But how many know a coastal village's link to one of the greatest seafarers of them all?

A modest plaque on what is now a holiday let beside the harbour at Burnham Overy Staithe, near Wells records it was home to Richard Woodget, master of the Cutty Sark, from 1899 - 1926.

A watercolour of Cutty Sark, the only surviving British tea clipper, in her 19th century heyday by the artist Gregory Robinson (Image: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London)

The Norfolk farmer’s son sailed the legendary clipper ship now preserved at Greenwich in London through her most successful years as she raced her rivals home across the oceans with cargoes of tea and wool.

Woodget was born at Burnham Norton on November 21, 1845, less than three miles from the birthplace of Nelson.

His father was a farmer, but instead of working the land he went to sea as an apprentice aged 15 instead.

The Cutty Sark pictured in Sydney Harbour in the late 19th century (Image:........

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