A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



At Newark, the corporation rent from the 

 Duke of Newcastle, the lord of the manor, a 

 stretch of the River Trent, on the banks of which 

 they have built bathing sheds, both for men and 

 women. Swimming has become very popular 

 of late years, mainly owing to the efforts of the 

 Newark Swimming Association, an increasingly 

 successful organization. From the different 

 schools scholars are taken at appointed times to 

 the bathing place and tuition given them. By 

 this means a large number of children are yearly 

 taught to swim, and encouragement to perse- 

 vere in the art is given by the offer of prizes for 

 various races and acquirements. 



The Town Council of Retford own an 

 excellent swimming bath, and realizing the 

 importance of a knowledge of swimming, the 

 Council encourage it by every means in their 

 power. The local education authority have 

 included swimming in the curriculum for both 

 sexes in elementary schools, the use of the bath 

 being granted free to classes of scholars and girls 

 attending the Pupil Teachers' Centre, the instruc- 



tion fees being paid by the Retford Education 

 Committee and the Nottinghamshire County 

 Council respectively. The Retford Swimming 

 Club, which was formed in 1896, mainly by the 

 efforts of Mr. T. H. Denman, has well main- 

 tained its membership. In 1896 a ladies' section 

 was established, but this has since lapsed. Life- 

 saving classes were instituted in 1898, and in 

 1900 classes of boys from the elementary schools 

 were formed for the purpose of teaching them to 

 swim, and continued until 1907, when swim- 

 ming was included in the school curriculum. 

 Sports are held annually and water polo matches 

 played with adjacent towns. Two of the 

 members Mr. George Mellors and Mr. George 

 Tebbs have distinguished themselves by rescu- 

 ing persons from drowning, while another 

 Mr. H. Tanner although young, has achieved 

 remarkable success in local races, and was chosen 

 for the test in the loo-metres race at the Olympic 

 Games in the Stadium (July 1908). On that oc- 

 casion, however, he swam a bad course and was 

 placed sixth, his time being i min. i8 sees. 



ATHLETICS 



In Nottinghamshire, as in other parts of the 

 United Kingdom, athleticism, in its modern 

 sense, hardly existed prior to the middle of the 

 i gth century. Before that period such running and 

 walking contests as took place at irregular intervals 

 were between professional pedestrians; but records 

 were seldom kept, and little reliance can be placed 

 on sucli as have survived, the distance being rarely 

 measured with exactness, or the races timed with 

 accuracy. The programme usually consisted of 

 a match between two local celebrities, or a race 

 against time for a wager, and an enormous 

 amount of public interest was aroused by some of 

 these encounters. A striking instance of this is pro- 

 vided by a race which took place on the Nottingham 

 Race-course on 21 April 1773, between Harrison, 

 a Staffordshire man, and Granny of Belper, two 

 of the most noted pedestrians of the day. Spec- 

 tators from all parts of the Midlands assembled, 

 upwards of i 5,000 people being present. The 

 betting was 7 to 4 and 3 to 2 in favour of 

 Harrison, and many of the supporters of Granny, 

 according to a contemporary account, ' sold their 

 beds and cows and swine in order to make bets, 

 while others pawned their wives' wedding rings 

 for the same purpose.' The match was for 

 200, and the distance 10 miles five times 

 round the course. For the first 7 miles the 

 runners kept fairly level, but in the fourth lap 

 Granny fell lame in his right leg, and Harrison 

 gained nearly 50 yds. Although struggling 

 gamely, Granny continued to lose ground, and 

 after a desperate but fruitless spurt in the tenth 



mile he gave up the contest. The distance was 

 covered by Harrison in 56 mins. 2 sees. 



During the next half-century there is little 

 worth recording ; but, as a comparison with 

 modern times, it may be mentioned that in Sep- 

 tember 1831 Kemp of Nottingham won a 



1 oo yds. race on the Forest from Finn of Ashby 

 in toj sees., the match being for 10 a side. At 

 this time the Derbyshire champion was Robert 

 Watson, and when in 1836 he was pitted against 

 George Hames, a Nottingham youth, he was, much 

 to the surprise of his supporters, easily beaten. 



Walking, which has of recent years witnessed 

 something of a revival, was one of the most 

 popular forms of athleticism in the first half of 

 the I gth century. One of the fairest and best 

 exponents of this branch of pedestrianism was 

 Charles West hall, who appeared on the Trent 

 Bridge ground in 1848, when he walked 7 miles 

 in 57^ mins. for a purse of 20, and also accom- 

 plished the feat of walking 20 miles in three 

 hours. On one occasion he competed against 

 Molineaux of Manchester, in a quarter of a mile 

 race over ten hurdles, and came in the winner. 

 Later in his career Westhall walked 7 miles in 

 52 mins. 47 sees., and covered 21 miles 147 yds. in 



2 hours 59 mins. i sec. In 1853 a l ca ' ce ' e - 

 brity named John Handley undertook without 

 success to repeat Captain Barclay's famous feat 

 of walking 1,000 miles in 1,000 consecutive 

 hours. A rather noted miler, T. Horspool, fre- 

 quently arranged matches in the neighbourhood 

 of Nottingham. 



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