Roodee

Category : Article



Chester Racecourse, also known as the Roodee is officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the "oldest racecourse still in operation". Horse racing in Chester dates back to the early sixteenth century, with 1539 cited as the year racing began, although some sources give a date of 1512 for the first races in Chester. It is also thought to be the smallest racecourse of significance in England at 1 mile and 1 furlong (1.8 km) long.

The Name
The Roodee is a mixture of the Norse and Saxon languages and means The Island of the Cross.

Rood is an archaic word for pole, from Old English rōd 'pole', specifically 'cross', from Proto-Germanic *rodo, cognate to Old Saxon rōda, Old High German ruoda 'rod'. Rood was originally the only Old English word for the "instrument of Jesus Christ's death". The words crúc and in the North cros (from either Old Irish or Old Norse) appeared by late Old English; crucifix is first recorded in English in the "Ancrene Wisse" of about 1225. More precisely, the Rood or Holyrood was the "True Cross", a fragment of which supposedly made its way to St Johns.

Eye derives from the Old English ēg, meaning a place at "the island or well-watered land, or dry ground in marsh".

Shrovetide, 1540
The original race, run on Shrove Tuesday for a silver bell given by the Saddlers' company, was devised by Mayor Henry Gee as an element in his reform of civic celebrations. Gee was Mayor for two terms: 1534-1534 and 1539-1540. In his first term, Henry Gee was determined to change how the local government operated.

It was evidently run only intermittently in the 17th century, but was still taking place in 1705.

St Georges Day, 1610
Before the Reformation, England's patron saint was Saint Edward the Confessor. Saint George had become a popular saint during the crusades as a warrior saint, as opposed to the national saint. In 1188, according to various 13th century chroniclers, Henry II of England and Philip II of France agreed to go on a crusade to Jerusalem, it was agreed that the two kings would wear respectively a white and a red cross, later, according to a Victorian tradition Richard the Lionheart adopted both the flag and the patron saint of Genoa for his crusade. Edward III made Saint George even more popular by using his flag for the Order of the Garter in the 1300s. King Henry VII commissioned John Cabot to sail to Newfoundland "under our flags, banners and ensigns". That was the first use of George's banner in the Royal Navy. Saint George's Day was considered a "double major feast" since 1415, but later, despite the king saint still being honoured, especially given his royal role, Saint George rose to a primary position when the cult of saints was altered, this also appears in the revised Book of Common Prayer of 1552. The use of Saint George's flag became widespread during the late Tudor era.

Reorganisation, 1893
=Sources and Links=

Related Pages

 * on the City Walls;
 * St Johns;

Online

 * Roodee History: by Chester Race Course;
 * Gee of Derbyshire;
 * Chester Races;