The Histon Giant

an extract from "A Third Ramble About Our Village (Histon)" by Dellas Oates.

Moses Carter 1801-1860 Son of James and Susan Carter

Nearly seven feet in height and over 23 stone in weight, he was not a fat man but was well proportioned and very strong.

He lived alone in a hut built of clay hods in Clay Street and every week he made and cooked a huge beef steak pudding and six large dumplings in an old copper he kept for that purpose. He washed himself and his clothes in “Dodd’s Pond” in Clay Street. He went around the village and to Cambridge pushing a large hand cart with vegetables and could be heard all over the village shouting his wares.

He owned and cultivated land on Histon Moor on the way to Cottenham, pulling the harrows himself, “I don’t want no hoss” he said. Children loved him and he would carry them about, two or three under each arm. He would tease little girls and let them kick his legs and would roar with laughter and tell them to kick harder so that he could feel it. He could carry a coomb (18 stone) sack of corn under each arm.

Naughty children were told “Keep quiet here comes Mo Carter, he will cut off your head and put on a cabbage.”

He went to Stourbridge Fair and in a boxing booth he defeated all the boxers and threw out the Proprietor when he refused to pay him as promised.

For a bet he carried a huge boulder newly dug out of the ballast hole (on Park Lane) and put it at the "Boot Corner". The stone can still be seen at the Boot public house but it has been moved from the corner to the garden at the back.

The Stone at The Boot

Moses was a kindly man and most popular in the village. There was great consternation when on one occasion he disappeared, only to return a few days later from Ely Fair. He had walked there and back with his barrow!

His “Stove Pipe” hat, a ring and one of his hobnailed boots survive. He is buried close by the walls of Histon Church. His headstone is crumbling and the inscription has been eroded by the weather but we have a record of this.

Grave Re-dedication
8 July 1998

On Wednesday 8 July 1998, Rev. Hugh McCurdy dedicated a new memorial in the churchyard to Moses Carter, the Histon Giant. The date marked the 138th anniversary of his death.

Inscription on the new memorial
The new stone (loosely modelled on the stone), with behind it the crumbling previous headstone	The setting of the grave, in the north-east corner of the graveyard

Prior to the dedication, a service was held in St Andrew's.  Local Councillors, members of the Village Society, residents and children of Histon & Impington Junior School were present.  Moses' stove pipe hat, hobnailed boot and ring were displayed by some of the school children during the service.

A time capsule was buried beneath the new stone marking Moses' grave.  It contains:

• The Times newspaper of 8 July 1998
• The Cambridge Evening News of the same date
• The latest set of Post Office stamps which commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the NHS
• A £2 coin which had been released for the first time just a few days earlier
• Artwork and poems by the children
• A facsimile of the News Chronicle of 7 July 1860. The latter was a weekly paper of the time and this issue was from the week in which Moses Carter died.

Mr Alan Eade, chair of the Village Society buried the time capsule, with the assistance of Mr Steve Wilkinson, Chairman of Histon Parish Council, and Mr Denis Payne, Chairman of Impington Parish Council.

These poems are a selection of those written by the children, and were read by their authors at the service.  

Poems published by permission