THIS month is the 130th anniversary of the death of builder John Whittaker.

Affectionately known as "Owd Bally" (Lancashire dialect for "belly"), Whittaker was one of the greatest characters St Helens has ever known – and a heavyweight builder in more than one sense!

In an era when obesity was extremely rare, John Whittaker weighed in at an extraordinary 31 stone.

In a profile published in 1944 the St Helens Reporter wrote that Owd Bally was: "…as famous for being the heaviest man who ever lived in St Helens as he was for the soundness of his work as a builder and contractor and his all-round integrity as a man of business."

And his building work was not minor league stuff. It included Boundary Road Baths, the extensive Sutton Glass Works, Peasley Cross Sanatorium, the huge Daglish's Foundry, St Mary's Church School, Neil's Foundry in Bold, St Helens Junction Railway Station and various hotels and pubs, including the Lingholme, the Saddle and the Huntsman in Haydock.

And Whittaker also specialised in building 150-feet-high works' chimneystacks.

Whittaker's two best friends were Joseph Jackson (after which Jackson Street is named) and wheelwright Charles Rigby. And they were far from being slim figures themselves, weighing 18 and 16 stones, respectively.

Many stories were told of their exploits. For example, Whittaker learnt that a firm in Liverpool was offering made-to-measure suits for just 30 shillings.

So he sent a man of average size to the shop to order four suits. The salesman was informed that one of them was for himself and the other three were for his brothers.

The additional suits were in fact for Whittaker and his mates Jackson and Rigby. The shop was initially delighted to receive the order but when the three "brothers" walked in to be measured up, they were shocked to see their tremendous sizes.

Much more cloth would be needed and the tailoring firm would likely lose money on the deal. However, the shop's canny manager spotted a marketing opportunity and so the suits were made at the price quoted and the fame of them subsequently spread to St Helens.

In the 1880s Whittaker became licensee of the Oak Tree Inn in Ellamsbridge Road in Sutton and in his last years lived with his wife Ann at Oak Cottage in Neill's Road in Bold.

As his huge stomach created great difficulty in squeezing through average-size house doors, extremely wide ones were custom built to allow the master builder to move around his home.

Being conveyed around St Helens from his Foundry Street office and builder's yard also presented difficulties. So Bally employed a strong pony called Black Bess hauling a specially built trap with stabilising props. These steadied the trap and took the weight off the pony, while he climbed in and became comfortably seated.

Bally Whittaker collapsed and died during a heatwave on July 3 1894 at the age of 70.

The St Helens Newspaper described his coffin as being of "very massive proportions"

with a width of 32 inches and depth of 23. The specifications of an average coffin at that time were 20 and 14 inches, respectively.

(Image: Stephen Wainwright)

Instead of the usual six pallbearers, ten of Whittaker's workmen were employed in carrying him into St Nicholas Church and then to the graveyard. Unsurprisingly it's said that the larger-than-life builder had to be laid to rest in a plot that was twice the normal size!

Stephen Wainwright's new book The Hidden History Of St Helens Vol 4 is available from the St Helens Book Stop in Bridge Street and online from eBay and Amazon with free delivery. Price £12. Vols 1 to 3 are also still available.