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Picture source: Terry Robinson

The Burgoyne Arms was situated at 246 Langsett Road. This pub closed in 2011 and was subsequently demolished.

Robert Hales, known as "The Norfolk Giant" (7ft 6ins) and "The Giant of Somerton" had a brief sojourn as landlord as listed in the 1861 Census. Born in West Somerton, Great Yarmouth (1820), he joined the Navy at 13 but was paid off aged 17, being too tall to fit below decks, but he turned to fairgrounds to make his name. He was one of the 'curiosities' exhibited in the first Great Exhibition in 1848. In 1849 he was recruited to PT Barnum's Circus in America. He was also landlord of the Craven Head Tavern, 98-99 Drury Lane (1851-1855). He was possibly a bigamist, having married fellow circus artist Irish Giant Eliza Simpson in America (4 March 1849), but he returned to the UK without her and in 1852 married a Maria Charlotte Webb, who is listed on the 1861 Census in Sheffield, as is his son, General, who is recorded as being born in London (1849) but there is no birth record and he may be Eliza's son. Robert Hales died back in Norfolk in 1863 and is buried in Somerton.

Kathryn Ludlow (September 2024)

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