Work is about to begin to rescue a building that is the first of its kind in the world but which has been slowly, and sadly, falling down for the last 50 years.
As The Northern Echo reported last week, the grandstand at the old Richmond racecourse has been awarded £416,944 of Government money so that it can be stabilised and re-opened to the public who will be able to get a glimpse of its Georgian grandeur.
They will also be able to drink in its panoramic views, which stretch across the Vale of Mowbray to the hills and coast of Cleveland, and to soak up 250 years of extraordinary stories that have played out on the elliptical stretch of gently undulating grassland in front of it.
Northern Perspectives' view of a very dry Richmond Racecourse recently, looking over the grandstand towards the Cleveland Hills
Pistols at dawn
This, on the moors above Richmond, is the world’s oldest surviving racecourse grandstand, built around 1775, so it obviously has plenty of stories of dramatic equine contests, with racehorses snorting their way neck and neck to the tape, watched with great excitement by the wealthiest people in the grandstand which seems to have been deliberately designed to be the first to enable in-race betting.
The grandstands at Richmond racecourse, with Lord Zetland's private one of 1883 on the left and the oldest surviving one in the world from 1775 on the right. Picture: Vale Ecology
Then there are stories of amazing human battles up there, like that of Captain Dawson who in 1780 duelled with John Wycliffe, pistols at dawn, over Mr Wycliffe’s illicit romantic attentions to Mrs Dawson, who was described as “a fine looking woman”.
And like that of the two unscrupulous butchers who were caught draining the blood of a freshly deceased racehorse, with racegoers still milling around them, so that they could turn it into sausages.
Plus there’s the story of the town’s burgage committee, which has been battling with a 1,000-year-old form of governance and Georgian political corruption to work out exactly who owns the grass beneath the horses’ hooves so that they can begin to save the Grade II* listed grandstand which has been on Historic England’s “at risk” register since 2019.
Richmond was a racing centre since at least 1512, although it wasn’t until 1765 that the first races were held on the pastures of Low Moor. It was common land where, since before the Norman Conquest, the leading townspeople – burgesses – had the right to graze their animals, but it was Richmond Corporation – or council – which invested much in levelling and draining to create a 1.5 mile course with a five furlong straight.
George III gave Richmond racecourse the royal seal of approval. Here is his head on a guinea from 1780, a coin that could well have been used at the grandstand
The council’s expense was rewarded in 1775 when George III decreed that the annual prestigious race for the King’s Plate would be held alternately at York and Richmond.
The first era of grandstand building
To prepare for the first race in 1777, Richmond instructed John Carr to build a suitable grandstand.
How John Carr's grandstand, built between 1775 and 1777, may have looked in its heyday, by John Harland
Carr was the greatest architect of his day, renowned for Harewood Hall near Leeds. Locally, he designed Northallerton prison and practically every bridge in North Yorkshire, from Appersett and Aysgarth, through Catterick and Croft, Masham and Morton-on-Swale to Yarm and Yearsley near York.
Plus, in 1747, he had designed the world’s first public grandstand at Wakefield racecourse, which started the first era of grandstand building.
Early grandstands overlooked the finishing post so the crowd got the best view of the closing moments but they often couldn’t see the rest of the course.
At Richmond, Carr used the natural rise of the land to position the grandstand so that the finish could still be seen but all of the course was laid out before the spectators. Most races were over four miles, nearly three times round the course, and lasted seven minutes, so with the horses almost always in view, in-race betting became possible for the first time.
The grandstand cost about £1,300 to build, with Charles Dundas of Aske Hall, a breeder and owner, leading the way, but townspeople also paid five guinea subscriptions for which they received a silver medallion that granted them lifelong access to the grandstand.
Richmond Racecourse in 1891, at the time of the last race, with the two grandstands behind
Gold Cup
On the ground floor, the stand had rooms used by racing officials. The first floor featured one large room, with a fireplace, and great arched windows and a balcony for spectators. The best views, though, were from the open top floor.
Richmond’s three day meeting in early September became one of the great dates in the Georgian social calendar. The best racehorses were – slowly – walked to take part and the town filled up more than a week in advance. Stately homes from miles around were full of upper class guests, and there were balls in the hotels and plays in the famous theatre to keep them entertained.
