IT IS made from over 70,000 recycled matches, measures at over five feet in length and took over 900 hours to build.

Former oil rig worker David Reynolds has built a replica of the Mayflower using matchsticks purely held together by whipping yarn, PVA glue and cord.

The 61-year-old from Southampton already made the history books when he got his North Sea oil platform replica into the Guinness Book of World Records as the Largest Matchstick Model in 2009.

David said that he created the recently-completed Matchstick Mayflower model in honour of this year's 400th anniversary of the Mayflower ship's initial departure from Southampton and Europe.

It has taken him two years to build the four-foot high model.

He said: "Over the past two relentless years, although I take a keen interest in politics, I seem to have spent countless hours glued to the TV watching the Brexit debate, and thought maybe I was just wasting my life and decided to do something slightly more constructive at the same time.

"So I rekindled the flame of an old hobby of mine - model ship building - in the also relentless, time-consuming medium matchsticks. So as I have pointlessly been watching, listening to many hours of social Brexit discussion on TV, I have been positively glueing matches."

According to David, if all the matches were laid down end-to-end, they would make a single match of 2.6 miles long.

The record-holder hoped to have the model finished by January 31 but ended up giving it an extension for completion.

He has compared the making of the Matchstick Mayflower model to the UK's departure from the EU.

David added: "After 2 years, what have I achieved? Some may say a waste of time, but I have achieved a modest model of the Mayflower. The marvellous Matchstick Mayflower has taken over 900 painful Brexit-watching hours to build.

"Will the Brexit departure be a similar voyage of discovery as with the Mayflower, or will it be a completely different voyage, such as that of another notorious Southampton departing ship, just over a century ago?"