He was barely known outside of the street where he lived. But Thomas Pigg lived a most remarkable life and it can be shared thanks to a Sunderland historian Paul Emerson. Paul, a member of Sunderland Antiquarian Society, has researched the stories of hundreds of Wearside people of note in the last few years. Today, he told us about Tommy who couldn’t read, write or understand maths. Yet within a few years, he’d taught himself enough to become a maths teacher while his wife ran a beer house.... Read this story