ON the moors above Richmond, with panoramic views across the Vale of Mowbray to the hills and coast of Cleveland, are the remains of the world’s oldest surviving racecourse grandstand.
It was designed by Yorkshire’s greatest Georgian architect and it was the first in the world to enable in-race betting. In its heyday 200 years ago, it was the fashionable place to be seen as the wealthy showed off their finery on race day.
Nearby on this elliptical stretch of gently undulating grassland stands the square stone judge’s box – the oldest in the country (below) – beside what was once the finishing line.
Over the years, the course has seen many battles, from racehorses snorting their way neck and neck to the break the tape, to Captain Dawson and John Wycliffe duelling over Mrs Dawson who was “a fine looking woman”. Last week, after great debate about curtilage, a Planning and Regulatory Sub-Committee of North Yorkshire County Council agreed to deregister the buildings as common land.
Ever since the first race was held on Low Moor in 1765, the exact ownership of the grass beneath the horses’ hooves has been questionable, but last week’s meeting reversed a decision made in 1968 so that now a solution can emerge to enable the historic relics to be saved.
In light of the sub-committee’s decision, a book has been published this week telling the fascinating story of the racecourse. It is based on research by Professor Mike Huggins of Cumbria University, a world authority on racing because those relics up on the windswept moor really are that important.
Richmond was a racing centre since at least 1512, although no one knows for sure where its “high moor” racecourse was situated.
In 1765, the racecourse was moved to the pastures of Low Moor, which, despite its name, has an elevated position. This was a commercial decision, bringing the course closer to the town. It was driven by the two big industries associated with racing: firstly, the stables, where sturdy North Riding mares were crossed fast Arabic stallions to create thoroughbred racehorses that built up stamina training on the peaty moorland, and then there was the hospitality with Richmond’s hotels and pubs coming alive on race day.
Richmond Corporation – or council – invested much in levelling and draining the pasture to create a 1.5 mile elliptical course with a five furlong straight.
The expense was rewarded in 1775 when George III decreed that the annual prestigious race for the King’s Plate would be held alternately at York and Richmond.
John Carr's 1777 grandstand at Richmond, drawn by John Harland
To prepare for the first race in 1777, Richmond instructed John Carr to build a suitable grandstand. He was the greatest architect of his day, renowned for Harewood Hall near Leeds. Locally, he designed Northallerton prison and practically every bridge from Bainbridge through to Croft.
Plus, in 1747, he had designed the world’s first public grandstand at Wakefield racecourse, which started the first era of grandstand building. Early grandstands overlooked the finishing post so the crowd got the best view of the closing moments but they often couldn’t see the rest of the course.
At Richmond, Carr used the natural rise of the land to position the grandstand so that the finish could still be seen but all of the course was laid out before the spectators. Most races were over four miles, nearly three times round the course, and lasted seven minutes, so with the horses almost always in view, in-race betting became possible for the first time.
The grandstand cost about £1,300 to build, with Charles Dundas of Aske Hall, a breeder and owner, leading the way, but townspeople also paid five guinea subscriptions for which they received a silver medallion (below) that granted them lifelong access to the grandstand.
On the ground floor, the stand had rooms used by racing officials. The first floor featured one large room, with a fireplace, and great arched windows and a balcony for spectators although the best panoramic views were obtained from the open top floor.
Richmond’s three day meeting in early September became one of the great dates in the Georgian social calendar. The best racehorses were – slowly – walked to take part and the town filled up more than a week in advance. Stately homes from miles around were full of upper class guests, and there were balls and the theatre to keep them entertained.
Racing in front of the Richmond grandstands in 1891
The high point of the meeting was the Gold Cup, a race for a trophy that cost the townspeople 100 guineas each year to make. The glittering prize was paraded from the town hall, past thousands in the crowded streets and placed in front of the stand, ready for the race.
Non-horse related activities also took place on the racecourse. For instance, around 1780, when Capt Dawson found a love letter that his friend Wycliffe had written to his wife, he challenged him to pistols at dawn at the course. Wycliffe was seriously injured, and the ball could never be removed from his body, whereas Dawson fled from town never to return, taking his “fine looking” wife with him.
In 1788, pig driver John Batty accepted bets of 20 guineas for 100 guineas that he could not walk 700 miles in 14 days around the course. There were plenty of takers that he could not manage 50 miles every day for a fortnight, and on the first day, they must have felt pretty confident because his new shoes ripped the skin off his feet.
However, he triumphed with five hours to spare, although after he had paid off all of his backers, he only had 16 guineas to show for his immense pain.
As the 19th Century wore on, the railways sucked the wealthy in to London, and so the fashionable racecourses – Epsom and Ascot – grew down there at Richmond’s expense.
Social attitudes changed. Whereas gambling had once been seen as a way of boasting about your wealth and bravery, religion now frowned upon it.
Other aspects of the racing frivolity began to concern people. “On Tuesday, the Grand Stand on the Race Ground was…a place of more than ordinary profligacy and drunkenness, till many were scarcely able to find their way home,” fumed one angry Richmonder in October 1844. “I am informed that one person was in such a state that he might have perished by the way had he not been taken in a state of insensibility to a public house in the town, where a medical gentleman was under the necessity of applying a stomach pump in order to save his life.”
When Lord Zetland’s horse Voltigeur won the Derby in 1850, eight or ten old timers were said to have drunk themselves to death within 12 months such was the enormity of their winnings.
With the drinkers and the gamblers came the pickpockets and the prostitutes. In a bid to recreate an air of exclusivity on the racecourse, in 1883, Lord Zetland built himself a new grandstand, designed by Darlington architects Clark and Moscrop, beside the old one, but rural racecourses were now in terminal decline. The final meeting at Richmond finished on August 7, 1891.
Sam Bone of High Gingerfield Lodge exercising his stable's racehorses on the course, between the grandstand and the judge's box, in the late 19th Century
Since then, the fabulous setting has had many uses: Richmond Golf Club started there in 1902; the grandstand was used as an isolation hospital; the military held training camps; 30,000 people gathered to see the 1927 eclipse and, in more recent time, the Royal Observer Corps watched for enemy aircraft and then for signs of nuclear fall-out – Richmond’s nuclear monitoring bunker was on the edge of the course until 1991.
The Yorkshire Hussars prepare for the First World War in front of the grandstand
And over the course of time, the grandstands slowly fell down. In 1969, Richmond council wanted to demolish them for safety reasons, but North Yorkshire council refused because of the historical importance.
North Yorkshire councillors visiting the Zetland Stand in 1969 - they prevented Richmond councillors from pulling everything down
So the buildings continued to fall down.
The one constant in the story is the Richmond Burgage Pastures Committee which, even before the advent of racing, was in charge of the grassland where the burgesses – wealthier townspeople – were allowed to graze their animals. After a decade-long battle, which included trying to get a Private Members’ Bill through Parliament to amend an 1853 Act, the committee has deregistered the tumbledown buildings as common land and so now can seek to find partners to restore and repurpose them.
With panoramic views, fine walks, bracing weather and a splendid Georgian story to tell about a national first, a tearoom in the grandstand would surely become a popular destination.
In the meantime, the committee has this week published the well-illustrated A Short History of Richmond Racecourse and its Grandstand by Professor Mike Huggins and the Richmond Burgage Pastures Committee. It is available for £10 from the Castle Hill Bookshop, Richmond Post Office, the information centre in the Market Hall in Richmond, and richmondinfo.net/shop
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