Fascinating relics of Northallerton's racing history

“The Northallerton” was the three-day October meeting, when many of the gentry of the district entered their horses with the hope of winning the gold or silver cups, and, in the evenings, the town’s pubs were overflowing with those celebrating success or numbing the pain of defeat.

Nowadays, you’d struggled to find a sign of the racecourse, apart from Racecourse Lane, which runs east to west at the south end of the town, connecting the A167 to the A168. The lane once ran parallel to the finishing straight and must have been awash with racegoers on race days – at the west end of the lane was the Horse and Jockey pub, which is now the Station Hotel, and at the east end was the Unicorn and Turf, which is now disappeared although in its latter years, the Roman Catholic church was its neighbour.

However, local historian Colin Narramore has several fascinating items in his collection which he has kindly shared with us following our stories here about Redcar and Richmond racecourses.

The first racecourse in the Northallerton area was down the A167 to the south of the town at Otterington, where there was even a small grandstand to allow spectators to see the races from 1765.

Not that Mr G Crompton wanted to be seen at the races, even though he had two winners at the 1801 meeting – Rosamond and Anniseed. “Mr G Crompton” was the pseudonym for the Reverend H Goodricke, vicar of Northallerton, who thought the high-minded members of his congregation would not like him owning horses.

A ticket now owned by Colin Narramore giving access to the grandstand at Northallerton races on October 18, 1872

Racing finished at Otterington about 1809 and then in the early 1820s, it was revived nearer Northallerton town centre in the Broomfield area. The revival may have coincided with renowned jockey John Jackson retiring from racing and buying Broomfield Farm and the neighbouring Black Swan Inn.

Jackson, who seems to have hailed from Stainton-in-Cleveland, near Middlesbrough, was renowned for winning the St Leger at Doncaster on eight occasions – the same as Lester Piggott – and also for his drinking. For instance, he lost the 1816 St Leger in what he considered to be unfair circumstances, and when sometime later he came across the winning jockey in a pub at Catterick Bridge he called him outside for a fight. Unfortunately, Jackson was so inebriated that he couldn’t see who he was fighting and so rather than the errant jockey he took on a passing chimney sweep who had no racing connections at all and was rather surprised by the sudden turn of events.

Because of the proximity of the Broomfield estate, the most important race in “the Northallerton” was initially the Broomfield Stakes, although it was soon overtaken in terms of prize money by the Gold Cup. It was first held in 1822 when it was won by Doctor Syntax, the 10-1 on overwhelming favourite.

Doctor Syntax, named after a comedy character of the day, was a great North Yorkshire horse, winning 36 major races in his ten-year career, and a favourite with local people who admired the way it never gave up.

Doctor Syntax, a legendary racehorse which won the first Northallerton Gold Cup in 1822

When Doctor Syntax was at the height of its powers, Henry Witham, of Lartington Hall, near Barnard Castle, held a lavish ball to celebrate his success in the St Leger. News in those days travelled a little more slowly than it does today, and the ball was in full swing when word arrived from Doncaster that the horse had surprisingly lost. Witham immediately fled the ball, leaving his guests in the lurch, and laid low at John o’ Groats in the furthest tip of Scotland to avoid his creditors – he had wracked up £105,000 in gambling debts (about £10m in today’s values) and was expecting Doctor Syntax’s triumph to pay it all off.

If he’d backed the horse at Northallerton, his money would have been safe because Doctor Syntax also won the second Gold Cup in 1823. He then went over to Richmond to win his fifth Gold Cup there, but, after passing the winning post, fell. The horse was uninjured, but local people were so concerned about the health of “the good doctor”, that he didn’t run again, and concentrated on his stud duties – he sired Beeswing, which won the Northallerton Gold Cup in 1837 and 1838.

The Northallerton Gold Cup was first in 1822 and proved so successful that in 1826, a Silver Cup was introduced. This is the 1835 Silver Cup, which was made by the well regarded London silversmiths Emes and Barnard and presented to the Duke of Leeds,

The earliest item in Colin’s collection is a poster advertising the 1839 Northallerton, which names the two stewards, who were the patrons of the meeting, as the Earl of Zetland and Colonel Sheldon Cradock, of Hartforth Hall.

We’ve met Lord Zetland in our stories about Redcar and Richmond races, while Col Cradock lived in Hartforth Hall, near Gilling West.

He was the MP for the rotten borough of Camelford, in Cornwall, a seat which was owned by the Earl of Darlington, of Raby Castle, near Staindrop. It was a notoriously corrupt borough – the earl paid the voters to support his candidate – and so it was abolished in 1832.

The colonel then concentrated on his horse racing – he won the Northallerton Gold Cup in 1839 and 1840 – and having children. He died in 1852 unmarried, but he had at least ten illegitimate children with his mistress, Jane Wilson, of Marske-by-the-Sea. When the 1851 census-taker found her at Hartforth Hall, he recorded her simply as a “visitor”, but her eldest son, Christopher, inherited the hall on his father’s death.

The bottom of the 1839 poster says: “Ordinaries as usual, at the Golden Lion Inn, and a ball at Mrs Scott’s, the King’s Head Inn, on Thursday, October 17, 1839. Theatre open every night during the races.”

Colin Narramore's 1839 poster promoting the big race meeting at Northallerton

An ordinary was a fashionable meal at a fixed price, so with people feasting, dancing and attending the theatre, Northallerton was bouncing. The legendary D&S Times columnist, Major John Fairfax-Blakeborough, said the pubs were “open all night long and the town was full, not of licentious ruffians, but men of high spirits, up to any lark”.

The arrival of the railway in Northallerton in 1841 provided a short term boost for the racecourse but put a long-term nail in its coffin. The boost was that more spectators, and more racehorses, could attend “the Northallerton”, but the nail was that the railway on the western boundary would prevent the racecourse from expanding.

County Hall in Northallerton was completed in 1905 on the site of the racecourse's grandstand

The growing ease of transport as the 19th Century wore on meant that demand for small local racecourses fell away – the large course at Redcar was established in 1872 to offer big prizes to attract the best horses. Northallerton fell out of favour in the 1850s, was revived in the 1860s, but the last meeting was held on October 22, 1880.

County Hall, on Racecourse Lane, was built on top of its pretty, but small, grandstand, and the southern part of its site is now covered by Broomfield Primary School.

ALTHOUGH Northallerton racecourse has been lost, the area’s pubs still mark it out as a home of horseracing.

In Northallerton High Street there’s The Tickle Toby Inn, which is named after a horse born in 1786. It was trained by John Hutchison, of Hutton Magna, and was one of the first to be sent for stud in the US in the 1790s.

At East Cowton, there is still the Beeswing, named after the 1830s Northallerton Gold Cup winner which was sired by Doctor Syntax – the “good doctor” had a pub named after him in Cockerton, Darlington, until 1912, and there is still a Doctor Syntax Inn in Prudhoe, near Newcastle.

At Nun Monkton, near York, there is the Alice Hawthorn Inn, which is named after another North Yorkshire hero horse, which won 52 of her 72 races, including the Northallerton Silver Cup in 1841 and the Gold Cup in 1842 and 1843.

At Morton-on-Swale, there used to be the Non Plus, named after the winner of the 1827 St Leger at Doncaster, while at Yafforth, there is a small street called Revellers Mews which was built in the 1990s on the site of the Revellers Inn, named after the horse which won the 1818 St Leger. Are there any others?