Artist creates 30-foot England badge on Suffolk beach ahead of World Cup clash | OneFootball

A colossal England badge, meticulously crafted from stones on a Suffolk beach, has emerged ahead of the football team launching their World Cup campaign in Dallas, Texas.

Artist Toby Clark, 40, dedicated “a little over eight-and-a-half hours” to create the striking emblem near Lowestoft in Suffolk.

The shield, measuring six metres wide by nine metres tall (19.6ft by 29.5ft), was formed on the World Cup's opening day, 11 June.

Its design features the word ‘England’ spelled out in stones, with a star above.

“It’s all just stones off the beach, just scooping them up in tubs and sprinkling them down,” Mr Clark said.

To achieve the design, the football fan first flattened the area and used a string grid as a guide.

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A giant England badge made by artist Toby Clark using stones found on the beach near Lowestoft, Suffolk (PA Wire)

“I’ve always wanted to do stuff like this since watching Art Attack growing up,” he said.

“Doing this specifically, I often do big England badges when I can.

“I’ve done big chalk ones on the patio before.

“Whenever I get the opportunity, I do one.”

Mr Clark, who works as a cleaner, said “people seem to be really impressed with it”.

He said there had been “an awful lot of talk of people just assuming that it’s AI when they see the pictures, which I take as a huge compliment”.

In a social media post, Mr Clark, of Lowestoft, said that a vehicle had driven over the beach artwork earlier in the week.

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It took Mr Clark 'a little over eight-and-a-half hours' to sculpt the shield (PA)

Speaking on Wednesday, he said he believed this was accidental and that he had restored the badge before England’s opening match against Croatia at the Dallas Stadium on Wednesday night.

“When you’re in the location you can clearly see it is the only access point onto the beach for vehicles,” he said.

“Whoever’s driven over it presumably had the keys to the gate to get onto the beach in the first place.

“So it’s going to be the council or police, fire brigade, maybe coastguard. Someone like that.

“I don’t think it’s intentional and I don’t think they would have had any option.

“I think I’ve done a pretty decent job of restoring it.

“It looks good to me.”

Asked about England’s chances at the tournament, Mr Clark said: “We’re going to bring it home, obviously – otherwise I’ve wasted my time.”