Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum'

Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum'
[ Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum' ]

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Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach

Posted by Norman on 17/8/2024, 16:18:21
Edited by board administrator 17/8/2024, 20:22:40

My Gas Engineer son was servicing a boiler in South Shields for a History enthusiast who bought one of my Books. He gave my son this photo of a paintimg for me and said these races pre dated the famous Blaydon Races & why the Blaydon Races were started. I've no idea if true or not though.

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Re: Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach

Posted by Liz Dance on 17/8/2024, 18:07:23, in reply to "Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach"
Edited by board administrator 17/8/2024, 20:23:29

Nice painting,I wonder where it was taken.

I am sure there is someone who will come up with the answer.

Re: Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach

Posted by Brian on 17/8/2024, 19:51:58, in reply to "Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach"

The first Blaydon Race took place on Shrove Tuesday 1811 so you're looking at a date before that.

Re: Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach

Posted by John Shearer on 18/8/2024, 11:31:19, in reply to "Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach"

May have had the odd race but not regular horse racing on sand, I think the painter got carried away and it should have been Donkey's

Re: Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach

Posted by Brian on 18/8/2024, 13:00:29, in reply to "Re: Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach"

Horse racing did take place on beaches and still does in some places, they were more point to point than jockey club. Even in the early to mid 1800s the Jockey Club imposed a minimum of £300 prize money per meeting, a huge sum in those days so small meetings such as Blaydon and beach meetings continued but a lot of horses were entered under different names from jockey club meets, jockeys did the same. The real money at the smaller meets was in the gambling at the races themselves and was the main reason the 'respectable ' owners entered their horses under aliases and jockeys dud the same.

Re: Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach

Posted by Allan Campbell on 18/8/2024, 13:35:26, in reply to "Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach"

The background certainly Tynemouth as a basis.

It looks like the gun batteries are in place under the headland.

Is that a reef that the pier was built on in later years.

The sailing vessels as shown are heading into trouble I think.

Is that the Groyne showing on the left ?

The whole thing could be a made up landscape. The waves coming onto the beach seem far too good. From a modern photo.

Is it a cut and paste job from various pictures and photos. ?

The closest sailing vessel is I think taken from a well known print that my Grandparents had. In reality she would not have all those sails set so close in shore.

My bet it’s a make up from various pictures. What do you think.?

Allan C.

Re: Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach

Posted by Brian on 18/8/2024, 15:54:44, in reply to "Re: Did you know Horse Racing was held on the beach"

Allan it may be a painting that was a flight of fancy picking what they wanted from various works, It was then photographed at a later date, we will probably never know.

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[ Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum' ]

Rules! No party Politics,swearing,derogatory remarks or we delete. Anyone sharing our content on Face Book must credit 'Hebburn and our Neighbours'.