A rounded history of Flat-Earthers: How mad theory popularised in the Victorian era has been parroted by celebrities including Freddie Flintoff
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When Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff, the great England cricket hero, gave credence to the belief that the Earth is flat, he was in good company. For his confession 2017 followed that of former basketball player Shaquille O'Neal and American rapper Bobby Ray Simmons Jr.
![[In 2018, daredevil amateur 'Mad' Mike Hughes launched himself nearly 2,000 feet in the Earth in a homemade steam-powered rocket in a bid to prove the Earth is flat]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/15/93276269-14206171-image-a-10_1734537430802.jpg)
They were propounding a theory that really kicked off in the Victorian era, when Biblical Creationist Samuel Birley Rowbotham carried out a test called the Bedford Level Experiment in 1838. Having placed a pair of surveyor's rods six miles apart along a straight section of the Old Bedford River, Rowbotham declared that he could see one rod while standing next to the other - so that meant that the world must be flat.
![[Hughes injured himself in the hard landing that followed and then was killed in another rocket launch in 2020]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/15/93276271-14206171-image-a-11_1734537445514.jpg)
Regardless of the fact that the test was later conclusively debunked, the belief that the Earth is flat refused to die. In the 20th century, what became the Flat Earth Society was led by tireless campaigner Samuel Shenton and then California-based Charles Johnson.
![[In the 20th century, what became the Flat Earth Society was led by tireless campaigner Samuel Shenton]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/15/93276277-14206171-image-a-12_1734537469555.jpg)
The internet era has brought a new army of 'believers', one of whom hinted this week that he has concluded the Earth might be round after all. Jeran Campanella, who runs the popular Flat Earth YouTube show 'Jeransim', travelled to Antarctica and witnessed first hand that the sun doesn't set during the southern hemisphere's summer.
![[After Shenton's death, California couple Charles and Marjory Johnson led the Flat Earth Society]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/15/93276275-14206171-image-a-13_1734537473149.jpg)
When Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff, the great England cricket hero, gave credence to the belief that the Earth is flat, he was in good company. Above: Flintoff at the Oval in September. He tells viewers in a new video: 'Sometimes you are wrong in life and I thought there was no 24-hour sun. In fact I was pretty sure of it.
![[Biblical Creationist Samuel Birley Rowbotham Rowbotham carried out what became known as the Bedford Level experiment in 1838]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/15/93280069-14206171-image-a-17_1734537510088.jpg)
