Sisson, Thomas 'Giant' - The Big Lad from Cotmanhay

THOMAS 'GIANT' SISSON - THE BIG LAD FROM COTMANHAY

A regular feature at Bygone Derbyshire are the brief pen-pictures of those 'unusual' local citizens we have labelled 'Derbyshire Characters'. Here Peter Seddon makes the passing acquaintance of Thomas 'Giant' Sisson of Cotmanhay and Ilkeston, and wonders if anything more is known about him.

The portrait of Thomas 'Giant' Sisson commissioned by the Duke of Rutland to mark Sisson's remarkable feat of enurance during a miners' strike

Thomas 'Giant' Sisson was given his sobriquet for one very good reason. As they used to say of him in and around Ilkeston - 'he were a big lad'.

He wasn't a 'Giant' in the tall sense - more in the wide sense - although at 'only' 22 stones at his top weight he would today be considered not too out of the ordinary.

But Sisson lived in the nineteeenth century, when 'fast food' was a swift-footed rabbit to be caught for the pot. And 22 stone was quite a weight then, enough to earn a man a certain local celebrity.

Thomas Sisson was born in Cotmanhay, Derbyshire, around 1839. He worked down the pit from his early teenage years and married his wife Louisa three years his junior. The couple settled in Ilkeston, and at the time of the 1881 Census they were living at 17 Church Street, Ilkeston, with four sons.

One particular incident perhaps sealed Thomas's celebrity. He worked at the Rutland Colliery in very harsh conditions, and during a strike he and a group of fellow miners decided on direct action.

They pulled a wagon-load of coal all the way from Ilkeston to Belvoir Castle, the stately home of the Duke of Rutland, whose family, the Manners, owned the Rutland Colliery.

The feat so impressed His Grace that he had a portrait painted of the stoutest puller - who of course was Thomas 'Giant' Sisson. That portrait is shown here.

I have been unable to establish an exact birth date for Thomas Sisson, and have not come across a death date at all, nor his place of burial. Perhaps someone can add those details here, or give some more information on a man who was evidently a larger-than-life character in more ways than one.

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Thomas "Giant" Sisson

I believe Thomas was probably born a couple of generations earlier than the date stated in the article and married a lady called Elizabeth. I have been unable to confirm Thomas' baptism as there are three Thomas Sissons born around the same time at the latter end of the 1700's.

The reason behind my belief that Thomas was from a couple of generations before is a reference from a couple of books at the Local History section of Ilkeston Library. The first is 50 notable individuals of Ilkeston which contains a picture of Albert Sisson (born 1850) stating he was a grandson of Thomas "Giant" Sisson.

There is also a book by E.[dwin] Trueman containing the image present. This book states that a copy of the portrait was in the possession of Thomas' grandson, also called Thomas, which I think is who they obtained the image from. The book, I think, was originally published about 1885 and a reprint about 1899.

The article's author Peter Seddon replies: Many thanks for that feedback. It is a bit of a mystery this one, as some of the info you state is at odds with what others have written. There are so many Thomas's in the family - maybe they were all 'big lads' and there was a Thomas 'Giant' Sisson I and then his son Thomas 'Giant' Sisson II - or maybe the first book referred to made a mistake. The date of the second book, 1885, is less at odds. If anyone can provide definitive proof of who 'the' Thomas Sisson in the picture was, please enter it on the website. PJS 5 Feb 2009

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