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Willie Carr, the strongest man on Earth!

You may have noticed a bronze statue of a man standing next to the back doors of the Keel Row Shopping Centre.

He used to stand in the centre of the mall on a large plinth surrounded by seating but he was moved a few years ago to his less ceremonious location.

He would look great in a new location, possibly the revamped market place once it's completed.

Most of us have probably heard our older relatives mention him, but who was he and what's his story?

Location: Keel Row Shopping Mall, Blyth, Northumberland
Unveiled: 1992
Sculptor: Philip Blacker
Material: Bronze

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Willie was born near Old Hartley in 1756. As a child, he moved to Blyth with his family and quickly followed in his father’s footsteps as a blacksmith.

At the age of 17, Willie's height was  6 foot 4 inches tall [193 cm] and he weighted 18 stone [114kg]. By the age of 30 he was 24 stone [152 kg] and could lift weights of seven or eight hundredweights.

A hundredweight equals 100 pounds or around 45.3 kg in todays money.

So, it's said he was able to lift around 317kg or 700 pounds, which is slightly heavier than the average panda bear!

Willie was very popular with nobility and he was a frequent visitor to Delaval Hall, where he entertained Lord Delaval and his friends from the upper classes with demonstrations of strength.

On one occasion, Big Ben, a famous bare-fisted fighter, was a visitor to the hall and Lord Delaval arranged for Ben and Willie to fight. When the pair shook hands, Willie squeezed so hard the blood oozed from Ben’s finger tips. Ben then refused to go ahead with the fight, saying he would rather be kicked by a horse than take a blow from such a man.

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Although his  strength and reputation gave him a fearsome reputation, he was actually said to be an exceptionally gentle man. Legend says he only ever lost his temper on two occasions  in his whole life.

Once when he was struck with a whip at Morpeth races by Lord Haddo, a Scottish nobleman. Willie picked the man up out of his saddle and shook him until he apologised. Haddo Peake in the Canadian Rocky mountains is named after him.

The second occasion was when two drunken sailors came to blows outside of his house, while his wife lay dying. When the sailors refused to go away Willie picked them up by their necks and banged their heads together.

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At the end of the 18th century Press gangs roamed the streets looking for able bodied men they could capture and take to sea against their will to join the navy. It was an extremely tough life and not many people joined the service of their own free will.

There are many stories of Press gangs attempting to capture Willie but they could never overpower him.
It became an obsession with the Press gangs to capture him and one day a gang of them got together and set a trap for him.
He was taken to a boat in Blyth harbour and they began rowing towards the Press gang tender lying some way off shore.
Willie was an excellent swimmer and during the journey asked the coxswain if he could swim. When the coxswain asked why he would ask Willie said, “because we shall all be swimming in a moment,” and at the same time with his back against one side of the boat and his feet against the other, he straightened his legs with a mighty heave and split the boat almost in two.
He left the crew splashing around in a panic and made his way back to shore never to be bothered by the Press gangs again.

Another story tells how he  was once commissioned to make an anchor for a ship which was tied up at North Shields.
When he realised the delivery date had arrived and the order was almost overdue he picked up the anchor and walked from Blyth to North Shields around ten miles away.
There was still time to have a chat with the skipper at a local pub where the two of them put away two bottles of gin between them.
After that he walked home to Blyth and arrived completely sober.

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There is a Bluestone rock sitting on a plinth outside the Delaval Arms in Old Hartley which Willie used to pick up as a demonstration of his strength. The stone is thought to be a Saxon boundary marker.

Bluestone rocks are a medium grained dark and heavy rock, harder than granite. Preseli bluestone tools, such as axes, have been discovered elsewhere within the British Isles. Many of them appear to have been made in or near Stonehenge, since there are petrographic similarities with some of the spotted dolerites there.

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Willie has his own blue plaque which is located at St Cuthbert's church hall.

In his later years he suffered badly from rheumatism and was often confined to his bed for long periods. On the occasions that he was seen out and about it is reported that he was bent almost double.

He was eventually completely bedbound and on September the 6th 1825 he passed away at the age of 69. He is buried in the Carr family plot in St Cuthbert's church cemetery.

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Whether the story is entirely accurate or not, surely a true Blyth legend deserves better than having his statue at the back doors of a shopping mall.

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