200 Years Ago in Norwich : Norwich Pedestrian With Stones

And the next in my series of posts from the Norfolk Chronicle of 200 years ago this week is all about walking…..

“Monday last, Townshend, the pedestrian, undertook to pick up with his mouth from the ground, in Finch’s gardens, 300 stones, placed one yard apart, and to deposit the same in a basket, in 11 successive hours, being a distance of 51 miles and 540 yards. In this undertaking, the pedestrian put his mouth to the ground 300 times, turned 600 times and stopped 600 times. The feat was performed 16 minutes within the time allowed. We understand that Townshend has undertaken to walk 40 miles backwards in 10 hours, on the same ground, on Monday next”.

This is the time to say that I’ve walked 100 miles, I might not have mentioned that…. Actually, I’d rather repeat that than walk over 50 miles and pick up stones with my mouth. This is certainly a challenge that I’m not sure would take off today, even with the TikTok generation demanding new content styles. The walker in question is, I think, John Phipps Townshend, who wasn’t a local man as he was born in Lewes, but he did do these pedestrian events around the country. He referred to himself as the “The Champion of Living Pedestrians”, although I would humbly suggest that David Morgan of the LDWA would be a contender for that title today….. There are adverts from the time relating to Finch’s Ranelagh Gardens, so I’m guessing that this was the location of Townshend’s exertions, more of which at https://colonelunthanksnorwich.com/tag/ranelagh-gardens-norwich/.