A century ago Tyneside ruled the rowing world, and memorials to its champions may be found along the river today. Moreover, the link between them and modern Olympic oarsmen is closer than is generally realised. It was on Tyneside that the first steps were taken to convert the heavy work boat into the light racing shells we see today.
Matt Taylor, a ship's carpenter from Ouseburn first brought the keel inboard in 1854, while Harry Clasper of Dunston, ('Hadaway Harry') cinder burner and wherryman, was already fitting outriggers to boats in the 1840s. Taylor, Clasper, Swaddle and Winship became household names in boatbuilding and several moved to the Thames, where the market was larger. These men raced the boats they had made on the tricky tidal course under the Newcastle bridges, watched by huge audiences packing the river banks. World championship matches attracted stars from Australia and America. In July 1845 the Clasper brothers, Harry, Robert and William and Uncle Ned Hawks wrested the 'world championship' away from London at the Thames Regatta and were welcomed back in Newcastle with gun salutes and pealing bells at All Saints. The local balladeers like Ned Corvan ('Wor Tyneside Champions') and Joe Wilson ('The Great Boat Race') made the most of it. Wilson writes:

Ne men like them had ivor pull'd
Let Tyneside glory shine,
An' lang may champions o' the world
Spring frae the coally Tyne.

In 1861 a large sum of money and a house in Scotswood were presented to Harry. His business as a licensed victualler took him to the Tunnel Inn, North Shields, where he died at the age of 58. His funeral procession went partly along the river where he had so often triumphed. The riverside was crowded and a choir sang from the Mansion House steps. He was buried in the churchyard at Whickham under a canopy embellished with aquatic plants and boat-builders tools, where he can see the curve of the Tyne where he built and raced his boats.
Famous Tyneside oarsmen were honoured in song, commemorative pottery and in many other ways. Clasper's protege, Robert Chambers (1831-1868), ('Honest Bob'), turned professional from being an ironworks labourer, winning world championship matches seven times and 89 out of 101 races in ten years. He died of tuberculosis at 36 and is commemorated by the largest monument in the cemetery at Walker. James Renforth, a building worker of Gateshead became professional sculling champion of the world in 1868, when he was 26, beating Harry Kelley on the Thames. In 1871, however, Renforth died in mysterious circumstances at St John, New Brunswick, in Canada. He was taking part in a four-oared race; the crew he stroked included Harry Kelley and Robert Chambers, and the stake was 500 sovereigns and the championship of the world. Renforth collapsed dramatically into Kelley's arms. He had shown no sign of weakness and in view of the huge betting interest in the race, there was talk of poisoning. 'The oar dropped from his stricken hand, his brawny arm fell like a withered branch in a storm', said one report.
When Renforth's body was brought home, the Newcastle and Gateshead Operatic Band led a procession estimated at 150,000 to East Gateshead cemetery. Public subscription paid for a striking memorial by C. Burns, depicting Renforth in Kelley's arms. This moving sculpture has recently been restored by Gateshead Council and placed outside the Shipley art gallery.