Amongst the daftest of Britain's events ....
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| World Nettle Eating Championships |
... is The World Nettle Eating Championship.
Now when you consider that Bog Snorkeling, Worm Charming, Hen Racing, Hill Cheese Rolling (of which we have had cause to mention before), Black Pudding Throwing, World Gravy Wrestling Championship, Welly Wangling and the World Gurning Championship are amongst the large number (too many to list here) of wacky UK competitions, that's a large claim.
Mythically, this contest is supposed to have been held in the county of Dorset since the 1500's and indeed the venue, The Bottle Inn was actually a Grade II listed, 16th-century, public house at Marshwood in Dorset, England which started life in 1585 AD as an ale house, thus adding weight to the claims to antiquity. Sadly the Bottle Inn closed as a pub, and the tradition was taken over by Ryan Strong at the nearby Dorset Nectar Cider Farm in Waytown.
However, in reality the first recorded event was in the 1980's when two farmers argued over who had the longest stinging nettles in their fields, and this evolved into the World Nettle Eating Championships when one of the farmers promised to eat any nettle which was longer than his longest.
In the charity raising event, the rules are very simple, competitors are served 2-foot (0.61 m) long stalks of stinging nettles, from which they pluck and eat the largely non stinging and edible leaves with their bare hands. After originally an hour (but 30 mins in 2024) the bare stalks are measured end to end and the winner is the competitor with the greatest accumulated length of nettles.
Since records were kept, the record length of stinging nettles eaten was by Tom Wheeler, from London, who ate the leaves from 116ft (35.4m) of nettle stalks to claim the men's trophy, beating last year's mens tally of 64ft (19.5m) in 2024 .... the 2023 and 2024 women's winner, Beth Hodges from Barry Island in Wales at her way through 60ft (18m) and then 64ft (195m) and said afterwards that "My fingers area bit sore, but my mouth is not too bad." .... They are given cider to help wash down the nettles and relieve the pain.
More than 30 people, from as far afield as the US and the Netherlands took part in the competition at the Dorset Nectar Cider Farm in Waytown, near Bridport on 22 June 2024.
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