29 September 2023
By Tim Koch
Tim Koch continues to look at Chester Regatta, particularly the development of its attitude to amateurism. (Part I, II, III and IV)
Between 1814 and 1838, only twelve regattas had taken place on Chester’s River Dee, each organised by varying combinations of oarsmen and townsmen, the latter perhaps driven more by civic pride than an interest in aquatics. The 1838 Regatta, the first for three years, was a “one off” in celebration of the Coronation of Queen Victoria. Following the Coronation Regatta however, the Chester Victoria Rowing Club (soon to become the Royal Chester Rowing Club) was formed by some gentlemen amateurs of the city who also took sole responsibility for running an annual regatta.
In Part I, I wrote:
I will be looking at only one rowing event, Chester Regatta, sited in northwest England, 20 miles from Liverpool but 200 miles from the pernicious influence of London… This study is absolutely not a complete history of the event and it will not go up to “modern times,” it is a nine-part historical inquiry into amateurism using Chester Regatta as a case study. I will also note Chester’s history of offering races for women, specifically fishermen’s wives and daughters.
In order to look at how Chester Regatta changed its attitude to amateurism over many years in a reasonably detailed but also easily understood form, I have produced two tables, each of which summarise the various classes of events that were held every year.
The years 1839 to 1871 are significant in that it is the period when Chester Regatta was run by gentlemen amateur rowers, but they still offered events for other social classes.
The table in this part (VII) covers the 13th to 25th Regattas, 1839 to 1855.
The second table in Part VIII will cover the 26th to 33rd Regattas, 1862 to 1872.
The break between the two, 1856 to 1861, is simply one of convenience, there were no regattas in those years.
After each table, I will attempt to summarise the various changes that took place.
The first regatta officially under the banner of Chester Victoria RC, 1839, maintained the divisions first introduced in 1834. It recognised gentlemen amateurs, amateurs (men who were not gentlemen, fishermen or boatmen) and fishermen (professionals in the context of Chester). The popular races for curricles and for women were maintained. It was specified that no fouling was allowed. Fouling of opponents was routinely allowed in races between professionals where the only rule seemed to be “get to the finish first in any manner necessary”. It was spectacle but not sport.
The year 1840 was a significant one when looking at amateurism and Chester Regatta. Perhaps the Royal Chester RC committee that had taken it over the previous year were getting into their stride.
In his 1000 Years of Rowing on the Dee (2003), Keith Osborne wrote:
Preparation for the (1840) regatta… caused a certain amount of acrid discussion in the local papers because betting on races was a common practice and great stress was also laid on the value of prizes… Rowing was still the occupation of watermen who raced more often to win the “purse” than for sporting reasons. The sport was accordingly viewed with considerable suspicion by many citizens of Chester…
Glass and Patrick’s Royal Chester Rowing Club Centenary History (1939) takes up this theme:
Perhaps the most important work of (RCRC) during this period was that of raising rowing to the status of a true amateur uncommercialised sport.
Fortunately, a generous donation had been made to the regatta by local worthy, Lord Grosvenor, and subscriptions gradually materialised in emulation of the noble Lord’s patronage. He gave a special prize in honour of Prince Albert, an action that not only helped save Chester Regatta but also allowed the newly formed Chester Victoria Rowing Club to apply successfully for royal designation and become the Royal Chester Rowing Club. Attracting entries from outside of Chester was important for ensuring the survival of the regatta and in 1840 the Prince Albert Cup brought in three entries from Liverpool.
There was a significant change in the classification of amateurs in 1840. As previously, there were events for gentlemen amateurs, fishermen, women and boys. However, the single word term “amateur” for those who were not gentlemen, fishermen or boatmen had gone and had been replaced by “mechanic.” The word was used in the historical sense to mean a manual worker, labourer or artisan, not just someone who worked with machinery.
A race in 4-oared skiffs was offered for “mechanics and boatmen”. Thus, for the first time at Chester, men who worked with their hands but who did not row boats as their trade (mechanics) were classed together with men who did row boats for a living (boatmen). Thus, in 1840 at least, a labourer was effectively designated a professional, a classification that was not formalised nationally until many years later.
