麻豆社

The Greatest Showman was a smash hit at the cinema, but have you heard of Newbury's equivalent to PT Barnham? George Sanger came from Newbury and was responsible for one of the best circuses this side of the Atlantic.

Steve Ward has been studying the circus for decades and explained more to Sarah Walker.

Steve Ward, Circus Historian:

"One he'd developed this small animal act and he'd seen how popular it was, and circus was growing at this time we have to remember...it was in the 1850s that he actually bought his first circus.

"He was very influenced by what was happening in the USA at the time. It developed there and was becoming bigger and brasher.

"He got some actors who he coloured, and he presented them as his own Red Indians. In London he actually had his own three ringed circus, long before the Americans did."