HistoryExtra’s new podcast The Tiger Tamer Who Went to Sea launches
HistoryExtra’s new six-part podcast takes an in-depth look at the little-known story of Bob Carlisle, who used all the techniques of the modern-day influencer.
The Tiger Tamer Who Went to Sea, celebrates the remarkable life of a Victorian celebrity who found fame in the extreme sporting craze of the era – wheelbarrow endurance racing. The craze propelled the Edinburgh-born seafarer and circus-performer to stardom in the 1880s.
Carlisle borrowed the idea from America, and in 1879 became ‘Britain’s original wheelbarrow pedestrian’ by pushing his barrow from Land’s End to John O’Groats and back.
This made him a media celebrity, with newspapers across the land reporting on his progress. He walked 30-40miles a day with his barrow. Crowds flocked to see him on his route, and he delivered talks to town halls in the evenings.
He did this several more times during his lifetime, and his fame encouraged others to copy his barrow-pushing exploits!
In 1886-87 a succession of people attempted to push wheelbarrows from Scotland and the North-East of England down to London.
Newspaper stories about the craze caused a regular stream of people trying to gain fortune and fame by pushing barrows, with ever more eccentric cargoes such as bathtubs and coffins, and to even more challenging destinations like the top of Ben Nevis. To add to the difficulty, many of the wheelbarrow pushers were disabled.
People lined the streets as the barrow-pushing celebrities arrived and their clever use of the media of the time has echoes of modern influencers. The newspapers soon tired of it all and by the end of 1887, the craze was played out.
Ironically, Bob Carlisle missed the whole craze he’d started because he was sailing on a merchant ship, probably somewhere in the South China sea.
Dr Dave Musgrove, Content Director of HistoryExtra and host of the series, has been researching the life of Bob Carlisle and the wheelbarrow craze for over a year. He says: “There were many crazes in the Victorian era, but as soon as I came across Bob Carlisle, the original “wheelbarrow pedestrian”, I knew it shed light on so many aspects of life at the time.
“His story is at times fantastical, as aside from long-distance wheelbarrow racing, he was also a global seafarer, a campaigner for both Temperance and anti-teetotalism, plus a celebrated circus showman, clown and big cat tamer.
“Contemporary reports described his story as the ‘life of a dozen men’, and it’s surprising that he’s not been studied before. I’ve delighted in exploring Bob Carlisle and chatting to some of our leading historians of the period to understand how his life intersects with broader themes in Victorian cultural and social history.
“I even bought my own vintage Victorian porter’s wheelbarrow to get a sense of what it was like to perform this sort of endurance feat. I’ve literally tested it to destruction because the woodworm infested wheel collapsed underneath me.
“The Victorian wheelbarrow-walkers also suffered similar mechanical embarrassments, but they had easier recourse to wheelwrights to fix their machines.”
The HistoryExtra Podcast’s The Tiger Tamer who Went to Sea, hosted by Dr Dave Musgrove, is available from HistoryExtra or your usual podcast platform.