Derbyshire company in giant jigsaw world record attempt

Tony and John Trowsdale run Just Jigsaws Ltd in Alfreton and have been mulling a fresh bid to build the largest hand-cut wooden jigsaw for around 15 years.

Back in 1971 it was held by Tony’s father, also called John, who crafted a 32,000 piece puzzle. The current record is held by Jill Walterbach, from the USA, with an impressive 101,000 pieces.

But Tony and John are set to go even bigger with a 120,000 piece puzzle stretching around half a kilometre from end to end.

Tony, who was 10 at the time his dad set the world record, explained that the process for cutting a jigsaw had remained the same within the company throughout the last 50 years.

He said: “The process is exactly the same as it was back then - everything is hand-cut. Maybe the machines have been tweaked a little bit and brought up to date but the actual process of cutting the jigsaw is exactly the same.

The original puzzle, depicting a ski chalet, officially got lost on a trade visit to America – though suspicions have since harboured that it “ended up in someone’s collection”.

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A team of three people at the Alfreton-factory will work on the task over a period of months - with other employees still committed to getting the regular jigsaw puzzles shipped out each day.

But John, who lives in Alfreton, said he was hoping to reflect the community spirit within the puzzle: “We are getting businesses from around Derbyshire and the East Midlands to sponsor the puzzle with their logo and some pictures of what they do, which will then be on the final cut. It’s a community project because small businesses don’t necessarily have the funds for advertising or the time so we’re hoping to get as many involved as possible.”

Tony added: “It is a mammoth task and you get a buzz but at the same time end up ripping your hair out. We’re going to enjoy ourselves, that’s for sure, and hope and pray it all works out.”

And to make the story even more complete a man named Gary Szillat will complete most of the cutting for the gigantic jigsaw puzzle: in 1971 he was aged 14 or 15 and played a helping hand in the family’s original world record success. You could say all the pieces are fitting together rather nicely, indeed.

Just Jigsaws Ltd is this year celebrating its 50th birthday of officially being a company - though jigsaw making was in the family well beforehand.

In addition to attempting to smash the world record for the largest hand-cut wooden puzzle the firm is also raising funds for Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

John has donated hundreds of puzzles to the hospital over the last few years and even visited the site to find out more about what they do. The hospital is the second largest children’s hospital in the United Kingdom and donations to help Just Jigsaws raise money for the Trust can be made via their GoFundMe page.