Earliest meeting: Monday 26th April 1585
Final meeting: July 1699
The Cumbrian village of Langwathby lies approximately 5 miles north east of Penrith on the River Eden. The village has good transport links, with a station on the historic Settle to Carlisle railway line, and also boasts Langwathby Hall. It is known that racing was certainly taking place on Langwathby Moor, then referred to as Langanby, in 1585, for a letter survives from Richard Dudley to say that his horse was running at Langanby on 26th April 1585. Again in 1593 there is evidence of a meeting taking place when Lord Scope, who was Warden of the Marches, refused to give an interview at the races on 30th April 1593. By the early 1600s race meetings at Langwathby ( Langanby) were commonplace. On Midsummer Day in 1612 the ‘young bloods’ of the Howard Family patronized Langomby (sic) races. Again on 27th May 1663 the unlucky Daniel Fleming of Rydal spent 4s 6d at Langanby Moor horse races and had either sponsored, or had a runner in the Plate for which he had to pay 10 shillings. By the time of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I Langanby was a famous horse race course, so much so that Ralph Thorseby, a great antiquary, could not complete his charity business because all of the neighbouring gentry were at the races. In ‘A cursory Relation of all the Antiquities and Familyes (sic) in Cumberland’ Edmund Sandford comments on races at Langanby, ’The most famous horse course there for a free Plate on Midsummer Day’. He had persuaded Lord Wharton and Chevileir Musgraves to contribute £20 yearly to the prize of a plate. The ‘County History of Cumberland’ records that meetings took place at Langwathby Moor in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and one was certainly held on a Thursday in June after the Appleby Assizes. It is equally certain that there was a meeting in 1699 because at a council meeting held in Cockermouth in January 1699 it was ‘Ordered that the High Sheriffe (sic) of this County doe give twenty pounds to be divided into two Plates equally. The one to be run for at Workington, the last Wednesday in June, and the other to be run for at Langwathby Moore (sic) the first Thursday after Appleby Assizes and proclamation to be made a month before each Race’. The final meeting took place in July 1699. |
| This racecourse is covered in Volume 4 of Racecourses Here Today and Gone Tomorrow. Ordering details shown below. |
| Local Patrons |
Duke of Buckingham, Lord Scope, Lord Wharton, Chevileir Musgraves |
| Principal Races |
Langanby Plate |
Thursday 24th June 1675 |
Langanby £100 Match
1. Conqueror, owned by the Duke of Buckingham
2. Fox, owned by the Earl of Moray |
| The final meeting took place in July 1699. |
| Course today |
On Langwathby Moor. |
| If you have photos, postcards, racecards. badges, newspaper cuttings or book references about the old course, or can provide a photo of how the ground on which the old racecourse stood looks today, then email johnwslusar@gmail.com |
Much of the information about this course has been found using internet research and is in the public domain. However, useful research sources have been:-
London Illustrated News
Racing Illustrated 1895-1899
The Sporting & Dramatic Illustrated
Northern Turf History Volumes 1-4 by J.Fairfax-Blakeborough
The Sporting Magazine
A Long Time Gone by Chris Pitt first published in 1996 ISBN 0 900599 89 8
Racing Calendars which were first published in 1727 |
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ISBN 978-0-9957632-0-3
652 pages
774 former courses |
ISBN 978-0-9957632-1-0
352 pages
400 former courses |
ISBN 978-0-9957632-2-7
180 pages
140 former courses |
ISBN 978-0-9957632-3-4
264 pages
235 former courses |
| Copies of the above books are only available by emailing johnwslusar@gmail.com stating your requirements, method of payment (cheque payable to W.Slusar) or Bank transfer, and the address where the book(s) should be sent. |
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