 |
|
||||||||
| This is a great deal more than just a museum about rowing, as it covers the River Thames and town of Henley as well as the sport. Almost 200 years of competitive rowing is reflected in the Schwarzenbach Gallery, with informative displays and film about Olympic rowing (the 1908 and 1948 events happened here) as well as the University Boat Race and Henley Royal Regatta. Lift your eyes and you will see, hanging from the ceiling, boats representing 200 years of design. There are ones from the 19th Century, like the Oxford boat that won the first ever Oxford and Cambridge race (held at Henley), and the coxless pairs boat that took gold for Britain at the Olympics in 1948, rowed by Jack Wilson and Ran Laurie, actor Hugh's father. The boat in which Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent won gold in the coxless fours in Sydney in 2000 is also on show, but the eights boat from the same Olympics is currently on loan to an exhibition at Ironbridge in Shropshire. The gallery's rowing machine may be less of a novelty these days but younger visitors will enjoy it, as well as a stroke machine that tests your ability to row in unison – providing you have someone with you, of course. Once licensed watermen ferried passengers across the Thames in London and from this tradition emerged Doggett’s Coat and Badge, the oldest rowing race in the world – and one of the bright red coats is on show. The less well-known professional side of rowing is also featured – but more on the shocking treatment of working-class rowers by the sport’s rulers in its early days would be a welcome addition. Special exhibitions include one on women's rowing that runs until June 2012 - and a new one, from 31 March, The Perfect Rower, which displays artefacts from the previous London Olympics of 1908 and 1948, and shows how training for the Games has changed in the last century. The exhibition reveals the vast changes in the technology of boat building, oar making and rowing kit and how this has improved the rower's performance. The Henley and Thames Galleries are also worth a look, even for those there for the sport. Exhibits include a Saxon log boat over 1,500 years old. Younger children can walk through a Wind in the Willows gallery with Mr Toad and Ratty, as well as enjoy trails and the education centre. Sadly getting to the Museum is not as easy at it might be: rail journeys from London generally involve two changes of train, signposting for drivers in the town is poor and relying on a postcode to find your way by sat nav may leave you on the wrong side of the railway line that runs behind the museum. |
