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House-sale couple face a tall order
Former home of the Yorkshire Giant William Bradley goes on the market for £400,000
Alexandra Wood
AT NEARLY 8ft tall and weighing 27 stone, William Bradley was a true colossus – and the house he lived in all his life was fit for a giant.
Now the centuries-old home, where Bradley used to hang his walking sticks from hooks on the high ceilings, has come on the market for the first time in eight decades.
Owners Freddy and Sylvia France have decided to downsize.
Mr France was born at the house on York Road, Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, which was bought by his father James in 1927 for 1,300. It is now on sale for 400,000.
As a child no one quite believed him when he said he lived in a giant's house. He said: "When I used to go to boarding school at Robin Hood's Bay and used to tell all my friends that I lived in a giant's house they didn't believe it.
"I had to bring back proof – the photo we had of him on the wall."
William Bradley lived in the house from his birth in 1787 to his death in 1820, and would have used the original staircase, with its spindled banister leading upstairs, and sat by the fire with its black and white marble surround.
The tallest Englishman ever recorded, he slept in what Mr France's father used to call the Long Room, the longest in the house.
But the high doorways Bradley once stepped through have been altered in years gone by to suit less exceptional heights.
The fourth son of a family of 13, Bradley's father John was 5ft 9in, and his mother Ann was of average height.
His brothers and sisters were of normal size, except one sister who would have been nearly as tall as William had she not died at 16.
He weighed 14lb at birth and by the age of 11 he was 11 stone. At school his teacher used to make him lift naughty classmates and leave them clinging to the crossbeams of the ceiling until he decided they had enough.
At 19 he weighed 27 stone and measured 7ft 8in. A year later he had grown another inch.
Bradley, who became known as the Yorkshire Giant, made a small fortune as a fairground freak, but confinement in a travelling caravan was bad for his health and later he organised his own more dignified shows.
At Windsor he was presented to King George IV, who gave him a massive gold chain which he wore until the day of his death.
When he died aged 33, he was buried inside the church for fear of graverobbers.
Not surprisingly the three-storey four-bedroomed house has plenty of room for expansion, with four storerooms above the kitchen and dining room which could be converted.
His presence is recorded on a wall outside with a memorial tablet recording the size of his footprint.
After Bradley had all but faded from memory, a small band of townspeople set to work a decade ago to raise his profile and now hold an annual Giant Bradley Day. Mr and Mrs France have raised 6,000 towards a fund for a statue in his honour.
Two years ago they held a raffle at the house, which Christopher Greener, England's tallest man at seven feet six and a quarter inches, attended, chomping through Mrs France's excellent cream scones.
Mr France, 61, who still runs his father's haulage and coach business from the premises, said living there had been an experience.
He said: "We get Americans and Japanese and even the Dutch who get off the ferry. They've seen it in the Guinness Book of Records. Sometimes there's a coach that pulls up in the layby and you see them photographing the plaques on the wall.
"People say to me why don't you retire altogether - but it's a pull to leave the business when it's been in the family 79 years."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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