Racing in Winchester - TrustNews August 1990
According to Bailey's 1856 Transcripts from the Municipal Archives of Winchester, horse-racing was 'from time immemorial a favourite national pastime' and there is no reason to doubt that its popularity in Winchester goes back farther than the visit of Queen Anne and her Consort in 1705 which he describes. There is even a tale of King Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great, being presented in Winchester with a number of racehorses of German breed as a gift in connection with the marriage of one of his sisters. So racing in Winchester started a long time ago, continuing down the years with varying fluctuations in popularity until the end of the last century. Since then it has disappeared almost without trace, with only the precious, but sometimes fading, memories of a few elderly citizens to recall its final days.
Where and ....
There are some references to racing at Abbotstone Down in the 19th Century, when it sometimes alternated with Worthy Down for steeple-chasing, but nothing remains of the course today, and it appears that Worthy Down was certainly the most popular course for the Winchester Races. The Racing Calendars do not begin until 1727, but there is plenty of evidence of meetings before that, especially under the Stuarts who were great supporters of the Turf. J.P.Hoare, in his History of Newmarket and Annals of the Turf, Baily 1886, mentions Lord Pembroke making 'extraordinary great winnings at a horse-race at Winchester' in 1631. Old city records mention the necessity for 'mending the waies near the race posts against the lords coming to the races' and in 1634 it was decreed that 'The cittie shall yearlie provide a cupp of the value of £24 to be run for at the races upon Wendesdaie in Easter Weeke'. Later on, in 1646 a plate of 50 ounces was to be provided for seven years ‘to be run for the Thursday next after the last Wednesday in August. Provided that the Gentleman Subscribers to the other parte of ye Articles doe provide a Plate and runn for it the Wednesday before', rather a complicated provision, and considering the tragic and disruptive events that took place over the next seven years in the Civil War, it seems rather unlikely that the races were even held at that time - and the silver for the plates was no doubt put to other use.
Presumably racing was suspended under the Commonwealth, but upon the Restoration it flourished with the active support and participation of Charles II, affectionately nicknamed 'Old Rowley' after a favourite horse he rode at Newmarket. The fire which destroyed the King's house at Newmarket was one of the reasons for his projected move to Winchester where Sir Christopher Wren was starting work on the King's House on the site of the old Castle in 1683. The King liked this area particularly for many reasons, some political, some personal such as his delight in 'its prospect, air, pleasure and provisions' which 'made the King more earnest to render Winchester the seat of his autumnal field diversions for the future'. However, this was not to be for long as the King died in 1685 and his great palace was left unfinished.
The visit of Queen Anne in 1702 was probably the one during which she inspected the now derelict palace with a view to restoring and finishing it for her own and her Consort's use - a plan which came to nothing. However, she did go to the Races and David Wavell Esq, Mayor, contributed £10 from the City coffers towards the value of the City Plates.
.... When?
Racing seems to have been held throughout the spring and summer months - as early as April and on until August. There were many other race courses in the area, notably Stockbridge, home of the famous Bibury Club and often frequented by Edward VII when Prince of Wales; Andover, Basingstoke and Soberton Down where the Hampshire Hunt held their Meetings in April. So probably the Meetings were timed to enable both horses and visiting gentry to make a circuit of the various courses. Transport was obviously much slower in those days and the horses had to be ridden from Meeting to Meeting, then rested for a while to make sure they were in top form for the races - especially as many of the races were run in heats which must have been very hard on the horses. It is suggested that the many looseboxes at South Wonston Farm were built for this purpose but others say that the Marquis of Donegal built them to stable his own racehorses. It was a 700-acre farm in the late 18th Century, stretching all the way to Worthy Down, but nowadays the remaining looseboxes mostly house pigs, tractors and combine harvesters rather than racehorses.
Fields were not very large in the 18th Century and judging and regulation were haphazard to say the least. In 1753 the main race of the Meeting was described thus: 'The King's Plate of 100gns for 6 year-olds 12 - 0 each was run for and won by Lord Strange's br.h. starting alone'. However, in 1774, there were five entries for His Majesty's Plate and at this same Meeting 'there was the greatest sport that ever was known at our races for many years past. The first heat was run for by the Duke of Bolton's Chose and Mr. Bishop's Amphion, which was with great difficulty decided in favour of Chose, and the third heat was a dead heat between the same two horses'. The Dukes of Bolton were powerful in racing circles in the 18th Century for in 1722 a notice announcing the running of His Majesty's Plate states 'if any difference arise relating to their Ages (i.e., the runners) Entering or Running, the same to be determined by His Grace the Duke of Bolton'. An 'Old Sportsman', writing in Hampshire Notes and Queries in the late 19th Century, looking back 50 years notes that 'Formerly there was no paid or regular judge or starter, consequently too often there were palpable mistakes in both departments. Not the least conspicuous of these errors was one at Winchester, where a gentleman of high standing was officiating in the judge's box, and he placed the horse first which to all observers was only a moderate second'.
Local tradition in Canon Street in Winchester suggests that another noble Owner was the Duke of Hamilton but this is not at all certain, although there is no disputing the fact that an early owner of Hamilton House built a large group of stables behind his house for his race-horses. The stables were either demolished or converted in the late 19th Century to make way for a soft drinks factory, which has now in turn been replaced by modern cottages. Hamilton Cottage in Culver Road next to the big house was supposed to be the Head Lad's house.
