When potato farmer Tim Briscoe found a large quantity of his spuds had been stolen, he decided to pen a poignant poem to the pilferer - rather than subject them to a roasting.

Mr Briscoe, of the Buxton Potato Company, posted the ode on his company's Facebook Page in the hope it might shame the thief into changing his ways.

And the move has already attracted nearly 3,000 visitors.

He estimates that someone made off with about half a tonne of potatoes, worth about £100, from one of the fields being harvested last week.

'You could tell where it had happened because they should have all been nice straight rows and there were five or six which were in a mess where they'd taken the potatoes up,' said Mr Briscoe.

He grows 140-150 acres of potatoes which are sold locally to outlets including Roys of Wroxham, Budgens, and the Co-op.

Mr Briscoe said he had never known such a large-scale theft from his land before.

'We generally try to be humorous and we wanted to try and make them feel really guilty for it, but in a nice way,' he added.

Mr Briscoe has reported the theft to the police in the hope that the thief will eventually have had his chips.