Regatta



A regatta is a series of boat races. The term comes from the Venetian language regata meaning "contest" and typically describes racing events of rowed or sailed water craft. Chester is often claimed to be the "oldest regatta in the world", although the regatta's own website is a little more accurate in stating that it is "the oldest rowing regatta of its type in the world".

Boats on the Dee
The River Dee must have been used as a navigable waterway for thousands of years. The Romans built a dock at Heronbridge and probably brought tiles downriver from Holt. They also engaged in shipping on the lower reaches below Chester, besides the dock facilities at Chester there was a harbour at Pentre Ffwrndan, where a timber-revetted tidal channel was excavated in 2007, and the industrial/maritime activity was sufficient to support a small Roman cemetery. Shipping apparently came to Roman Chester from considerable distances. In the Grosvenor Museum is the tombstone of one Callimorphus who was possibly a Greek trader.

During the Dark Ages Chester remained an important port and on occasions was a gathering place for considerable numbers of boats. King Edgar the Pacific brought his fleet to Chester several times, and on one occasion is said to have made a noted ceremonial voyage from Edgar's Field upriver towards St Johns. Edgar does seem to have maintained a considerable naval force, although the fleet of 3,600 ships which he had apparently amsssed at the time of his death does seem like an exageration taken to the point of absurdity. Viking fleets are known to comprise a hundred ships only in exceptional circumstances, and most raiding parties would be much smaller. The early English fleets were never otherwise described as so large - a fleet of 3,600 ships at Chester would have been one of the greatest collections of shipping of all time. Marc Anthony's fleet at the Battle of Actium was "only" 500-strong.

The Norman Earls of Chester built a weir to supply a head for the Dee Mills and this had at least two aquatic consequences. Above the weir there was a level reach of water far upstream, below the weir a salmon fishing industry developed. The port of Chester moved downstream with the silting of the river, only briefly returning to the Portpool when the "New Cut" was constructed. However pleasure boating and sports boating developed above the weir.

Early Regattas
Even since the earliest recorded references to rowing, the sporting element has been present. An Egyptian funerary inscription of 1430 BC records that the warrior Amenhotep (Amenophis) II was also renowned for his feats of oarsmanship. In the Aeneid, Virgil mentions rowing forming part of the funeral games arranged by Aeneas in honour of his father.

London
"Doggett's Coat and Badge" is the prize and name for what is often said to be the oldest rowing race in the world, which has been held every year since 1715. The winner's prize is a traditional watermen's red coat with a silver badge added, displaying the horse of the House of Hanover and the word "Liberty", in honour of the accession of George I to the throne in 1714. Thomas Doggett was an Irish actor and comedian who became joint manager of Drury Lane Theatre. He relied heavily upon the watermen of the Thames, who were then the equivalent of the modern taxi driver, to convey him between the various plying stairs near his workplaces in the City of London and his residence in Chelsea.

Chester
The earliest record of organised boat racing at Chester, something that could actually be called a "regatta" is a print of the "Chester Regatta" from 1733. The competitors were people who worked on the river, the fishermen and ferrymen rather than "amateurs". The boats used would not have been special racing boats but the everyday working boats rowed by their owners and their apprentices. Coracles also took part and there would have been wagers made on the outcome of the races.

Related Pages

 * River Dee;

Online

 * Roman Deeside, Flintshire, Archaeological Assessment;
 * A history of chester regatta - 1733 to the present;