When Daniel Lambert came to town

“MAN MAMMOTH” Leicester legend Daniel Lambert once came to Hinckley and charged people to see him in the flesh, research has shown.

Lambert researcher Philippa Massey has found that on December 15 to 16, 1806 the larger-thanlife figure stayed at the Bull’s Head Inn on Market Place at the bottom of Castle Street, where Coral’s is now, and charged one shilling for people to meet him.

She shared her research with members of Hinckley Family History Society who invited her to talk at a recent meeting.

Society spokesman Ian Phillpott said: “Daniel was a wellknown Leicester character, famed for his size, but Philippa embarked on a quest to uncover more of Daniel’s life and character and see him as a real person and not just a caricature.”

At one point working as a gaoler, contemporary accounts described him as a “very gentle and humane man”.

He died in Stamford, on a trip to the races, on June 21, 1809, aged 39.

His estate was administered by his sister and his wardrobe sold off, appearing in public in Stamford in 1846 when people were invited to “wear the man mam- moth’s clothes”.

Today, townspeople there are responsible for the careful tending of his grave.

Hinckley Family History Society will next meet on Thursday June 1 in Druid Street at 7pm for a 7.30pm tour of Hinckley’s Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel.

Non-members welcome. For more information call Hinckley 612261.