Essex cockerel in 'tallest' Guinness World Record bid Published duration 17 May 2013

image caption Little John, the light Brahma, is 26in (66cm) tall.

An Essex cockerel is set to enter the record books as the "world's tallest".

Little John, a one-year-old Brahma cockerel at Mountfitchet Castle near Stansted, is 26in (66cm) tall.

His owners at the medieval village tourist attraction said he was 2in (5cm) taller than another of their cockerels, who was already a Guinness World Record holder.

Little John will not be fully-grown for another year so staff said they expected him to get taller still.

Brahma cockerels are an Asian breed which originated in China.

"They were brought over to the UK by the Romans, so they're really an old English breed now," a spokesman for Mountfitchet Castle said.

They come in three varieties - light, dark and buff.

Little John is a light Brahma.

The castle already has two official Guinness records for their Brahma cockerels.

Bertie and Melvin were 16.1in (41cm) and 24in (61cm) tall respectively, but as Little John is taller still, staff said they had no doubt he would take the new record.