About Thames

1870's

1880's

1890's

1900's

1910's

1920's

1930's

1940's

1950's

1960's

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The 1870's

The Wyfold four, 1870 - the first Thames winners at Henley

left to right: A.J. Lowe, W.H. Eyre, J. Shearman (cox), W.L. Slater, G.H. Vize

The Club authorities would not back the crew for the Wyfolds, so they rowed from the boathouse of Harry Salter at the Feathers, Wandsworth, a well-known waterman's pub at the mouth of the Wandle.

Throughout the winter, they went out at first light, and towards the end of March, they began regular training for Henley: 'We never paddled easily at all. Having little time to spare we used to get into the boat and row hard at a slow stroke up to Putney Bridge. Then we turned around and pegged away down to the West London Railway Bridge, a little over 1 3/4 miles, as hard as we could lick, turned around, and came back at a hard slow stroke. It did not run to shower baths there, but we used either to have a dive in 'the Cut', the barge entrance to the Wandle, or in the Thames itself at low water (when it was beautifully clear) or have buckets of water thrown over us, rub down, snatch a hasty breakfast, and bustle up to town.' W.H. 'Piggy' Eyre

'The race was a pretty hollow affair, the Thames crew winning as they pleased from first to last.' The Rowing Almanack

A map of the Tideway in 1870

The shape of the river may not have change since the 1870s, but the landmarks certainly have. There is no Putney railway bridge, but the old aquaduct is still in place. No Chiswick Bridge either and Leander still have a Putney boathouse...

The Thames Cup eight, 1872 - the first Thames winners of that event

W.G. Giles (bow), H.J. Smith, J. Hastie, W. Page, G.H. Vize, J.A.Cameron, W.H. Eyre, W.L. Slater (stroke), E.A. Safford (cox)

The Grand eight, 1876 - the first Thames winners of that event

R.H. Labat (bow), J. Howell, G.C. Gordon, C.C. Cream, W.L. Slater, J.A.M. Robertson, W.H. Eyre, J. Hastie (stroke), E.A. Safford (cox)

The final was between Thames, Jesus College, Cambridge and a combined Brasenose and University College crew, rowing as Oxford University:

'In that race, Hastie went off in a way that, I think, fairly paralysed the other strokes for the moment. What the rate was I do not know, but we took it up magically (of course by pure accident) and I never in my life, before or since, felt a boat jump under me like it. We cleared the 'Mixture' in less than two hundred yards, crossed them, and after a sharp tussle, got the Jesus water...Then Cabby [Rhodes, the Jesus stroke] came at us with a rush. The yells of the Cantabs to 'bump' us, I shall never forget. Hastie jerked his head towards Bucks, and Safford, losing his nerve, lugged his right string so hard that he ran us across Oxford again, and nearly fouled the bushes just above the Fawley Court boathouse. When we got straight, we buckled to, and came across gradually, got their water again a little before the corner, and won (easing down a bit, but mortal licked at the finish) by nearly two lengths...' Piggy Eyre