May 4th, 2022 sees the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Schools’ Boathouse, the home of countless generations of Harpur Trust oarsmen and women.
Originally housed in a boathouse in Batts Ford near the Commercial Road Baths, the Boat Club was compelled in 1921 to find a new location after Messrs Chetham and Biffen (their landlords) had given the Clubs (Bedford School (BS), Bedford Modern School (BMS) and Bedford Rowing Club (BRC)) notice to quit in March, 1922.
A committee representing all three clubs met to consider what should be done, and it was decided to ask the Bedford Corporation (Council) to help in finding a site. The Corporation offered them a location on the south bank, immediately below the rollers, on advantageous terms, which the committee was unanimous in accepting. The site allowed boats to be launched on both the upper and lower river an enormous advantage in the Summer, when the river was often very crowded with rowing and pleasure boats.
Plans for three boathouses, side by side were drawn up. The total cost, which needed to be fundraised was estimated to be at least £3,500 (equivalent of £350,000 today). Both Schools arranged to hold a bazaar, with the Rowing Club agreeing to provide a stall at each bazaar. BMS raised £1,800, while BS held its own bazaar and also wrote to all the Old Boys with gifts coming from all corners of the earth! The final sum raised by BS was £2,800, far exceeding their expectations.
The new Boathouse came into use at the beginning of the summer term in 1922 and on Saturday, May 4th, a ceremony of inauguration was held at which the Mayor of Bedford (Mr W. Nicholls) and Lord Ampthill were present.
The ceremony was short and simple, and, as the buildings had been in full use for some weeks no attempt was made at elaborate decoration. The speeches were given from the balcony, below which crews representative of the combined clubs were ranged, standing with oars at the ‘order’—a picturesque but somewhat torrid ordeal in the full blaze of the sun.