Last week’s rowing of ‘the Henley of the North’ prompted Peter Jeffries of Durham City to send in this unusual colour print from his collection

IT shows the Durham Regatta of June 1880, with some quite wonderful canoe confusion going on in the bottom drawing. It is by an artist with a rare ability: he was able to see into the future.

The regatta is the second oldest in the country (only Chester’s is older) and it grew out of a custom established in 1815 when 16 boats paraded on the Wear to celebrate the defeat of the hated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo (Memories 123 and 125 told how much of the North-East feared imminent coastal invasion by the French which caused a monkey to be hanged in Hartlepool after it had somehow admitted to being a spy).

The Waterloo commemoration became an annual event and in 1834, inspired by William Lloyd Wharton of Dryburn Hall, a two-day regatta was added to the carnival.

Rowers from Tyne and Tees were invited to the Wear, and, as the university was founded the year before, students were an essential ingredient.

Indeed, the inaugural regatta, which also featured archery, ended with a studenty ball at which there was “a plentiful supply of strong ale and punch for the Waterloo men”.

By 1880, when our drawing was done, the regatta was well established and drawing competitors from all over the region.

“The weather was most unfavourable, a drizzling rain falling nearly all day, which made things very uncomfortable indeed,” said The Northern Echo in its report of the first day. “Notwithstanding this drawback, the attendance was up to the average. The races on the whole were pretty evenly contested. In the evening a concert was given by the band of the 3rd Northumberland Artillery in the Town Hall, assisted by part of the Durham Cathedral Choir.”

The big event of the first day was the our-oared race for gentlemen amateurs over oneand- a-quarter miles for the Grand Challenge Cup.

Durham Amateur Rowing Club won the 32 guinea prize – which the Bank of England’s Inflation Calculator reckons would be worth about £3,400 today.

Even one of the lesser events, The Trimmers’ Plate – “an open shovel race, in open boats” – was for an £8 purse, which would be about £800 today, and so very worth winning.

The Hetton Trimmers carried it home.

The second day in 1880 was “beautifully fine”, and the top event for the Wharton Challenge Cup, was again won by the rowing club.

The Northern Echo: The first Baths Bridge, built of wood in 1855, with the regatta going on beneath. Courtesy of Michael Richardson at The Gilesgate Archive. Right, the Echo’s reports of the June 1880 regatta
The first Baths Bridge, built of wood in 1855, with the regatta going on beneath. Courtesy of Michael Richardson at The Gilesgate Archive. Right, the Echo’s reports of the June 1880 regatta

“The prizes were presented in the Town Hall by the mayor,” said the Echo, “and at dusk the regatta was brought to a close by a grand display of fireworks in the Wharton Park.”

Although the aquatic adventures dominate the attention in the drawings, the backgrounds are almost as interesting.

The huge shapes of the cathedral and castle are unmistakeable, but on the bank in picture three is the large outline of the racecourse grandstand, reminding us what a big draw horseracing was in the city from 1733 to 1887 – on April 14, 1873, 80,000 people are said to have gone racing.

IN 1895, a new racecourse was created in High Shincliffe, and the grandstand by the river was demolished.

More than 100 years later, though, the area still carries the horse connection in its name.

The Northern Echo: The second Baths Bridge, built of metal in 1898. Courtesy of Michael
The second Baths Bridge, built of metal in 1898. Courtesy of Michael Richardson at The Gilesgate Archive

Another eye-catching outline is the Baths Bridge in pictures two and four. In picture two, the Reporters’ Punt is tethered below the bridge. To get to work, the reporters have to clamber down an insecure- looking ladder, showing what a dangerous job journalism is.

The first Baths Bridge was built straight across in wood in 1855 when the swimming baths were built on the south side of the Wear – you can see the bathshouse’s tall chimney in picture four.

The second Baths Bridge, in graceful, curved metal, replaced it in 1898.

Which makes one think that artist John Dinsdale, as well as being able to draw canoes in confusion, was able to predict the future.

His drawing of the 1880 regatta seems to show a graceful, curved bridge that was built 18 years later.

Someone surely can explain?

The Northern Echo: The third Baths Bridge, built in 1962, here with the Wear in flood in 2012
The third Baths Bridge, built in 1962, here with the Wear in flood in 2012