CAMBRIDGE CURIOSITIES DISCOVER THE HISTON GIANT H ow would you like to be remembered? Moses Carter, born in 1801, is immortalised not only in local folklore but Moor – an area of boggy fenland which became a market garden for the city of Cambridge and surrounding villages. Moses was proud of the fact that he required no ‘hoss’ to heave his barrow Strongman Moses Carter once carried a boulder from Park Lane to ‘Boot corner’, where it can still be seen today in The Boot pub garden. Jenny Swarbrick tells his story
also in the black ironwork of the Histon village sign. There he is, set at a jaunty angle, sporting his trademark stovepipe hat, sleeves rolled up, ready for business. His muscular arms bear aloft a large boulder, which can be seen to this day in the garden of The Boot public house in Histon. Unusually tall, particularly for those undernourished times, Moses’ nearly seven-foot, sturdily built figure was a regular sight around Histon. He lived alone in a hut on Clay Street and made a living selling vegetables from a large wooden handcart. He had purchased a small plot of land on the evocatively named Histon
laden with cabbages and carrots along the muddy road to Cambridge. Picture him there amid the noisy squalor and chaotic fun of market day. A man sells squawking chickens to his left; to his right, an unkempt woman flogs pies with leathery crusts. Moses’ size – amplified by his large hat and appropriately booming voice – would have drawn attention to his wares, but possibly his reputation was his USP. Who wouldn’t want to buy their vegetables from the charismatic giant famous for his boulder-bearing feats of strength? The man who hauled his own plough through the claggy Cambridgeshire clay? The man who trounced all the other boxers in the sweaty booth at Stourbridge Fair? You might be willing to pay a farthing more for your spuds to be able to tell the story over supper. Around Histon, Moses was known and loved for his playful roar of laughter and avuncular teasing of the village children. He was kindly and quirky, reputed to bathe and scrub his clothes in the chilly water of Dodd’s Pond. He must have aroused ripples of friendly gossip beneath the thatched eaves, and on one occasion caused concern by disappearing for a few days, having decided to walk to the Ely Fair and back. Moses stood more than seven-foot tall and weighed more than 23 stone. His healthy appetite required the weekly baking of a huge beefsteak pudding and suet dumplings. Perhaps he spent his evenings enjoying the convivial warmth of one of the 18 pubs that graced Histon and Impington at the time, swilling his beer from an impressively large tankard? A single hobnailed boot belonging to Moses, along with his cherished hat, are on display between sets of Fenland ice skates and a basket of peat bricks in the Museum of Cambridge. The boot’s desiccated, dun leather speaks of years of labour on the land. Maybe, to bring a little comfort to his hard-working feet, Moses’ mother and sisters knitted large stockings to give him at Christmas – casting on in July...
BOULDER THAN EVER Moses carried the huge boulder roughly one kilometre for a bet
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK JANUARY 2025 41
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