#captain barclay

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Emma Sharp

Completing the Barclay Match, walking a mile every hour for a thousand hours, first achieved by the eponymous Captain Barclay, was regarded as one of the pinnacles of pedestrianism. Although it demanded remarkable levels of stamina and determination, it was not the preserve of men. Amongst the women inspired to have a go was a Yorkshire woman, Emma Sharp. Despite the disapproval of her husband…

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Josiah Eaton

Another notable practitioner of pedestrianism, a form of long distance walking which was all the rage in late Georgian Britain and the first half of the 19th century, was a baker from Woodford in Northamptonshire, Josiah Eaton. Captain Barclay had set the bar in walking a mile an hour for 1,000 consecutive hours and others, including Eaton, were determined to achieve even greater feats of…

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The Pedestrianism Riot

Despite being known as “The Blackheath Pedestrian”, George Wilson was actually born in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1766 and was another with aspirations to prove their physical prowess by walking great distances in challenging conditions. He even had ambitions to pip Captain Barclay to the post by being the first to walk 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours, but his attempts came to naught. Still, he had caught…

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The Remarkable Captain Barclay

Captain Robert Barclay Allardice, known simply as Captain Barclay, was one of Britain’s earliest sporting heroes. Born in Stonehaven in 1779, one of eight children, he was immensely strong, his party piece being to lift an eighteen-stone man standing upon the palm of his hand from the floor to the dinner table. He even found time to set up a distillery, the Glendury Distillery, on the north bank…

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