Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
07
Jun
The Great Knaresborough Bed Race: a look back at 60 years of madcap glory
In the summer of 1966, an event happened that was so momentous and uplifting that English sporting life was never the same again.
England won the World Cup, of course, but the truly glorious spectacle had come exactly five weeks before, when Knaresborough held its very first bed race.
Back then, the event was billed as a Bed Time Trial and was organised by Knaresborough Round Table.
The first Bed Race was called a 'time trial'.
The idea was to raise money for charity while putting on a fantastic event for participants and spectators, and it’s safe to say the plan came off in superbly silly fashion.
Mechanical propulsion was strictly forbidden, wheel diameters were limited to four inches, and each bed had to contain a “young lady” as passenger.
In those early years, the passengers between them had held numerous beauty contest titles, including Miss Italy, Miss Yorkshire, Miss Motor Show, Miss 007, Miss Lancashire Rose, Carnival Queen of Great Britain and Soccer Queen.
Beauty queens added glamour to earlier Bed Races. Image: Yorkshire Film Archive.
The 1966 race was officially started by Harry Corbett with his puppets Sooty and Sweep – huge, if unlikely, celebrities at the time.
Four teams entered that first year, all by invitation and all military: the Royal Navy Forest Moor, the RAF from Linton-on-Ouse, the Army Apprentices College in Harrogate, and the US Army from RAF Menwith Hill.
The Army Apprentices College – now called the Army Foundation College – came first, winning a barrel of beer, but the Americans from Menwith Hill deserve credit too, as they’ve been back every year since.
Thousands of people turned out to watch the event, and at least £300 – the equivalent of more than £5,000 today – was raised for charity.
The Bed Race has always attracted thousands of spectators.
The next year, 20 teams took part, and by 1970, the race field had grown to 50.
By 1972, female teams were taking part, carrying a male passenger; mixed teams only joined the fray about 20 years ago.
Today, the Great Knaresborough Bed Race is an even bigger event, with 90 teams running and many more wanting to. The final list of competitors is selected by lottery.
The route is much the same, with a start and finish at Conyngham Hall, a run along Waterside and up Castle Ings to the castle, and of course the swim across the River Nidd near the end.
The early Bed Race route included Water Bag Bank.
Teams used to have to hurtle down Water Bag Bank. Image: Yorkshire Film Archive.
Beds used to follow the course fully dressed, but that was changed in the 1980s due to environmental concerns for the river.
There is, though, one deviation from the original course: accidents and a few broken bones led organisers to replace the hurtle down the cobbles of Water Bag Bank with a descent of the High Street and Bond End, which is almost equally steep, but easier to control.
A theme for the Best Dressed Bed competition was introduced in the early 1970s, and since this year’s Bed Race is a special 60th anniversary edition, the theme is – fittingly – the Swinging Sixties.
Flower Power could make a return with this year's theme of the Swinging Sixties.
The race is now organised by the Knaresborough Lions Club, which became involved as co-organiser with the Round Table in the 1990s. It has been the sole organiser for nearly 30 years now, helped by an army of more than 250 volunteers who marshal the route, judge the Best Dressed beds, staff the entry gates, help prepare the course, and clean up afterwards.
When you add up the numbers of competitors, volunteers, members of dance groups and marching bands in the parade, as well as those who build the beds and make the costumes, it is believed that more than 2,000 are directly involved in the race, and more than 30,000 people turn out to watch it.
Some fancy dress themes have aged better than others.
In fact, the Bed Race is so popular and unique that its fame has spread since the first event in 1966, and it has even spawned other bed races in Europe, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
News and film crews have flown in from as far afield as France and China to convey the madness to their viewers.
If you want to join in the fun, head to Knaresborough for the 60th anniversary Great Knaresborough Bed Race next Saturday, June 13.
The beds – along with the 630 runners and passengers – will gather in the castle grounds from 9am, the parade starts at 1pm, and the race will power off the start-line at 3pm.
For those who like a more conventional – but arguably less exciting – form of entertainment, England will be playing their first match of this summer’s World Cup the following Wednesday (June 17). They’ll be hoping for a repeat of 1966 – but Knaresborough has one every year.
All images are reproduced with the kind permission of Knaresborough Lions Club, unless otherwise stated.
0