LONG johns and a night-shirt belonging to the ‘Blackburn Giant’ have fetched more than twice as much as expected when they went up for auction.
Undergarments belonging to Frederick Kempster, at 8ft 4.5ins tall reputed to be one of the largest men to have ever lived, were sold for £550.
The guide price for the lot, set by Yorkshire auctioneers Tennants, was said to be around £150 to £200.
John Jardine, of Hurst Green, unearthed the items while clearing out his parents’ house. Kempster had been friends with his father’s uncle, Tom Cook.
His mother had owned the Nag’s Head pub, where the pair would drink when Kempster was in town.
The giant was staying in Blackburn while working as part of a travelling circus. But he developed pneumonia and died in the town’s Queen’s Park Hospital aged just 29.
He is buried in a nine-foot plot at Blackburn Cemetery.
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