On Monday 14^th September 1789 a crowd of over 6000 paying punters gathered at Buckenham Castle to watch a pugilist clash between Norfolk and Suffolk. This was set against a backdrop of a period of political upheaval and unrest further afield in France and America. Only two weeks previously the Storming of the Bastille had put France on the edge of revolution, and in America the newly formed United States Congress was actively debating the Bill of Rights. It is not known if this the first pugilist bout held at Buckenham Castle but there had been several in Suffolk, also held at castles including Jack Slack v Daniel Smith at Framlingham Castle in 1744. The Buckenham Castle event was between local lad John Brighton as the Norfolk Champion against William Bullard, from Halesworth, the Suffolk Champion. The fight was advertised in the Bury and Norwich Post on 22^nd  July 1879. The advert commented that both were skilled in the fashionable science of boxing and having fought before it is expected to be a desperate fight. The purse put forward was reported to be 50 guineas a side (possibly £600 today). A few weeks later the Norfolk Chronicle advertised that the fight had been postponed and put back till after Harvest. John Brighton was born in 1762 and was baptised at All Saints Church in Carleton Rode on 20^th  December 1762. John Brighton’s parents were Robert Brighting* and Elizabeth née Woodward. John married Sarah Hubbard at All Saints Church in Tibenham on 28^th February 1792. The couple had ten children, nine of these were baptised at St Martin’s Church in New Buckenham between 1792 and 1811. The youngest of the ten children was Patience, born in 1811 who would later go on to have ten children herself. Patience’s second son was John Brighton born in 1832, who would go on to be a celebrated pedestrian (competitive speed walker) in England. With Buckenham Castle being home turf for John Brighton, the Norfolk Chronicle on Saturday 19^th September 1789 published the following report: “On Monday the Battle between Brighton and Bullard, was fought at Buckenham Castle, a place noted in the annals of Pugilism. The combatants met at four o'clock; but a torrent of rain descending, the battle did not take place till near five. The odds were fix to four, and seven to five in favour of Bullard. Brighton measures fix feet and an inch the other six feet two; weights, about fourteen stone each. Upwards of six thousand people were assembled; and this match, which has for weeks engaged the general conversation, was terminated in five minutes, in favour of Bullard, without any token whatever either of skill or strength on either fide. The spectators, who were comfortably soaked, and thus ridiculously gulled, vented their execrations on the Champions, and retired. It is hoped that this truly farcical engagement will operate on the minds of the public, and prevent their degrading them-selves in future, by giving countenance to the savage custom of Boxing”. After waiting for several months for the bout it appears that the people of the Buckenham area were duly disappointed with the afternoon’s entertainment. It appears that this was not the end of the feud between these two pugilists as an advert appeared in the Ipswich Journal on 3^rd July 1790: “Seeing an advertisement this day, and not before in the Ipswich Journal, dated Sept. 29^th, 1789, that William Bullard, of Halesworth, would fight me again, this to inform him I will meet him, or any of his friends, at the Queens Head, St Matthew’s, next Monday or Tuesday, and enter into articles to fight him when and if he choose, any time in a month, for a Hundred Guineas a side, and no box money to be allowed”.           Ipswich, July 1^st, 1790. John Briting*. It is unknown if this extra bout ever took place in Ipswich, but there certainly seems to a competitive edge between these two pugilists. Records tell us that the Brighton family moved away from the New Buckenham area as one of John and Sarah’s children, Robert was baptised in St Mary’s Church in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire. His age was recorded as 14 years in 1806. Robert had already been baptised at New Buckenham when he was a lot younger. The youngest daughter Sarah was the only child not baptised in New Buckenham; she was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Long Sutton in 1806. It is fair to believe that John and Sarah spent the early part of the nineteenth century in the Long Sutton area before returning to Norfolk. John Brighton died on 1^st November 1839 near New Buckenham, at Bunwell in Norfolk, and was buried at St Michael and All Angels Churchyard in Bunwell on 7^th November 1839. John’s grandson John Brighton, son of Patience Brighton, was by 1840 living in the Lakenham area of Norwich, and he realised that he could compete against other lads of his age and was encouraged to become a pedestrian. John earnt the nickname the ‘Norwich Milk Boy’ which stuck with him all through his life. On 28^th May 1860 he competed against four other runners and became the   first four-mile English Champion at West London Cricket Ground. Within a year he also became six and ten-mile English Champion. This led to a life of races, controversy and court cases. John Brighton had a life full of adventures, and when his running career ended, he lived in Manchester for the last ten years of his life, having  become a trainer and a groundsman for two football/athletics clubs in the area. He is buried in Southern Cemetery in Manchester nearby to the plot of the Salford artist L.S. Lowry. Further research into the connection between New Buckenham and the Brighton family flagged up a relation of John Brighton (snr) who was involved in WW1. That is Robert William Brighton who in 1911 lived on the Green in New Buckenham and by 1914 he was engaged in the Great War in the Essex Regiment as a Royal Engineer. Robert survived the war and is honoured in St Martin’s in New Buckenham alongside all the local men who committed to the Great War effort. Dale Wiseman, July 2026 *Note the newspapers’ inconsistent spelling of Brighton’s name. References Norfolk Chronicle July and September 1789. British Newspapers Archive (accessed 20^th May, 2026). The Norwich Milk Boy, the Life and Times of John Brighton. Self-published by Dale Wiseman, 2026. Front Runners, Warren Roe, published 2002. Ipswich Journal 3^rd July 1790 (accessed on 1^st June 2026). Editor’s note:  The John Brighton book mentioned above ‘The Norwich Milk Boy’ is available from Dale Wiseman  dalewiseman1@icloud.com at a cost of £12+ P & P.

Ben Sexton (English skittle champion), Jim Mace (pugilist) and John Brighton. 1864

Engraving of Buckenham Castle from a painting by J.S.Cotman (1782-1842      aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa