This is the 'Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide' General Royal Regatta Page -
for specific years see the other pages
Umpires' Launches,
1839 and before,
1840s,
1850s,
1860s,
1870s,
1880s,
1890s,
1900s,
1910s,
1920s,
1930s,
1940s,
1950s,
1960s,
1970s,
1980s,
1990s,
2000s,
2010s
Official websites:
Henley Royal Regatta;
Henley Women's Regatta;
Henley Town and Visitors Regatta;
It is not generally known, but the Regatta has its very own GHOST STORY!
In 1869 Charles Dickens published "THE PHANTOM OF REGATTA ISLAND
Read this, and you will never be able to see the start and Temple Island in the same light again!
Scroll horizontally as necessary
View Larger Map
Other Henley Royal Regatta Links:
Henley Royal Regatta Radio;
Videos;
The Rabbit’s Guide to Henley Royal Regatta;
History of Rowing;
1946: Down the Thames, Martin Briggs -
When all is said and done, however, Henley lives mainly for its regatta ...
Henley is only quite all there in the hectic regatta days ...
The town has that curious absent-minded air, shared by places like Epsom and Lourdes,
of always getting over, or just preparing for, the great and rare event ...
Then its commercial waterfront, full of slap-and-tickle-girls, bursts into life ...
Slap AND tickle! ...
LONDON OF TODAY [1890] An Illustrated Handbook
HENLEY REGATTA
Since the old pageants of Venice, nothing has been produced to excel the beauty of the scene
at Henley during the regatta. It is far and away the prettiest festival of the kind London,
or indeed England, has to offer.
Formal aquatic procession on the Thames has dwindled to the "Fourth of June" celebration at Eton,
for the Lord Mayor's pageant no longer returns by water to the City from Westminster.
Athleticism has taken the place of antique ceremonial; and we have now at Henley,
apart from the cause of the gathering, such an assemblage of parti-coloured boats,
awnings, flowers, and flags, not to mention pleasant company, as could hardly be matched anywhere.
The River Carnival of July
Fine summer weather is indispensable to the full enjoyment of the regatta,
for then the charming upper reaches of the Thames are seen at their best.
The visitor who can command the hospitalities of a "house-boat" is to be congratulated.
At the annual season of festivity, all the hostelries and available ancillary lodgings of the little town
are occupied. The only method left of enjoying the scene in reasonable comfort is that of having a home
on the waters, a floating house of one's own (or a share of one with a friend), "a fluviatile analogue",
as has been said, of the four-inhand at Ascot, and the family landau at "Lord's" during the Universities'
or the Public Schools' cricket matches.
Excitement in the sport going forward is agreeably tempered by strawberries and cream, and "cups"
and dainty drinks mingled and iced too wisely and too well.
From a little country jollification, Henley Regatta has, like Ascot Races,
been growing to the proportions of a national holiday, though, luckily,
the distance from London and the absence of a betting-ring, keeps the rougher people away.
The competition of rival clubs and crews at Henley is fiercer than of yore.
The absence of the representative University crews, which formerly met there,
has been amply compensated by the presence of the numerous boating clubs
which have grown into existence since the Oxford and Cambridge crews rowed their first race
over the Henley course.
As watermen's regattas and rowing matches fell into discredit on the Lower Thames,
clubs of amateurs increased and multiplied.
Selected crews of the best of these clubs, from the Oxford and Cambridge Colleges and the Public Schools,
and occasionally from America and Fiance, combine to give a zest to the Henley Regatta,
by exhibiting their "best form" in the several competitions.
Regatta, Ashley Bryant
You can see the tension in the shoulders - and the wash at the top of the picture confirms it -
they are being beaten!
Map: Swiss Farm International Camping
400 yards from river, left bank, 01491 573419
180 pitches, 1st March to 31st October, WC, showers, laundry, wash basins, swimming pool,
fishing lake, club house, play area, games room.
