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From: 159 Spring 2024
Author: Peter Smith
Those Freemen who were living in Oxford in the 1980s and 1990s may remember the amateur horse and pony racing events held on Wolvercote Common and Port Meadow. While always popular, these were intermittent and low-key events in comparison to the heyday of racing on Port Meadow, from the late 17th to the late 19th centuries. At its peak, those races were a major annual social event both for Oxford and the county, even with society balls in the Town Hall, and cock-fighting at Holywell. The Oxford Races were of national significance, recorded by the Racing Calendar from its inception in 1727. The course was often reported as being one of the best and flattest in the country.
The last published academic study of the racing history of Port Meadow was by Messrs Cordeaux and Merry in 1948. But now a new study is about to be published as part of a bound collection of papers in honour of local historian, Julian Munby. This is a very impressive and detailed article by his colleague, retired archaeologist George Lambrick, using a variety of historical documents, period newspapers, old paintings and engravings, ground surveys, and satellite and LIDAR imaging. He covers the story of the races from 1641 to 1880; how they were financed and organised; the form of several layouts of the course and spectator facilities; how they were accessed by racegoers; the activities of ne’re-do-wells led and developments in security and policing. These are set within their wider sporting, socio-economic and political context.
George reveals a surprising amount of surviving physical evidence of various layouts, though some of the traces are quite challenging to see on the ground. The clearest elements are stone bridges and causeways specially built for the races across ancient drainage channels, together with other embankments that were constructed to ensure a smooth gallop across other uneven land, such as where gravel had been extracted.
I did not know until this new article, that there were potentially at least four race courses, all of different layouts, used from 1641 through to 1880. Two old maps provide some of the evidence of the courses, the most complete and aesthetically pleasing being the first course, a two-mile “tear drop” shape shown on Benjamin Cole’s map of Port Meadow in c1720.
That first course was used from 1680 to 1841. It had a start/finish point at the southern apex end of the course, where the new research has shown that all the viewing stands, racing facilities and commercial pop up “booths” were situated (see painting “An extensive view of the Oxford races” by Charles Turner 1807). From there the course swept north then east across Shiplake Ditch using one of two low rise, broad stone bridges or “arches”. These were built by the Duchess of Marlborough for the races, and they survive today (see below) albeit roughly repaired over the centuries. The course then swept around Wolvercote Common and back down over the second bridge straight to the finish line. You can see that point marked on Cole’s map.
Another course used during two periods in the 19th century was a “Straight Mile” going almost north/south down the Meadow, which was also recorded on a map from 1876. There was a “balloon” shaped course with an oval and short straight section used in the mid-19th century. A “P” shaped course was created from 1858-1880. For these later courses, the spectator facilities, now including a large temporary grandstand, were located at the north end of the Meadow.
The social context of racing highlights the distaste, almost from the outset, of the University towards them, banning all its members from attending. The landed gentry and well-to-do citizens of Oxford frequented the races, as did the wider population - as well the inevitable criminals, not least pickpockets. Betting and drinking was rife, and attendance was always in the thousands.
The “knotty problem” of the relationship between the Freemen, Council and Commoners is a recurrent thread throughout. At several times during the 18th and 19th centuries the Council tried unsuccessfully to “enclose” the Meadow to generate much needed revenue by leasing out the land. The Council even tried to run new roads across the Meadow. The Freemen vigorously and successfully objected to this through our Common Hall.
We should be grateful indeed that our predecessors fought so vehemently to retain our grazing and fishing rights, and the natural beauty of the Meadow for prosperity! Another cause of friction that almost scuppered the Races in the 1860s, was a lengthy legal wrangle about rights to let pitches for commercial booths on the Meadow.
The racing was not constant: such disputes and problems of financial viability led to intermittent spells of no racing at all, sometimes lasting for decades. In addition, recurrent flooding and bad weather not only impacted on the racing, but also undermined commercial confidence in the event. The stands and booths were temporary, always dismantled after the races ended. Racing ended in 1880 in the face of such problems of finance and weather, together with a longer-term decline in popularity and reputation, superseded locally by the more gentlemanly cult of amateur sports such as rowing, which was actively promoted by the University.
Interestingly, the Freemen at a Common Hall in 1910 resolved that consent should be given to “let Port Meadow for a race meeting, assuming that a race meeting was desirable in Oxford”. However, racing did not occur again until resurrected by the City Sheriff in 1980, a hundred years after ceasing. The 1910 Common Hall was perhaps subconsciously marking the transition from one chapter of the Meadow’s story to another, as the Freemen also resolved to grant flying rights over the Meadow – a chapter already told in this journal!
Pre orders for the book containing George’s article and many other papers of local and wider interest are available from Archeopress: https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781803277042
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