WORCESTER Rowing Club is being helped to celebrate its 150th anniversary this year with a new display at a city museum.
The display looks to celebrate the rowing club’s extraordinary achievements as well as its longstanding history with Worcester Porcelain.
It will remain on display at the museum until the middle of August.
The club was formed on March 14, 1874, by a group of 55 local gentlemen, with Sir Edmund Lechmere appointed the club’s first president and Frank William Grainger, son of Worcester porcelain manufacturer George Grainger, named Honorary Secretary and Captain.
Grainger’s porcelain works manufactured the pink loving cup to celebrate the club’s inauguration, the first of many commissions.
In the 1880s, the rowing club entered a ‘Golden Age’, winning numerous Challenge Cups, including the prestigious West of England Challenge Vase.
As the club continued to excel in regattas across the country over the 20th century, Royal Worcester porcelain was regularly presented to them in the form of two-handled or ‘Loving’ cups.
Worcester Rowing Club is still going strong 150 years after its formation, having recently celebrated successes for both men’s and women’s crews at Henley Royal Regatta.
Museum director Sophie Heath said: “Collaborating with Worcester Rowing Club on this display has been a wonderful opportunity to illustrate this story of Worcester’s sporting endeavour, community and leisure on the River Severn through porcelain.
“This was a previously unexplored connection that adds to the rich community links within our collections.”
Visit the website at www.museumofroyalworcester.org/whats-on for more information and to book tickets.
