makes this country special and we should treasure them.