A Record of the CLASPER Family History
Harry Clasper - Hero of Tyneside
(The
following is an article which was published in 'The Banks of the Tyne' and 'The
North-Easterner magazines by John Bage.)
I first began researching my family tree about six years ago. I started with my own surname BAGE and also my paternal grandmothers name of CLASPER because they seemed unusual and there were not that many in the phone books. Both names revealed interesting people and one of the most interesting and a one to be proud of was a man called Harry CLASPER. He was the 19th century equivalent of our present day Olympic champions in the sport of rowing.
Harry, who was born in Whickham, County Durham in 1812
learned the trade of ship’s carpenter in his early years, a skill which he
would later use to design and build world-class racing boats
Harry would spend a lot of his
time rowing on the river and eventually he and his brothers William and Robert
got together about 1837 with John Thompson and Robert Dinning to form a crew and
took on a celebrated local crew over which they were victorious. Harry then
built a boat named ‘The Young Hawk’ and he used this to win the Durham
Regatta in 1842.
The Corporation of Newcastle
started up an Annual regatta in which all the local boat crews took part. The
banks of the Tyne would be crowded with spectators. Harry and his crew were
usually the winners and became the undisputed Champions of the Tyne.
New opposition was sought
outside the area and the Thames watermen were challenged. The Thames men were the national champions and they travelled
to the Tyne to take part in the race on 16 July 1842. The race was to be from Newcastle Bridge to Lemington.
Harry lost the race but he knew that the problem was in the design of his boat so he continued the construction of a new boat naming it the‘ The Five Brothers’ which he knew would revolutionise the sport of rowing.
This
is the earliest dated piece of Clasper boat material they have at present at
He and his brothers continued to
race locally and they won the four-oared race in the Tyne Regatta in August
1843. The Royal Thames Regatta was
in June the following year and Harry and his crew trained long and hard for
this. They wanted to prove to the
London watermen that the Tynesiders were a crew to be reckoned with.
Harry used his revolutionary boat ‘The Five Brothers’ which was the
first boat with outriggers to be used on the Thames.
Harry and his crew won the £50 prize at the Regatta which was held on 22
June 1844. Throughout the following
year Harry and his crew practised with their eyes set on gaining the
‘Championship of the World’ prize at the Thames Regatta to be held on 26
June 1845. For this event Harry had
built a new boat the ‘Lord Ravensworth’.
Unfortunately Harry’s brother Edward died on 1 April 1845 aged only 25.
His place in the boat was taken by Harry’s Uncle Ned Hawks.
Despite having a wooden leg Ned was a good rower.
On the day, the banks of the
Thames were thronged with thousands of spectators. Two London crews made their way through the heats to the
final to do battle with the Claspers. A
tremendous race followed but the Clasper boat won by about one and a half boat
lengths. They had won the £100
prize and the Championship of the World.
Sir Lancelot Shadwell, Vice
Chancellor of England, made the presentation and in a witty aside, remarked that
“Although the winners were Tyne men, the London watermen had not found then
‘tiny’ competitors.
The Tyneside boat crew arrived back in Newcastle to a tremendous welcome. Huge crowds turned out to welcome them. The bells at All Saints’ rang out and also those at Gateshead and the guns at Hawks & Crawshays’ works were fired in salute. Many challenges followed that year including a race against Thomas Carrol, the Champion of the Mersey, on the 29 September for a prize of £200. Harry won this race easily. On 19 November 1845 Harry was presented with a testimonial by his close friends and public figures of the area in Newcastle. Several gold and silver gifts were presented to him ‘as a token of respect for his ingenuity, perseverance, and upright conduct’, on all occasions. Presentations were also made to each of the crew.
They won the pairs at the Durham
Regatta on 26 June 1848 which got them in good heart for the Thames Regatta.
Huge crowds gathered on the banks of the Thames on the day.
With shouts of ‘Had away Harry lad’ from their Tyneside followers
Harry and his crew once again carried away the £100 prize and the championship.
The following year, 1849 the
Claspers took on and beat all comers. They
rarely lost a race.
In 1850 Harry completed a
four-oared outrigger racing boat beautifully made from cedar wood and measuring
42 feet in length and 21 inches in breadth.
This boat was to be used by the Claspers at the Henley on Thames Regatta
where they beat the Thames men.
In June 1862 Harry was honoured
with a testimonial. A concert took place at the Tyne Concert Hall where all the
trophies were displayed along with models of the boats.
It was a great night and Harry was presented with a Pub bought and paid
for with the money collected from friends and the public who couldn’t seem to
do enough to honour their hero. The
pub was situated at No 1 Armstrong Street, Scotswood Road and was to be named
the “Clasper Arms” and was considered the ideal place for Harry and his
family to live when he eventually retired.
Death of the Champion
Harry continued to take some part in racing but was also training others and
building boats at his yard.
It was on Thursday 8 July 1870
that Harry was seized by a mysterious illness.
His condition deteriorated and a few days later he passed away peacefully
and quietly in the presence of his wife and family
The news of Harry’s death
quickly spread around town. Grown
men were seen to be in tears when they heard the sad news.
When the day of the funeral
arrived no one had anticipated such a display as was witnessed.
The funeral procession was due to set-off at 2.45pm but people started to
assemble at least two hours earlier than this.
The hearse was pulled by four black-plumed horses.
At the front a band led the way and behind followed about two hundred
local oarsmen and members of the Tyne Rowing Club.
Following these were four mourning coaches containing Harry’s relatives
and close friends, then 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 rivers’ edge where the cortege was taken on board tug boats
to Derwenthaugh, and then on to Whickham, The
route 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.
In his 20 years as a rower
Harry’s contests bordered on 130, many of which he won.
It had been a tremendous time for local boat racing and for the people of
Tyneside.
More information can be found in the following books;-
‘Harry Clasper Hero of the North’ by David Clasper available from Gateshead Library.
Rowing: A Way Of Life - The Claspers of Tyneside by David Clasper (Portcullis Press, Gateshead Council, £7).
See details of their races and photos of the trophies won by Harry Clasper and John Hawks Clasper on the Friends of Rowing History web-site;-