The Darlington man whose non-appearance caused a riot

“EXTRAORDINARY scene on racing grounds,” shouted the headline in The Northern Echo of September 20, 1887. “A Darlington man does not appear.”

Amazingly, the non-appearance by the Darlington man, who was vying to become champion of the world, sparked a riot which ended in a London sports stadium being burned to the ground and at least one man dead.

The man who did not show was Harry Gent, who was born on Cockerton Green in 1881. He became a pedestrian of great renown, the champion of Britain.

US RIVAL: Harry Hutchens took on Cockerton’s Harry Gent

Pedestrianism was a working class sport which, in Harry’s day, had a worldwide following. It was an early form of sprinting, with the pedestrians racing for prize money. However, rather like last week’s early cricket match, the spectators were far more interested in the gambling than they were in the sport.

On June 1, 1887, Harry had won the Sheffield Whinsuntide Handicap, his second major trophy, by covering 122 yards in 11 and three-fifths seconds. Such was the betting interest that The Northern Echo reported that “an even ‘fiver’ was bet” that Gent would be ahead of his opponents at the 60 yard mark of his first heat, “and the distance was carefully measured and a referee appointed to judge the race at the distance named”.

Harry rocketed to victory in the heat, and in the final, he was the 7 to 2 favourite. He “won in a canter by a yard-and-a-half” and pocketed £80.

The Echo concluded: “The weather was certainly conducive to fast running, but it is just as great a certainty that Gent is the best sprinter in England today.”

And so the scene was set for the “race of the century” on September 19, 1887, when Harry was to take on the US champion, Harry Hutchens, in a two-man head-to-head over 120 yards at Lillie Bridge Stadium in London.

Lillie Bridge was then the home of the Amateur Athletics Association (AAA), but since the construction of the nearby Stamford Bridge – now the home of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea Football Club – it had become down at heel.

Nevertheless 15,500 people crammed into the wooden stadium for the £200 prize race between “the most famous of living sprinters”.

“As both men were seen walking round the ground in their ordinary clothes, there was no suspicion among the general public but that the affair was duly coming off,” said the Echo.

However, all the pre-race talk was that Hutchens had arrived from the US without having put in any preparation and was “hog fat”. Given this information, Gent’s supporters had backed him heavily to win – but when Hutchens turned up he looked as fit as a fiddle.

Accounts vary as to what happened next, but it seems that Gent’s men whisked him out of the stadium via a subterranean passage. Hutchens’ backers, fearing trouble, quickly removed their man via the same tunnel.

When the crowd learned that the race was off, and that the gatemen who had taken their one shilling entrance money had also gone home so there would be no refunds, they “set to work to wreck the ground”.

“Flames quickly broke out in the grandstand, dressing rooms and refreshment bars,” said the Echo. “Three distinct and powerful fires were raging amid the cheers of the people and a scene of indescribable confusion. The fire brigade was quickly on the spot, and after some time got the flames under, but not before a hundred feet of the grandstand had been destroyed.” The firemen’s progress was delayed as they were pelted with bottles.

The Echo added: “One man is stated to have dropped down dead at West Brompton Station in consequence of the excitement.” He was the stationmaster.

Lillie Bridge was never rebuilt, and the AAA called a halt to this form of gambling-orientated professional sprinting.

And what happened to Harry Gent, we have yet to find out. If you have any info relating to the Cockerton lad, we’d love to hear it...

BACK in August, Memories 243 featured a spread of pictures of Cockerton. Wendy Acres of Darlington was one of many to get in touch in response, and she sent in this picture of Cockerton St Mary’s Football Club from the 1924-25 season. It would be fantastic if we could get even a couple of names of players – and even better than fantastic if we find out the name of the wriggling mascot.

The footballers were representing the Anglican church of St Mary’s which was built overlooking Cockerton Green in 1900. It was paid for by money left by Edward T Pease, of Oak Lea in Woodland Road, who had died in 1897 leaving an estate of £85,000. Edward was from the black sheep branch of the temperance-inclined Pease family as he had made his money as a wine and spirits dealer.

PEDESTRIAN'S BIRTHPLACE: Looking west on Cockerton Green in June 1951. The building surrounded by trees is St Mary's Church – built on the childhood home of Harry Gent

His donation was used to buy two cottages on the west of Cockerton Green. One of them had once been the home of AE Moore Hogarth, who became a Professor of Entomology and founder of something called the London School of Pestology – presumably, the Cockerton lad was big in the study of crawly things like cockroaches.

And the other of them had been the birthplace of the renowned pedestrian, Harry Gent.

OLD SHOP: Piggford’s traditional local store on Cockerton Green which was replaced by Fine Fare

THE real reason for Wendy’s email was to tell us about Piggford’s, the grocery shop that dominated Cockerton for much of the 20th Century.

The shop was originally on the corner of North Terrace and Forcett Street, and was run by sisters Hannah and Alice Bearby. They sold it to Lancelot Piggford in 1921, and he expanded it along North Terrace so it even took in the post office. In 1946, he passed it on to his sons, Thomas and Jimmy, who in turn sold it on sometime later.

ALL ABOARD: Looking down Forcett Street at the turn of the 20th Century. In the foreground is a Darlington Corporation tram, which ran from Cockerton to Bank Top. Behind it is the Bearby sister's shop, the forerunner of Piggford's. The hoarding hanging off the wall shows they are selling Gossages' soap 

“It was a double-sized shop, with two entrances which led into the one shop inside,” says Wendy. “The pharmacy was on the left and the post office to the right. The business was then owned by Norman Willis, who was my grandfather's cousin, and I can remember a large weighing machine with a basket shaped top – not for weighing parcels but for weighing babies!”

NEW STORE: The Fine Fare in Cockerton which replaced Piggfords. This picture is dated May 1, 1962 – had Frankie Vaughan just opened the supermarket?

The shop and all of Forcett Street – a long terrace which was hastily constructed in the 1860s to house the workers in the railway-related industries of Hopetown and the North Road Works – were demolished in the early 1960s and replaced by a Fine Fare supermarket.

David Wear in Cockerton says: “The Fine Fare was opened by the singer/film star, Frankie Vaughan. They gave away free chickens to customers on opening day.”

FINE CHAP: Frankie Vaughan: did he really open a supermarket in Cockerton?

Frankie Vaughan would then have been at the height of his powers. He’d reached No 2 in the chart in 1956 with his version of Green Door, and hit the top spot in 1961 with Tower of Strength. In 1960, he made a film with Marilyn Monroe, Let’s Make Love, and in 1961 he topped the bill of the Royal Variety Performance.

And in 1962, he opened Fine Fare in Cockerton.

Really? The Northern Echo’s archives shed no light on whether this did take place – but at about the same time, Frankie did open at Fine Fare in Grantham.

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