Stepping out before Fitbits were invented Nostalgia
nostechocit@gmail.com
LONG before the London Marathon was heard of, Gloucester staged an annual event in which local competitors pounded the city streets on foot.
The Tredworth Walking Race was one of the most eagerly anticipated sporting events in Gloucester in the 1960s. The first took place in 1948 and from then on it was a popular feature in the city’s calendar each Easter Monday.
As you can see from the photos here, the occasion attracted spectato and in a report on the 1967 race the crowd was said to be 2,000 strong.
Entrants gathered at the start in Tredworth High Street, where the mayor blew a whistle, or fired a starting gun to get things underway. Measuring a little under five miles in length, the course followed city streets lined with cheering well wishers.
Some competitors were members of local athletic clubs, but the race was open to all comers with no age restrictions. As you can see from the picture taken at the start of the 1964 race, which was presided over by Gloucester’s High Sheriff of the time, councillor J Holohan, Lycra hadn’t been invented.
Walkers simply turned up and walked. Take a magnifying glass to the pictures and you may be able to make out that although the racers popped on shorts, some of them didn’t even bother with pumps (aka daps and plimsoles). They were happy to set off in the same shoes and socks they wore for work or school.
Prizes were awarded and in 1967 the photographer captured the moment when then Mayor Councillor “Bluey” Neal presented third placed competitor Terry Haines with a £5 voucher.
Many will remember that Terry Haines later served as Mayor himself.
Incidentally, in the photo that shows the start of the 1967 race the gent in collar and tie standing directly behind the entrant with an A on his chest and to the right of the man with the clipboard is Hal Bagwell.
Mr Bagwell was one of the most successful boxers to come from Gloucester and after a long career in which he won numerous accolades and rarely lost a bout he became landlord of the Lower George pub in Westgate Street.
An even better known face pictured here belongs to cricketing legend Ian Botham, who passed through Gloucester on his charity walk from John O’groats to Lands End in November 1985. Supported by followers, the great all-rounder is seen here on Bristol Road at its junction with Stroud Road, passing what is now the Peel Centre.
When not winning the Ashes and test matches for England, Ian Botham (now Sir Ian) undertook a series of long distance walks raising more than £30million for leukaemia research.
Those with even longer memories may recognise the lady in the photo on this page being accompanied by a group of schoolchildren as Dr Barbara Moore. Quite a celebrity in her day Dr
» To share your pictures and memories of local people, places and events, please email them to nostechocit@ gmail.com
Moore passed through Gloucester in February 1960 on her one woman trek from John O’groats to Lands End.
Pictures taken at the time show the good doctor in pumps, trousers, a suede jacket and headscarf -dressed, in fact, as though she was on her way to the Co-op for a bag of sugar.
Difficult though it is to comprehend today, the picture reminds us that there was a time when people in the public eye were not covered from head to toe in sponsors’ logos.
The floods were up when Barbara Moore came this way and having waded her way towards the city she stopped at the Longford Inn to change from wellies back into pumps and sip a cup of hot chocolate.
Born Anna Cherkasova in Russia this remarkable woman became the Soviet Union’s long-distance motorcycle champion in 1932 before immigrating to the UK just prior to the Second World War.