Thatcher in Norfolk village finds 'wasp metropolis'

Nick Walker was able to removed the empty nest intact from the roof

A thatcher who removed a wasp nest bigger than a football said it was part of a "wasp metropolis" he discovered in a cottage roof.

Nick Walker found the nest while working on a property in the village of Brooke in south Norfolk on Tuesday.

It was uninhabited and the only part of several nests he discovered in the property he was able to remove intact.

Mr Walker, who works across Suffolk and Norfolk, said: "It is the biggest wasp nest I've ever encountered."

He said he was working on the "very old thatched roof" in the village when he spotted the nests.

'Very angry squirrel'

"I was stripping down the layers and I could see a number of wasp nests including this one that was bigger than the size of the football.

"It was like a wasp metropolis but luckily they were all uninhabited."

Mr Walker said the nest's circumference was 3ft 9in (1.2m) and it was 1ft 6in tall (45cm).

The 41-year-old said he had previously had "some unfortunate incidents" where he disturbed a live wasp nest.

"It's a right pain when you are perched 30 foot up a ladder," he added.

Mr Walker said his work in Brooke was special to him because it was the village he grew up in

He said it was a "very common question" whether he encountered wildlife in the thatched roofs.

Mr Walker said he had found evidence of rats and birds, and he had a "run-in with a squirrel not that long ago".

"It was a very angry squirrel and it screeched at me," he said.