1866 – Founding of the Royal Shrewsbury School Boat Club

Rowing began at Shrewsbury as an unofficial sport frowned upon by the authorities.

Dr Butler (Headmaster 1798-1836) threatened boys caught rowing with flogging. However, by around 1830 rowing was well enough established for the boys to raise two crews for six-oared boats, and as the decade progressed and the less disapproving Kennedy took over a Headmaster (1836-65), annual School Regattas began to be held. These were festive events and continued in various formats until 1891.

Photos: [to be sourced]

• Regatta Programme, 1854
• Pennants for school boats ‘Flirt’ and ‘Ripple’. Early school boats caried pennants bearing their names.

Photo: Flirt was acquired in 1859.

Photo: Ripple was acquired in 1862.

Photos: [to be sourced]

• School Crew 1870
• Prince of Wales public house (later became the Ferryman’s Cottage)
• Caption: Before the School’s move to Kingsland in 1882. The Prince of Wales public house later became the Ferryman’s Cottage. The building on the left is D. Evans Boat Hire. Mr Evans was nicknamed ‘Old Og’ by Salopians and was said to have “very unenviable notoriety”. This later became the site of the first School Boathouse.

From 1839 rowing became a recognised sport and all boys above the Fourth Form who could swim were allowed to row.

In 1864 a boat race was arranged with Cheltenham College. Although Shrewsbury was beaten, the enthusiasm created by successive victories in the next two years gave rise to a desire to make boating more systematic.

And so, in September 1866, the Shrewsbury School Boat Club was formally constituted. It swiftly became the Royal Shrewsbury School Boat Club.

Photo: The minutes of the first meeting of the Shrewsbury School Boat Club, September 1866 [to be sourced]

To begin with, the Club’s activities were mainly domestic, confined to arranging boat hire or any five boys who agreed to make up a crew for the season and organising Bumpers and other inter-House races. Most coaching was done in Houses, often by the boys themselves, organised by House oat Captains.