The competition for the World’s Biggest Liar, dates back from the 19th Century, and is held to honor the inn’s original owner “Auld Will” who used to tell tall tales of Cumbrian turnips being so big that local people carved them into sheds for sheep. As the Bridge Inn website declares, “Perhaps the visitors simply didn’t have the level of perception with which Will was bestowed.”
The Wall Street Journal noted on an article on the competition published last year, and referred to on Bridge Inn’s website, “in recent years, the contest’s popularity has attracted more competitors from outside the area to Cumbria, in northwest England, one of the country’s most remote regions.”
In 2005, the competition was won by a South African Abrie Kruger, and in 2006 by London comedian Sue Perkins. However, to the delight of locals, last year the honor returned to fellow Cumbrian Glen Boylan, who convincingly described how, during a snail race, Prince Charles shared mayonnaise and peanut butter sandwich with him.
However, denying lawyers and politicians from joining makes the contest suspect of lacking in class and true talent.