On the 12 of July – this year – Ryan my support worker, from Alder House, embarked on a very interesting day out at Market Weighton with myself. We set off at around 10am and the weather was perfect – a nice hot sunny day! We both arrived at our destination at around – or just after 11am.
In case anybody doesn’t know who, William Bradley was: Here is a little history. He was born in Market Weighton in North Yorkshire in around the 1800’s or so. As a child he started to have an incredible growth spurt. By the time he grew up, he stood at a height of 7ft 9 inches tall and he weighed 27 stone. He went to school near his home town and I believed he worked on a farm – following in his father’s footsteps, you might say. He also earned his money touring around the country as a side show attraction, etc. So, without doubt, William was the tallest man in his home town.
I suppose one could say that to pay people’s respect for William, the town hosts a very special day in his honour every year. It is known as “William Bradley Day.” I have never been to this event before. I was very surprised to see so many people at the event. There were various stalls to shop at and look around and all that. Also, there was people dressed up in various costumes. As well as that, there was all the usual “have a go” at some things like try your hand at a lucky dip stall, catch a rubber duck in a paddling pool of water where you could win a prize and so on. Where ever me and Ryan looked, there were stalls almost where you went. Even I had ago at the raffle!
At 12pm I had a burger for my lunch and a diet coke – Ryan did the same too. After dinner we continued to look around the stalls and some shops that were open. There was a pop band playing throughout the day and various displays on show as well. We saw two men doing a BMX bike display – jumping up on metal bars and all sorts of “tricks” – like doing wheelies and all that!
The main reason for going for this day out was to see the massive wooden statue of William himself which is erected in the town of Market Weighton – all 7ft 9 inches of him!