The Nemesis Rowing Club of Manchester & Salford and my great, great grandfather Walter Shorrocks

SPED FIRST BY RICH MEADS AND THEN BY NOXIOUS ODOURS

Like contemporaries Jerome K. Jerome (1859 – 1927), of ‘Three Men in a Boat’; Kenneth Grahame (1859 – 1932), of ‘Wind in The Willows’; and Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka ‘Lewis Carroll’ (1832 – 1898), it seems that my great, great grandfather Walter Shorrocks (1824-1906) loved messing about in boats.

And thanks to the British Newspaper Archive, I can tell Walter’s story:

JUBILEE OF THE NEMESIS ROWING CLUB – QUEEN VICTORIA’S ACCESSION

[Manchester Evening News, 19 June 1897]

This year of grace which marks an epoch in the life history of our gracious Sovereign, should prove of more than passing interest to local oarsmen, and indeed generally, to all supporters of the manly pastime, inasmuch as the premier aquatic institution of the city – the Nemesis Rowing Club – will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its birth.

The club holds a record of which it may well be proud. In the days of its early childhood the river Irwell was clearly a stream which sped upon its way between rich meads and pasture land and boating must then have been a pleasure. But what a change!

The ardent oarsman who now practises on its surface must be cast in a heroic mould, for surely in the event of an immersion the consequences would be serious. Despite however the changes that have taken place, through good fortune and ill, the Nemesis men have held together, and there are now in the club some few members who fifty years ago helped to start it upon its course.

In the autumn of 1847, a meeting was held at the Red Lion Inn, Salford, for the purposes of establishing an amateur rowing club. The name ‘Nemesis’ was given to the club from a feeling of resentment existing at that time against the Chester oarsmen for some real or fancied ill-treatment on the part of the latter, towards the Manchester men.

It was decided to temporarily fix the headquarters of the club at the old Manchester and Salford Regatta Club’s premises, close by Regent Bridge on the Manchester side of the river, pending the erection of the Nemesis boathouse near the Pomona Gardens, Cornbrook.

These enthusiastic watermen held their first event on New Year’s Day 1848, when a pair-oared race was rowed in three heats. From this small beginning the club went on to greater things, for a resolution was recorded on the minutes that eight jerseys be purchased and sold to members at cost price, and that an investment be made in a six-oared gig, to be called the ‘Free Trader’ and a smaller boat which would be named the ‘Clarence’.

At this time the subscription was only one shilling per week, and there were scarcely twenty members in the club. But they were keen oarsmen, and by pluck and steady perserverance they soon made a great name for the club.

In 1849 Jabez Roebuck, John Lang, Richard Anderton and Sam Cheetham won the Stewards’ Cup at the Manchester and Salford Regatta, and this prize was again secured in the two following years. Mr Sam Cheetham who stroked these crews was also a sculler of repute and placed the Chester Cup to his credit on several occasions.

In June, 1849, Mr Walter Shorrocks joined and soon proved himself a competent oarsman, rowing at No.3 thwart in many a winning race, in crews which were stroked by Sam Cheetham. Mr Shorrocks still takes a vivid interest in the doings of the club, and has rowed in scratch races to within the last five or six years.

The most successful season ever experienced by the club was 1853, whe the Nemesis crews swept everything before them. They took the £50 Challenge Cup at Chester, the prizes for four and pair-oared races at Kingstown [Dublin], the Ellesmere Cup at the Manchester and Salford Regatta, and the £40 Subscription Cup at Belfast.

The names of the men inscribed on these captures are Jabez Roebuck, J. Lythgoe (subsequently a founder of the Agecroft Rowing Club), Walter Shorrocks and Sam Cheetham.

Varying successes attended the club during the following years but in 1857 the fine boathouse was built, and remained in use until pulled down for canal purposes; where the premises stood is now one of the Pomona Docks. Some years later the club, like Alexander, seeking new worlds to conquer, went further afield, and succeeded in winning the Grand Challenge Cup for fours, and the Corby Castle Cup for pairs at Talkin Tarn, near Carlisle.

.....

Those who witnessed the excellent performances of the crews at Chester and Agecroft last year, will agree that the men gallantly upheld the fine traditions of the club. As nothing succeeds like success, it is possible the club may now be entering upon a fresh era of prosperity.

