Founded in 1854 with the aim ‘To promote and further the interest of rowing in Huntingdon’ Huntingdon Boat Club was one of the first boat clubs to be founded away from the Thames Valley. Based on the banks of the river Great Ouse in Hartford; Huntingdon Boat Club was the first boat club to be set up in the county of Huntingdonshire, now Cambridgeshire and to this day continues to be one of the most prolific boat clubs in the area, and rowers can be seen sporting the club colours of Cardinal red and Dark blue on their club rowing vests.
The history of Huntingdon boat club before 1958 is one that is hard to recover, due to the fact that in the floods of 1958 a large proportion of the documents were water damaged so the history of the club has been passed down through the oral tradition by its members, many of whom have sadly passed away. Still a central nucleus of long associated families remains loyal to the club, and it is from their memory and recovered documents that the history of the club has been patched together and is available on their website. A whistle stop tour revealed that the club moved location many times in its long history, in the 1950’s and then again in 1980’s with new boat clubs being secured by the mayors at the time. In addition to being embedded in the history of Hartford, Huntingdon boat club, during the 70’s shared its boat club with the rowing crews of the RAF, frequently racing with them before the members of Huntingdon moved into their new and current home in 1987.
Huntingdon boat club then is a club full of racing history, in fact they ran two of their own races along the Great Ouse. These are the Huntingdon regatta, the race where Sir Steve Redgrave won his junior sculling tankard, and the Huntingdon Head of the river race, which still continues on to this day. In terms of a junior focus Huntingdon boasts a bursting junior squad of around 40 members, and they compete in all manner of boat classes ranging from single sculls all the way to eights. These crews compete at a variety of events, including Huntingdon’s self-run event the Huntingdon head of the river race, which runs along a 4.5km course. They also take part in events such as the Sudbury regatta, St Neots Regatta and St Ives regatta, having medalled at St Neots in 2018 in the coxless quad category.
Not only does Huntingdon boat club boast a bulging junior squad, but also runs crews all the way up to veterans catagories. These sections of the club, the veterans in particular have been very successful and have had both national and international representation. Crews have competed at the Gent International regatta in Belgium on many occasions and many crews have also competed in the National Championships of Great Britain. In 2000 a Huntingdon Men’s heavyweight double reached the final of the National Championships of Great Britain, a very large milestone for the club and testament to the work put in by the members. The same crew then went on to compete at Henley Royal Regatta, a heroic first for the club as no Huntingdon crew had ever competed in this prestigious rowing event before. The veteran crews of the club have had a large international representation over the years. In 2003 and 2005 they competed in the World Masters Regatta at Vichy in France and Strathclyde in Scotland respectively. Another first was achieved when a combined Huntingdon and RAF veteran crew competed at an International rowing even in St Petersburg. Other international events raced at include the gruelling Boston Rowing Marathon with its 31-mile-long course.
In terms of facilities and running of the club Huntingdon is blessed with an uninterrupted 5000m stretch of water from Huntingdon to Houghton, and this has had little change to it from when the club was founded in 1854. In terms of hardware Huntingdon boat club has boat bays fit to burst, recently acquiring a new racing eight, and in 2006 new doubles, singles and a coaches’ launch for the volunteer coaches. Not only does Huntingdon have boats, but they also have a fully kitted out gym complete with squat racks, bench pull station and of course the trusty Concept 2 ergometers.
All in all, Huntingdon since its foundation has found itself as a staple of the community of Hartford and I am sure for many more years to come, under the leadership of the committee and captain Paul Adair it will continue ‘To promote and further the interest of rowing in Huntingdon’.
Want to find out more about Huntingdon? Check out their website
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Images via Huntingdon Boat Club
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