(from Wikipedia)
It is difficult to imagine these days (when the overhyped
sport of association football so dominates the headlines) that there was ever a time
when other athletic pursuits held sway in the public mind. But the fact is that
in the decades immediately prior to the birth of organised football, rowing was
probably the chief spectator sport. The River Tyne held its first official
regatta in 1834 and for a good fifty years thereafter rowing was pre-eminent in
the minds of North-East sports-goers.
Arguably the greatest of the many local oarsmen who made it big
on the national stage was Harry Clasper. Born in Dunston in 1812, he enjoyed an
astonishing career as a rower and boat-builder/designer – in 1845 he and his
brothers (and uncle) were declared the four-oared world champions at the Thames
Regatta. For the next fifteen years he enjoyed sustained success in various
tournaments and challenge races throughout the land – most of the occasions
held in front of huge baying crowds.
He coached other up-and-coming rowers, designed and built
vessels and ran several pubs thereafter – finally settling at the Tunnel Inn, Ouseburn, in Newcastle .
In July 1870 he died quite suddenly – probably from a stroke – and Tyneside
went into deep, deep mourning for the loss of perhaps the region’s first sporting
superstar.
Clasper’s funeral was a monster of an affair – an event
perhaps only comparable to the huge outpouring of emotion following the death
in 1988 of Jackie Milburn. Grown men were seen to cry before, during and long
after the half-day procession, which began with a slow march through the
streets of Newcastle from Ouseburn
to Sandhill. There was Harry’s coffin, of course, mounted upon a horse-drawn
hearse with accompanying finery, with
a band leading the way – all of which was followed by two hundred local oarsmen
and members of the Tyne Rowing Club. Then there were several mourning coaches
containing friends and relatives, with more friends walking three abreast
behind this. These were followed by twenty private carriages with the general public
bringing up the rear on foot.
The route was from Tyne Street via New Road (now
City Road), Gibson Street, New Bridge Street, Grey Street and Dean Street to
the river’s edge where the cortège was taken on-board tug boats to Derwenthaugh,
and then on to Whickham for burial in the town’s churchyard. The route – the
streets and riverbank – was lined with people all the way, everyone wanting to
pay their last respects to a very great man. It was estimated that about
130,000 people had witnessed the proceedings.
And all this fame
achieved before the world of mass media…
(N.B. a good deal
of the detail from the funeral is taken from an article by John Bage which can
be found here)
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