The high point of the meeting was the Gold Cup, a race for a trophy that cost the townspeople 100 guineas each year to make. The glittering prize was paraded from the town hall, past thousands in the crowded streets and placed in front of the stand, ready for the race.
The starter's box at Richmond racecourse was built in 1814 and is the oldest in the world. Here it is seen in the 1960s with the grandstand, then with two storeys, behind
Non-horse related activities also took place on the racecourse. For instance, around 1780, when Capt Dawson, who lived in the Market Place, found a love letter that his best friend Wycliffe had written to his wife, he challenged him to draw at daybreak up on the course. Wycliffe was seriously injured, a ball embedding itself in his body, and Dawson fled from town never to return, taking his “fine looking” wife with him.
The starter's box at Richmond racecourse today with the remains of the grandstands behind
In 1788, pig driver John Batty accepted bets of 20 guineas for 100 guineas that he could not walk 700 miles in 14 days around the course. There were plenty of takers that he could not manage 50 miles every day for a fortnight, and on the first day, they must have felt pretty confident because his new shoes ripped the skin off his feet.
However, he triumphed with five hours to spare, although after he had paid off all of his backers, he only had 16 guineas to show for his immense pain.
Drunkenness, pickpockets and prostitutes
As the 19th Century wore on, the railways sucked the wealthy in to London where the fashionable racecourses – Epsom and Ascot – grew at Richmond’s expense.
Social attitudes changed. Whereas gambling had once been a way of boasting about wealth and bravery, religion now frowned upon it.
The crowds were no longer fashionable. Instead, there was great drunkenness as well as pickpockets and prostitutes.
In 1872, the D&S Times told how W Watson of Darlington and John Swales were in court in Richmond charged with “stealing the carcase of a dead horse”. The poor animal had collapsed during a race and the two men had pushed through the crowd and had begun to dismember its carcase. While Watson wielded the knife, Swales tried to hold up the rear end to help the blood drain.
“We bleed them to make them white,” Swales told the policeman. “There is more to be made of their flesh after bleeding. It would do for sausage – that is our trade.” He was sentenced to six weeks in prison while Watson got two months hard labour.
In a last bid to stem the decline, in 1883, Lord Zetland built himself a new grandstand, designed by Darlington architects Clark and Moscrop, beside the old one, an extremely rare example of a private stand.
But the decline was terminal. The final meeting at Richmond finished on August 7, 1891.
Richmond racecourse taken earlier in the summer by Northern Perspectives, our regular contributor
Golf, a hospital and a nuclear bunker
Since then, the fabulous setting has had many uses: Richmond Golf Club started there in 1902; the grandstand was used as an isolation hospital in the First World War; 30,000 people gathered on the lofty course to see the 1927 total eclipse and, in more recent times, the Royal Observer Corps watched for enemy aircraft and then for signs of nuclear fall-out (there was a nuclear monitoring bunker on the edge of the course until 1991).
And over the course of time, the grandstands began to fall down. In 1969, Richmond council wanted to demolish them for safety reasons, but North Yorkshire council refused because of their historical importance.
But still they were left to fall down.
Racehorses pass the ruined grandstand in 2002
Part of the issue was the ownership. There had once been 273 “burgage” plots (usually houses) in the town, which gave the owner rights to graze his animals on the moorland and the right to vote.
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This latter attribute attracted Sir Lawrence Dundas to the town in 1762. He bought Aske Hall and 131 burgage houses from Lord Holderness for £75,000, and soon hoovered up another six burgage houses so that he had more than half the Parliamentary votes. This guaranteed that his candidate would always become the Richmond MP – it was the ultimate pocket borough.
The rights of the burgesses were amended by Acts of Parliament in 1802 and 1853, which created the Burgage Pastures Committee, but it has still taken almost two decades of legal and Parliamentary activity for the committee, with the help of Historic England, to reach the point where it has won the Defra grant. Eighteen weeks of work is about to begin to put the historic grandstand back on course.
How the grandstands at Richmond racecourse should look after their consolidation. Picture: Donald Insall Associates
- Much information from A Short History of Richmond Grandstand by Professor Mike Huggins published in 2021