The race for the Prince Albert Cup, pictured above, was the premier event of the 1840 Regatta and it was to be rowed and steered by “Gentlemen Amateurs.” Interestingly, Glass and Patrick give the occupations of the crew: a Clerk of the Peace, two “noted shipbuilders” and a currier. The Clerk was certainly a gentleman. If the two shipbuilders simply owned a business making boats they were gents, if they did the manual work involved in shipbuilding themselves, they were not. A currier was a person who dressed and coloured leather after it was tanned. It was a skilled but undoubtedly manual job. Thus, in 1840 at least, both RCRC and the Chester Regatta Committee (who may have been one of the same) deemed at least one manual worker to be a gentleman amateur, presumably to assist in forming a good crew.
The 1840 Regatta was the first time that the provincial Chester Regatta was deemed worthy to be fully reported on in a London publication, the Bell’s Life in London of 5 July 1840. If you accepted that London was the centre of the universe, after 25 years of existence Chester Regatta had finally arrived. From the 1850s in particular, the regatta was frequently reported nationally, not just in the Chester and Liverpool press. The Illustrated London News of 18 September 1852 said that Chester was one of only two “aquatic fixtures of any importance” taking place that week.
An outsider’s view of the 1840 Chester Regatta came from the Liverpool Mail of 2 July 1840:
The river (at Chester) while sufficiently broad to give the contending boats “ample room and verge enough” is still so narrow as to enable the spectators on either side to identify the person of every friend who may be engaged in the contest and in consequence is that they enter fully into the spirit of the scene and feel a pleasurable excitement almost equal to that of the contending parties themselves. Besides, there are on either side of the placid and picturesque river advantageous positions for an immense number of onlookers. These favourable circumstances make boat racing a pastime in which all classes and both sexes eagerly participate…
In the 1841 Regatta, the most significant change was the offer of the first “Open” events (2-oar skiffs and 4-oar gigs). In theory, men from a mix of social classes could have raced against each other. In practice, this was an event for true professionals, tough men from such as the Tyne and the Mersey who raced for serious money, men who generally made their living in and about boats.
At this stage, gentlemen amateurs were still not subject to certain restrictions that would come later. Notably, they could row for money prizes and they could hire professional coaches. In 1841, Royal Chester RC employed a London waterman, Robert Coombes, at three guineas a week to train its crews.
In 1846, the lumping of mechanics and fishermen together in one 4-oar event ceased and they were each given their own 4-oar race. In the skiff race, two “gentlemen amateurs” proved to be less than genteel and, following some fouling during the race, fought each other in the boathouse until they were separated.
The 1852 Regatta had some important milestones. In 1847, outriggers had been specifically banned in four-oar races for fishermen, mechanics and boys as the local crews did not have access to such craft. This aside, outrigged and inrigged boats had previously sometimes taken part in the same event. By 1852 however, gentlemen amateurs had both a four-oar outrigged and a four-oar inrigged event.
Also in 1852, a race “open to all but gentlemen amateurs” (i.e. for mechanics, fishermen, boatmen and true professionals) was restricted to four-oar outrigged boats. This (plus a 40-guinea prize) attracted two entries from Chester, two from Manchester and, notably, two boats from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, one rowed by the Claspers and one by the Taylors, both legendary crews in their own time. While such entries raised the standard of the regatta, it was generally to the detriment of local crews. The next year, this race was put under the “Open” category (though it was only ever going to attract watermen and professionals).
By 1853, the term “mechanics” had gone and instead there was the classification “open to all but gentlemen amateurs.” Also in 1853, Gentlemen Amateurs had a “maiden” class for those who had never won a race. Before 1862, this maiden class was restricted to residents of Chester.
The 25th Chester Regatta was in 1855 but the 26th was seven years later in 1862. The reason for the break may have been that the organisers, Royal Chester RC, were distracted, less concerned with local matters and more with success on a national scale. In summary, in 1854 RCRC had engaged Mat Taylor (Mat, was the abbreviation used at the time for Matthew), a Tyneside ship’s carpenter, as their trainer as it was still acceptable for amateurs to be coached by professionals. Taylor probably combined existing technologies and built a smooth-bottomed out-rigged keelless coxed four named, Victoria.
Tried out at Chester Regatta in 1854, Victoria won both the Wyfold and the Stewards’ at Henley in 1855. The next year, a RCRC Taylor eight built on the same principles won both Henley’s Ladies’ and Grand. Taylor ended up building the 1857 Oxford boat and the 1858 Cambridge boat.
Osborne:
Royal Chester found the effort, organisation and expense of rowing at Henley were very great so, following the departure of Taylor, there was a lull in the club’s activities.
There were no Chester Regattas 1856 – 1861 so Part VI covers 1862 to 1872 and will be published on Tuesday 3 October.