It cannot be easy to be ruled by someone called North Sea Prawn.

But for the last year, villagers in Ashurstwood have been toasting their independent state led by a hardcore of locals.

This week, the village celebrates its first anniversary as the People's Republic of Ashurstwood Nation State (Prawns).

Border controls have been set up and all four roads leading in to the village are decorated with information boards.

The founders of the state said the village, near East Grinstead, was more united than ever before.

The band of weird and wonderful locals who set up the organisation were due to appear on Channel 4's Big Breakfast this morning to talk about their achievements and hopes for the future.

Joe Taylor, otherwise known as Tiger Prawn, said: "It has been a great year. We now have our own currency and we have had a lot of media interest all the way through.

"We have had support from people from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand who have sent us letters of encouragement. We have basically put the nation state of Ashurstwood on the map.

"It has brought the village much closer together and people have joined in quite freely with what we have done. They have celebrated it with us.

"In the future, we hope to go on with what we have done and also do something about the traffic in the village because we are used as a rat run between the A22 and the road to Tunbridge Wells. We will be looking at traffic calming for the area."

The three driving forces behind the setting up of the state were Mr Taylor, Keith Hagenbach and Mike Eichner, who is also known as King Prawn.

The group has overseen the appointment of Jim Ferry, North Sea Prawn, as Sport and Tourism Minister, Tim Franks, or Blue Prawn, as Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Bob Howe, Garlic Prawn, as Minister for Propaganda, and Milligan, who is a St Bernard dog, as Minister for Culture.