World record holders ... but why do they do it? L
EDD Mather is a brewer and brewing historian in search of pints from the past.
“I’m writing a book on old beers, with lots of lovely home-brew recipes from old northern brewers,” he says.
“I’m looking for any old brewing production records, especially from the Lockwood brewery of Bentley and Shaw, and any other defunct brewery records from Yorkshire.
“I’ve been through all of the archives’ catalogues that could hold the sort of records I’m after, but the only Yorkshire ones are from Tetley and Henry Bentley and Co. Would your readers be able to help with my research?”
Lockwood Brewery was established in 1795 using Horse Bank Spring at Lockwood. In 1939 it had 31 pubs in the Huddersfield area and a reputation for looking after its workforce. EN Collingwood, a 66-yearold Scottish grandad, has broken the record for the longest journey by cycle rickshaw by pedalling 1,600 miles from Edinburgh to Berlin.
And he’s not stopped yet. He hopes to complete 3,200 miles by cycling on to Istanbul.
The one question this posed for me was: Why?
“I’m ecstatic,” he is reported as saying. “It’s great to know I have done it and set a new world record.”
Sportsmen set world records but that’s in the ethos of competition that goes back to the original games of Olympian ancient Greece. Others are not so selective.
Why would anyone, for instance, want to claim the distinction of running a half marathon while pushing a pram? Or breaking the most toilet seats with your head (46 and, yes, it’s a Yank), balancing a banana on your finger for 11 minutes or holding an apple in your teeth for 12 hours 12 minutes 12 seconds?
I know a chap who could do that easily: He’d just leave them by the side of the bed when he went to sleep.
All of a sudden, Len’s cycling trip becomes normal. Especially as he’s raising money for Cancer Research.
But why do people chase a kind of weird fame by attempting weirder world records? Like eating six pounds of baked beans in one minute 48 seconds?
That year a newspaper report said: “On the banks of the River Holme, Lockwood Brewery has an almost Sylvan setting. It nestles in the dell flanked by the Honley and Meltham roads, only a mile from Huddersfield. Len Collinwood is raising charity cash - but what’s the point of Ashrita Furman (inset) slicing watermelons on his stomach with a sword? And stand well back with no lighted flame when he’s finished.
You can understand if the purpose is charitable but mostly it’s a personal goal. Like the break dancer who claimed the record for texting a message while spinning on his head, an ability that is bound to come in useful in later life.
And what was the motive of the Mosaic Church of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, who got 677 members of their flock to recite a Bible verse while standing on one leg in an ice skating rink? It happened.
New Yorker Ashrita Furman (he A miniature park, complete with cropped lawns, shady shrubberies, flower beds and an illuminated fountain fronts the premises, entry to which is gained from the road along a quarter-mile avenue of trees. The property covers some seventy acres, and the solidly-built home of MrTimothy Bentley now offers commodious office accommodation.”
The pubs included many that are now defunct, including Butcher’s Arms, Netherton, Crown and Cushion, Macaulay Street, Spread Eagle, Granby Street, Town Hall, Lockwood, and The Woolpack at Deighton.
The former brewery and grounds are now the home of Huddersfield Rugby Union Football Club.
Anyone with brewery records can contact Edd ateddbrewer6@gmail. com and anyone with memories or pictures of the brewery or pubs can contact me at the usual address. was born Keith) has made it his life work to cement his place in the pantheon of record holders, although not so much the Usain Bolt Hall of Fame as Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.
Furman has set 750 Guinness World Records and currently holds 225. His feats include underwater juggling, distance sack racing, drinking mustard and standing on an exercise ball for two hours 16 minutes and two seconds at Stonehenge.
He has travelled the world to follow his dream. Or compulsion. He cycled underwater for 1.8 miles in Portugal, bounced down the Great Wall of China and did a mile of somersaults in 19 minutes.
His latest record was slicing the most watermelons on his own stomach with a sword: He chopped 26 in a minute. This happened about the same time Len was celebrating his arrival in Berlin.
“My first reaction is I’m relieved that I didn’t kill myself,” he said.
Len should keep an eye out for oncoming traffic. Furman’s second reaction might have been to price rickshaws and catch a plane to Turkey. Len could meet him coming the other way.