Britain's biggest spider has been found in a Whitstable back garden.

Amateur photographer Matthew Field, who lives off Canterbury Road, discovered the eight-legged beast last Saturday.

Wildlife experts have identified it as a Segestria Florentina - also known as the tube web spider - which preys on the feared false widow and is the largest species found in the UK.

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Mr Field, 42, said he was "startled" when he first found the arachnid but let it stay in his garden while he listened to the radio.

It was found surrounded by dead spiders when he unrolled a canvas.

Local DJ Mr Field said: "It startled me – it wasn’t happy that I had disturbed it and it definitely eats spiders as prey.

"It definitely startled me – my first instinct was to back away and start taking photos of it.

"It went under my chair and I sat for the afternoon with it under my chair listening to the radio."

"It’s got two distinctive lines of tiny little eyes and two fangs that look like two big sugar puffs in its mouth."

Mr Field, who said the creature measured at three-and-a-half to five inches in diameter, thought it was a mouse spider.

But experts at the Kent Wildlife Trust, based in Maidstone, have said it is a Segestria Florentina, also known as the tube web spider.

Tube web spiders are not dangerous but they can bite.

Mr Field added: "I used to be terrified of spiders, I was a right arachnophobe.

"But now I’ve grown up I’ve realised it was stupid and have got over it - there are lots in my garden and they don’t bother me at all.

"They come in during the winter but this one I didn’t want to pick up.

"It’s the biggest one I have ever seen in England.

"I have seen bigger in Greece but this is definitely the biggest one I have seen here."