Plan to Commemorate 150th Boat Race

Chiswick's close association with the event to be marked

Sunday 28th March 2004, will not only mark the 150th Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, it will also celebrate the 175th anniversary of the first ever race.

This highly competitive annual event came about when friends Charles Merivale, a student at Cambridge, and Charles Wordsworth who was at Oxford, came up with the idea of a rowing competition.

And so on 12th March 1829, Cambridge sent a challenge to Oxford and thus the tradition was born which has continued to the present day, where the loser of the previous year's race challenges the opposition to a re-match.

Due to this event’s strong links and traditions with the Chiswick area, it has been suggested that some commemorative seating should be installed in Duke’s Meadow, close to the race’s finishing line.

The suggested seating would take the guise of two naturalistic wooden seats complete with plaque and would be located along the new Thames path, which runs from Barnes Bridge to Chiswick Bridge.

The idea is to be discussed at the forthcoming Chiswick Area Committee meeting on Monday 2nd February.

The race will take place on Sunday 28th March 2004 and will begin at 6.00pm.

January 29, 2004