We have hitherto treated the progress of the club from a purely business aspect of rowing, but the trips by river and canal to Barton, Sale, Bollington, Lymm, Worsley, and even Runcorn, will long be remembered by those who rowed in the good old days before the Bridgewater Trustees withdrew the licences for rowing boats, a step which was a great blow to the club.

Though trips of this character are now but a memory of the past, the members are able to use a fine stretch of water about three miles to Mode Wheel. This keeps the men in good training, and should they yearn for a longer spin, for prettier scenery, and for relief from the concentrated odour so peculiar to their sphere of action, parties for a run to Chester and the Dee are quickly formed.

Those interested in the royal pageants and rejoicings of the coming week will be please to know that when Her Majesty visited here in 1851, the Nemesis Rowing Club provided an escort for the journey by state barge from Worsley Hall. Again in 1869 when the Prince and Princess of Wales came to Manchester the club manned and sent three eights to form an escort on the Bridgewater Canal.

NEMESIS ROWING CLUB JUBILEE - FOUNDER’S DAY CELEBRATION

[Manchester Evening News, Monday 6 December 1897]

It would be a bold assertion to make that the River Irwell, which pursues its course by cheerless wharves and dull prosaic factories, offers any inducement whatever for the average boating man. Yet for a period of 50 years the members of the Nemesis Rowing Club have cultivated the art of rowing upon its waters.

We were not surprised to learn that there were occasions when the club was compelled to adjourn to Hollingworth Lake, as the state of the river was not conducive to the health of practising members. But in spite of every drawback the representatives of the club at various regattas won eleven challenge cups outright and 114 presentation prizes.

The challenge cups and many of the prizes were in evidence on Saturday evening, when a large and enthusiastic gathering of members and friends dined together to celebrate the jubilee of the club. Mr H. Voss occupied the chair.

Several of the older supporters were present, one of whom. Mr Walter Shorrocks joined the club in 1849, and still takes an active and friendly interest in its welfare

During the evening medals for junior sculls and double sculling were given to Messrs Z.M. Lord and H. Vos.

An excellent history of the club since it was founded in 1847 has been compiled by Mr H. Hockmeyer.

NEMESIS ROWING CLUB’S ANNUAL REGATTA

[Manchester Times, Saturday 23 July 1870]

The annual regatta in connection with this club was held on Saturday, on the river Irwell at Cornbrook. With the exception of a smart shower, the weather during the afternoon was delightfully fine, and a large and respectable company (including many ladies) was present at the boathouse of the club, which was decorated profusely with bunting, and presented a very gay appearance.

The Compstall brass band was in attendance.

The programme contained four events for decision, but the pair-oared prizes were rowed over by Messrs. Gil and Armistead. During the afternoon a pair-oared cutter was capsized opposite the Nemesis boathouse, but the two men were rescued after a thorough drenching.

The following are [selected] particulars of the racing:

In the Champion Pair-oared Race [Throstle Nest to Regent Road Bridge and back – about 2 miles], Messrs. J.H. Shorrocks [Walter’s eldest son] and W. Lang [stroke] made a good start. Messrs. Shorrocks and Lang drew ahead, and at the Nemesis boathouse led by a length, rowing well. At this point they ‘hugged’ the Salford shore too closely, and the stern of the boat being caught by a sudden gust of wind, they ran into the bank. After getting clear, and proceeding a short distance further, a similar occurrence took place, and they retired from the contest, leaving their opponents to row over the remainder of the distance at their leisure.

In the Four-oared Race [from near Hulme Hall to Throstle Nest and back], in the first heat Mr Armistead’s crew showed slightly in front at the boathouses, immediately after passing which they were supplanted by Mr Shorrocks’s crew, who rowed steadily throughout, and won cleverly by two boat lengths.

In the Final, immediately after the start both crews settled down to their work, and some steady and determined rowing took place. On passing the boathouse the pair were nearly level, and so continued until half-way along Pomona railings, when Mr Vos’s crew dropped slightly astern. After rounding the buoy at Throstle Nest, Mr Shorrocks’s crew drew two lengths ahead, in which position they subsequently remained, and, of course won easily.

In the Eight-oared Race [from Throstle Nest to near Hulme Hall, nearly three quarters of a mile] Mr J.W. Dean’s crew, who rowed on the Manchester side of the river, obtained about half a boat’s length at the start, which they further increased, and won easily. Dean’s crew included J.H. Shorrocks and his father, my great, great grandfather Walter Shorrocks, who was then 46 years old.