Rowing clubs’ history

According to an earlier Telegraph report, the 1862 Maidstone Regatta was organised by five amateur boats clubs, The Star, The Sun, The Comet, The Whitworth and The Haditz. They sound as though they may have been centred around pubs. By 1885, an entry in the Stevens Directory of Maidstone and Neighbours listed three clubs, the Maidstone Rowing Club, the Invicta Rowing Club and the Maidstone Church Institute Rowing Club. Richard Baldwin is a rower with today’s Maidstone Invicta Rowing Club, founded in its present form in 1984, when it used the premises of the Royal Engineers Rowing Club. Mr Baldwin is keen to research the history of rowing on the river. Anyone with information, particularly if they have any early photos or race programmes, is asked to contact Mr Baldwin on richardisthor@gmail.com