An innovative Tudor garden watering system is to be recreated by students in Cornwall to see if it actually worked.

Known as the Tudor Great Squirt, the device at Trerice House, near Newquay, consists of a large pump in a huge tub of water.

The watering tool was described in the 1577 book The Gardeners Labyrinth, but it is unkown as to whether the system ever worked successfully.

However, pupils from Newlyn East School are going to give it a go, the BBC reports.

"We don't have a clue if the Great Squirt ever operated successfully in Tudor times," said James Breslin, Trerice's assistant property manager.

"So this project is going to be a fantastic piece of experimental archaeology and an amazing learning experience for the children involved."

The children will be working off the single image of the device to exist.

If successful the Great Squirt should "water the garden gently as if with drops of rain".