Fireworks 1837 - 2009 and 2011
On the Saturday evening, around 10pm, an unofficial part of the regatta are the fireworks let off on the left bank behind Fawley Meadow. Anywhere on the second half of the course is a good place to see them from. The river has in the past been very crowded with boats mooring several deep along the booms and banks. The crowd get quite carried away ... (And some of them have to be ...) I think some people must come for this alone and see nothing of the rest of the regatta. It used to look like this -
Henley Royal Regatta Illuminations
Fireworks 2005
And the difference? In Victorian days it was people who illuminated themselves and showed off their beautiful clothes with coloured lanterns - and now its all flash and bang in the darkness - and the people are just passive spectators.
Regatta Service
Henley Royal Regatta is the one great British sporting event which
includes a Christian service on Sunday, (the finals day).
At 9.30am [always used to be 10am] in Henley Parish
Church there occurs what
I can only describe as “Rowing Matins”.
With a full church the service starts with the National
Anthem; Anglican Chant is sung as
lustily as it was fifty years previously in the chapels of the public schools
by many of these very same people; the chairman of the Stewards reads a lesson; the local choir sings beautifully; they
dig out some rowing cleric to preach a sermon.
I am becoming a connoisseur of these sermons over the years. They come in two flavours.
There is the rowing sermon and the “you are
men of influence” sermon. The rowing
sermon largely centres around “we all swing together” or words to that
effect. We are reminded of the eight in
the bible (St Paul talks of “the ark, wherein eight souls in all were saved” – and every rower knows
coxes are damned – in the present if not in eternity).
Then there is the observation that the church
is at the finish of the Henley Course. The cox cannot see where he is going for all
these hairy oars persons flailing about – but look above them and there is the
church in the distance – aim for the church and you can’t go wrong.
One daring preacher used the parable of the
Unrighteous Steward – but it was alright, it worked, they made him a Regatta
Steward anyway. [That was in 1986 - and he preached again to similar effect in 2011]
In 2005 we had - how to
make progress seated facing backwards. (This
was, to my mind, a metaphor too far. Christians ought to be radicals or they are
nothing!)
Clearly somebody agreed because the reading on which the Bishop of Ely preached in 2006
had "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the finishing line to win the prize ..."
In 2007 Professor Gomes of Harvard preached a delightful and encouraging sermon on "Be not afraid" -
the words of Christ to the oarsman on the lake in the storm when he walked on the water.
"Be not afraid" of losing or winning. "Be not afraid" in this world of fear.
In 2008 the Rector of Henley preached on that same text with a slightly different twist. His sermon was full of humour starting with the words of the Regatta
Chairman (or was it God - hard to tell the difference in regatta week) - speaking of the poor painting of the regatta headquarters
"Repaint, repaint and thin no more!". He ended with a splendid misquotation of the Psalm -
"They that go down to the sea in boats - have gone to far and missed the start
and will be disqualified by the stewards!"
Finally in the service a visiting crew (Harvard University in 2007, Stellenbosch University in 2008)
takes the collection, and though we would like
to sing the National Anthem again, we can’t, because we have already sung it
once, and so the service ends. There is
just time to get suitably refreshed for the first race at 11.30am [used to be 12 noon].