Attendant festivities
The racing season occasioned many attendant festivities besides horse-racing and these no doubt brought a substantial increase in trade in the city - as well as a consequent increase in rowdiness. In most cases runners had to be entered for a race 'the day seven-night before they run' usually at the Chequers or the White Hart in Winchester, both of which were the scene of much entertainment and merriment during the season. Both were inns of great antiquity, the Chequers dating back to mediaeval times and covering a huge area from St. Peter Street down to Parchment Street and fronting onto the High Street. It was demolished in 1769. The White Hart stood on the south side of the High Street next to the old Guildhall. It was first mentioned in 1409, but was pulled down to be rebuilt 'in the modern style' in 1806 and finally closed in 1854, having been brought up by the landlord of the Black Swan who considered it a threat to his own business. The large window and balcony on the first floor of numbers 46 and 47 are about all that remains of this once-famous coaching inn today.
Cocking (cock-fighting) was almost as popular with the racing fraternity as horse-racing and there was plenty of this sport (if you can call it that) at the inns and taverns of Winchester along with 'ordinaries', concerts and balls. An ordinary was a meal served to all corners at a fixed price and they would start around 2 in the afternoon, so everyone was in fine fettle for the racing which usually began around 4 or 5 in the evening and carried on until the light was too bad for the judges to see the finish - or sometimes a little later. A description of the 1776 Festival at Winchester in the Hampshire Chronicle, after describing an assembly, concert and ball attended by 'numerous and polite companies', notes that 'on Thursday after an elegant breakfast at St. John's House, the company according to an annual custom repaired to the College where they heard an excellent composition on the subject of Macbeth'. So all tastes were catered for, though as ever the weather could not be relied upon and was often very inclement prompting Jane Austen to write:
When Winchester Races first took their beginning,
T'is said that the people forgot their old Saint
That they never applied for the leave of St. Swithin
And that William of Wykeham's approval was faint".
Gradual decline in the nineteenth century
Fluctuation in the popularity of racing continued throughout the 19th Century. In 1811, apparently, 'the sport was indifferent and there were not many horses' but 1849 was better when, according to the Hampshire Chronicle, 'there was an unusually large assemblage and our races have not been so well attended for many years'. However, by the 1860s, in his General History of Hampshire, B.B.Woodward says 'There is generally one meeting in each season under the patronage of the officers of the garrison but the races are not of extensive interest or renown'. This seems to be paving the way for the end of racing in Winchester.
The last account of Winchester Races in the Hampshire Chronicle is dated 16th July 1887 and though there is no mention of this being the last meeting, it doesn't sound too happy an occasion: 'Owing to the want of rain, and consequent hardness of the ground, large fields were not to be expected, and thus the sport was of a moderate description only, and the attendance was decidedly poorer than usual. On the first day there was some talk of an objection to the day's racing on the ground that the rules of the Jockey Club had not been complied with'. This was to be reported to the Stewards of the Jockey Club.
Several reasons are put forward for the decline of racing in Winchester and indeed in many of the cathedral cities and county towns around the country. The National Horseracing Museum suggests that the introduction of the Jockey Club rule that every race after 1877 must be worth a clear £100 to the winner, may have contributed to its demise, and also the introduction of the gate money enclosure. The coming of the railways may have increased attendance in some places and eased the transport of horses, but if a racecourse was not on a main line, it could easily be bypassed in favour of those more easily accessible.
From Mudie's 'HAMPSHIRE', Vol 1, 1838
Monument to 'Beware Chalk Pit' on Farley Mount
What remains today?
So what remains today of the Sport of Kings in Winchester? Very little indeed, but at least high up on Farley Down there stands a pyramid erected to commemorate a famous horse owned by a Mr. Paulet St. John. This fiery steed fell into a 25 ft. chalk-pit in 1733, survived and won the Hunter's Cup the following year, both times with the 'owner up'. After his accident he was renamed and entered in the race as 'Beware Chalk-Pit'.
On Worthy Down a wide stretch of cultivated farmland sweeps across the whole area where the Races were once held, with nothing to indicate its colourful and crowded past, and only a few ramshackle buildings bearing witness to its later use - as an airfield in both the first and second world wars. There are still some horses though not, perhaps, of the calibre of the great runners of earlier days. Frank Ward, whose father was a trainer and built the Cloudbank Stables in South Wonston in 1929, runs a busy riding school there now. Though there was no racing, his father used the gallops in the area with apparently no conflict with the activities of the RFC, the RAF, the Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Navy, all of which were stationed there at various times. (Of course, aeroplanes were smaller in those days).
Frank can recall riding with some of the all-time greats of racing before the war, including Sir Gordon Richards, and Steve Donahue who would fly in for an early work/ride, then take off again for whatever meeting he was riding in. Common practice for jockeys nowadays, but quite unusual then. There is nothing left of the old grandstand now, though I was told that traces of it show up when ploughing takes place. It was demolished in the early 1920s and during the war a practice bombing circle was set up just below where it used to be. However, Tony Groves, another youthful-looking long-time resident of South Wonston, can remember playing in the grandstand as a child. He describes it as a large square brick building, and he particularly recalls a vast stone seat on the upper storey. Some of the old timbers were used in the construction of Cloudbank Stables and for houses in South Wonston.
In the Winchester Countryside published in 1947, Alan Rannie says, 'Worthy Down is also the site of the old Winchester Racecourse abandoned about half a century ago. Near the spot where the grandstand used to be is the site of a British village. This was excavated in 1920 and amongst other finds was a set of iron currency bars now in Winchester City Museum. Surely racing in Winchester doesn't go back that far . . . .
NB If anyone has further information on this subject, or the Mizmaze Puzzle, the Editor would be interested to receive it with a possibility of the material being included in a future Newsletter.