COLERNE sea scouts have narrowly missed out on breaking a world record for laying a mile of one pence coins in the quickest time.

The youngsters aged six-12 from the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts, had to arrange more than 84,400 pennies, with a combined weight of 48 stone, faster than the current Guinness World Record of two hours 16 minutes and nine seconds.

On Saturday, more than 30 children worked together to try and beat the record at the Gym Hangar at the 21 Signal Regiment Barracks in the village. The mile was broken into eight sections and each team had to lay four lines of coins in the time.

Group scout leader James Bicknell said: “Regrettably we did complete the challenge inside the world record time, however we cannot claim the title as we needed to use extra teams than we are allowed in the end.

“The Scouts, Cubs and Beavers got off for a slow start on their first line of coins. The pace steadily improved throughout the morning and we actually got quite good working at a speed that would have broken the World Record.

“It became apparent that with 30 minutes to go the Scout Group were not going to break the record, so we decided to use more laying teams than the record permitted.

“Once the extra teams helped with the challenge the Scout Group completed the mile of pennies inside the world record time. So on this occasion we cannot claim the world record, despite being 4 minutes quicker than the current record.”

Mr Bicknell added: “The level of commitment and team work was outstanding by everyone who helped out.

“Thanks to the generosity of everyone who donated to the world record attempt, we made over £1,000 which will be reinvested into Scouting in Colerne. So no world record this time, but a lot of lessons learnt and I am sure we will be back to attempt to take this title again in the future.”