Umpires' Launches,
Regatta -
1839 and before,
1840s,
1850s,
1860s,
1870s,
1880s,
1890s,
1900s,
1910s,
1920s,
1930s,
1940s,
1950s,
1960s,
1970s,
1980s,
1990s,
2000s,
2010s
(Olympic Rowing at Henley
Estuary
PLA
QEII Br
Barrier
Tower Br
Custom Ho
London Br
; Frost Fairs
Cannon St Rb
The Great Stink
Southwark Br
Millenium Br
Blackfriars Rb
Blackfriars Br
Waterloo Br
Charing Cross Rb
Westminster Br
Lambeth Br
Vauxhall Br
Victoria Rb
Chelsea Br
Albert Br
Battersea Br
Battersea Rb
Wandsworth Br
Fulham Rb
Putney Br
Hammersmith Br
Barnes Rb
Chiswick Br
Kew Rb
Kew Br
RICHMOND
Twickenham Br
Richmond Rb
Richmond Br
TEDDINGTON
Kingston Rb
Kingston Br
Ditton Slip
Hampton Br
MOLESEY
SUNBURY
Walton Br
Desborough Cut
SHEPPERTON
Chertsey Br
CHERTSEY
M3 Br
Laleham Slip
PENTON HOOK
Staines Rb
Staines Br
Runnymede Br
BELL WEIR
Magna Carta Is
OLD WINDSOR
Albert Br
Datchet
Victoria Br
Black Potts Rb
ROMNEY
Eton
Windsor Br
Windsor Rb
Windsor Slip
Elizabeth Br
BOVENEY
Dorney Lake
York Cut
Summerleaze Fb
MonkeyIsland
New Thames Br
BRAY
Bray Slip
Maidenhead Rb
Maidenhead Br
Below Boulters
BOULTERS
Cliveden
Hedsor
COOKHAM
Cookham Slip
Cookham Br
BourneEnd RFb
Quarry Woods
A404 Br
MARLOW
Marlow Br
Bisham
TEMPLE
HURLEY
Medmenham
Culham Ct
Aston Slip
HAMBLEDEN
Temple Is
Fawley Ct
Remenham
Regatta
Phyllis Ct
Henley Slip
Leander
Red Lion
Henley Br
Angel on Br
Landing
Hobbs Boatyard
Hobbs Slipway
MARSH
Hennerton
Bolney
Wargrave
Shiplake Rb
R.Loddon
SHIPLAKE
Sonning Br
SONNING
Dreadnought
K&A Canal
CAVERSHAM
Reading Br
Caversham Br
Reading Slip
Purley
MAPLEDURHAM
Hardwick Ho
Whitchurch Br
WHITCHURCH
Hartswood Reach
Gatehampton Rb
Goring Gap
Goring Br
GORING
Swan
CLEEVE
Moulsford
Moulsford Rb
Papist Way Slip
Winterbrook Br
Wallingford Br
BENSON
Shillingford Br
R.Thame
DAYS
Burcot
Clifton Hampden
Clifton Church
Clifton H Br
Barley Mow
Long Wittenham
CLIFTON
Appleford Rb
Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Br
CULHAM
Culham Cut Fb
Abingdon Slip
Abingdon
Abingdon Br
ABINGDON
Nuneham Rb
Nuneham
Nuneham Park
Radley Boats
SANDFORD
Rose Island
Kennington Rb
Isis Br
Iffley Mill
IFFLEY
Oxford Rowing
Isis
Donnington Br
Riverside Slip
Boathouses
Punting
Lower Cherwell
Upper Cherwell
Islip
Head of River
Salters Steamers
Folly Br
Bacons Folly
Oxford Fb
Osney Fb
Weir stream
Osney Rb
Bullstake Stream
Osney Marina
OSNEY
Osney Br
Four Rivers
OLD RIVER
CANAL
Medley Weir Site
Medley Fb
Bossoms
Perch
Trout
GODSTOW
Godstow Nunnery
Godstow Br
Thames Br
KINGS
River Evenlode
EYNSHAM
Swinford Br
Oxford Cruisers
PINKHILL
Farmoor
Stanton Harcourt
Bablock Slip
Arks Weir Site
NORTHMOOR
Harts Fb
//Rose Revived
Newbridge
//Maybush
River Windrush
below Shifford
SHIFFORD
Shifford Fb
Tenfoot Fb
Trout Inn
Tadpole Br
RUSHEY
Old Mans Fb
RADCOT
Radcot Cradle Fb
Swan Inn
Radcot New Br
Radcot Old Br
GRAFTON
Eaton Hastings
Kelmscott
Eaton Fb
BUSCOT
Bloomers Hole Fb
Trout Inn
St Johns Br
ST JOHNS
Halfpenny Br
Marina Slip
LIMIT
Inglesham
Hannington Br
Kempsford
Castle Eaton Br
Marston Meysey
A419 Br
Cricklade
SOURCE?
THAMES HEAD
SEVEN SPRINGS