The story of a wheelbarrow-pushing Victorian celebrity who travelled through Caithness features in history podcast
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A new podcast helps shed light on an enigmatic photograph from well over a century ago in the Johnston Collection showing an elderly man in Wick's town centre with a wheelbarrow.
The picture shows Victorian celebrity Bob Carlisle (1848-1912) in Wick's Market Square holding a wheelbarrow with some of the places he visited painted along its edges and surrounded by various local urchins.
History Extra’s new six-part podcast, The Tiger Tamer Who Went To Sea, celebrates the remarkable life of this Victorian celebrity who found fame in the extreme sporting craze of the era – wheelbarrow endurance racing.
Edinburgh-born global seafarer and circus-performer Bob Carlisle rose to stardom in the 1880s with the bizarre stunt that originated in America, and in 1879 he became ‘Britain’s original wheelbarrow pedestrian’ by pushing his barrow from Land’s End to John O’Groats (Lejog) and back.
In so doing, he became a media celebrity, with newspapers across the land reporting on his progress. He walked 30-40 miles a day with his barrow. Crowds flocked to see him on his route, and he delivered talks to town halls in the evenings.
Dr Dave Musgrove, content director of History Extra and host of the six-part series told the Caithness Courier: "The first one he did in 1879 and he went backwards and forwards doing walks quite a few times.
"In that image in Wick he's got the two-wheeled handcart but that's not the original wheelbarrow he had which was a single-wheeled barrow. You can date which walk he's on to the type of barrow he's using. Sometimes he'd take is wife and sometimes he'd have a peep show with a monkey. He was trying to rekindle interest after his 1879 walk when he got a lot of press."
Dr Musgrove thinks the image taken in Wick is likely to date from the early 1900s, possibly 1905, when Bob Carlisle was in the final years of his treks and when he was increasingly up against a slew of competitors doing Lejog runs.
"By the time you get into the 20th century you have motorcars and bicycles coming into play for doing the [Lejog] walk. There's a competitor to Bob Carlisle called Dr Deighton who is sponsored by Bovril and has a car with all the trappings of the burgeoning consumer society. There's a pathos to that photo of Bob, with the Edwardian urchins behind him without any shoes, when it's juxtaposed against the other guy with his big sponsorship deal."
Bob Carlisle was very positive about Caithness in his autobiography of 1897 in which he describes its inhabitants as "very nice, quiet and industrious" and also "good Christians".
"He really likes the area. For a period he piloted travelling circuses around the country and had a good knowledge of the terrain and the coast," added Dr Musgrove.
The 1886 wheelbarrow craze was kicked off by a race to the capital between Dundee’s James Gordon and Newcastle’s John Martin, aka Sawdust Jack. Gordon was the first to reach London and he was feted in the city for his efforts.
Newspapers fanned the flames of the craze and in early 1887, a regular stream of people tried to gain fortune and fame by pushing barrows, with ever more eccentric cargoes – such as bathtubs and coffins – and to even more challenging destinations, including the top of Ben Nevis. To add to the difficulty, many of the wheelbarrowists were disabled.
Bob Carlisle was also a global seafarer, a campaigner for both Temperance and anti-teetotalism, plus a celebrated circus showman, clown and big cat tamer. The first podcast episode is available to listen to now and has an overview of the original wheelbarrow pedestrian.
For more information on Bob Carlisle visit: www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/bob-carlisle-victorian-influcencer-wheelbarrow-pedestrian/
Listen to The Tiger Tamer Who Went To Sea via History Extra or your usual podcast platform.
History Extra is the official website for BBC History Magazine.
