A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



as possible to 'natural' conditions. In 1897 

 the meeting was extended to two days, and 

 usually takes place about the beginning of April. 

 A permanent grand stand was erected some years 

 ago, which enjoys the rare distinction among its 

 kind of being at once convenient and attractive 

 in appearance. 



Another steeplechase meeting was inaugurated 

 in 1890 under the title of the Durham County 

 and West Hartlepool Steeplechases. Two days' 

 racing were provided during the year, in April 

 and November, the course being at Stranton 

 Farm, near West Hartlepool, but although the 

 meeting appears to have received a fair measure 

 of public support, it only lasted for two years, 

 and is omitted from the Racing Calendar in 

 1892. Three years later a more successful 

 venture was launched by the enterprise of a 

 small syndicate of people interested in racing in 

 the neighbourhood of Durham, of whom the 

 Master of the North Durham Hounds was the 

 moving spirit. A lease was procured of the flat 

 table-land at Shincliffe Bank Top, about two 

 miles from Durham, on which a course was laid 

 out, and the inaugural meeting, under the title 

 of the North Durham and Shincliffe Steeple- 

 chase, was held on 15 May, 1895. So successful 

 did this prove that the syndicate was resolved 

 into a public company, the race-course enlarged 

 and improved, a permanent stand erected, and a 

 second day's racing provided in the autumn. 

 Since then the undertaking has proved so uni- 

 formly prosperous that three days' racing in 

 March and May are now allowed by the 



National Hunt Committee, and not only pro- 

 vide good sport for the public, but return a 

 fair profit to the shareholders in the company. 

 The course is oval, about a mile and a 

 quarter round, and the run-in up a gradual 

 ascent. 



It was probably owing to the success achieved 

 at Shincliffe that a meeting of similar character 

 was started a few years later at Grindon, about 

 two miles to the south of Sunderland, by the en- 

 terprise of a small syndicate of local sportsmen. 

 The first meeting took place on 30 April, 1898, 

 but unfortunately the venture seemed doomed 

 to failure from the outset. Although in such 

 close proximity to the teeming centres of industry 

 on the banks of the Tyne and Wear, the public 

 did not afford it the support that was reasonably to 

 be expected, and persistent bad weather invariably 

 affected the attendance at the first few meetings. 

 Latterly the meeting was beginning to pay its 

 way, but not to such an extent as to allow of 

 the stakes being increased in accordance with 

 the new rules of the National Hunt Com- 

 mittee, and it was finally decided to abandon 

 it in 1906. The course at Grindon was oval 

 in shape, about a mile and a quarter round, and 

 all grass. 



Point-to-point racing was inaugurated in 

 Durham in 1889 by the members of the Zet- 

 land Hunt over a course near Brusselton, the 

 chief event being won by the present master of 

 the South Durham Hounds, but the North 

 Durham is the only pack that consistently sup- 

 ports this admirable form of sport. 



ROWING 



North-country rowing has been famous from 

 early days. But its history is a much wider 

 subject than the history of rowing in the county 

 of Durham ; for a history of rowing in the north 

 would deal largely with the Tyne and Tyne- 

 siders. It would, indeed, be difficult to exagger- 

 ate the importance of the Tyne. The matches 

 in days gone by between rival schools of Tyne- 

 side professional oarsmen, and between Tyne 

 and Thames, excited an amount of interest 

 which is comparable to that displayed on the 

 Thames when Cambridge met Harvard. The 

 names of such Tyneside heroes as the Claspers 

 and the Taylors, Chambers and Cooper and 

 Renforth, were once in every mouth, and are 

 still remembered. Old men still quote their 

 sayings, and gossip about their triumphs to a 

 generation that is devoted to football and to 

 golf. 



The decay of professional rowing in these 

 modern times was attributed by one of the 

 admirers of the giants of old days to the spread 



of education and the growth of board schools 

 ' for,' said he, ' to row well, a man must be strong 

 ? th' back and thick i th' 'cad.' 



But it would be a mistake to suppose that 

 Durham rowing was a mere by-product of the 

 Tyne. The Wear and the Tees have traditions 

 of their own. In the palmiest days of the Tyneside 

 professionals there were men at Durham who 

 were their match. Such names as Ebdy and 

 Howson, Newby and Marshall, were almost as 

 well known as the names of the Tyneside cham- 

 pions ; and in more than one great race, at 

 Durham Regatta and elsewhere, the Tynesiders 

 had to be contented with second honours. If 

 we turn to amateur rowing it may perhaps be 

 claimed that Durham is rather the parent than 

 the child of the Tyne. The stimulus given by 

 Durham Regatta has had much to do with the 

 creation and with the vitality of Tyneside 

 clubs. 



It is impossible to say when rowing first began 

 at Durham. The boys of Durham School, who 



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