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History of the London to Brighton

The first known race of any kind on the Brighton road took place in 1793, when a clergyman on a horse raced against an army officer driving a gig. Since then the road from London to Brighton has been the scene of many different kinds of sporting and recreational events, with people competing with themselves and others to get to Brighton by any means possible. Some of them then turn around and go back. A man first walked it for sport in 1803. A man rode a velocipede to Brighton in 1819 and the first runner completed the course in 1825. A steam car went from London to Brighton in 1832. The first running race was held in 1837. Trains from London first arrived in Brighton in September 1841. The first cyclist arrived in 1869 and the first tricycle in 1870. The first walking race was in 1872, and in 1876 "Sir" John Lynton wheeled a barrow from London to Brighton. Open walking races organised by athletics clubs started in 1886. Sixteen-year-old Teresa Reynolds, the first woman to cover the route under her own steam, cycled from Brighton to London and back in 1893. In 1895 J. H. Herbert cycled to Brighton backwards, and in 1896 E. D. Smith and C. A. Greenwood did it (forwards) on a tandem. The first motor car, a French made Bollée Motette, also arrived in 1896. In 1900 Harry Vowles, a blind musician who had for a number of years walked from Brighton to London, achieved his ambition to complete the feat in one day. In 1902 Surrey Walking Club organised the first in a series of competitive walks from London to Brighton and back. In 1903 Antonín Hanslian pushed his wife to Brighton in a pram and an American vaudeville artist, Mlle. Florence, "walked" to Brighton balanced on a globe. In 1914 Charles Hart became the first man to run from London to Brighton and back. In 1921 Surrey Athletic Club tried out a 10-man relay run from London to Brighton, and in 1924 this became a race sponsored by the News of the World who donated a very impressive trophy in 1927 that is still competed for today. There is a credible account of two women walking to Brighton in May 1921, but 16-year-old Lilian Salkeld, the first verified woman walker, arrived in April 1922. In October 1922 a walking race for blind military veterans was won by F. M. Cassidy of the Middlesex Regiment. In 1923 Ben Lee went from London to Brighton on roller skates. The veteran car rally commenced in 1927. Also in 1927 Brixton All Blacks staged roller skating races from London to Brighton with 19-year-old Vera Harper becoming the first woman to complete the journey in that way. In 1951 Surbiton Town Sports Club asked Ernest Neville to organise a road race from London to Brighton, and the following year he formed the Road Runners Club who turned it into an annual occurrence. The only known running race from London to Brighton and back took place in July 1954. The first woman to run from London to Brighton was Dale Greig of Tannahill Harriers who started one hour in front of the men's race in 1972. Leslie Watson of London Olympiades won the first official women's race in 1980.

Just as there is more than one way to go from London to Brighton, there is more than one route from the capital to the south coast. Stage coaches started from a variety of pubs, inns, and coach offices across south London, while running, walking and cycling events have started from Hyde Park Corner, from Hatchett's Hotel in Piccadilly, from St Thomas' Hospital, from the tower of Big Ben on the Middlesex side of Westminster Bridge, in Westminster Palace Yard, and on the News of the World Sports Ground at Mitcham. Surrey Walking Club started their events from their headquarters, the Swan and Sugar Loaf Hotel, appropriately situated on Brighton Road in South Croydon, while Polytechnic Harriers started their races from in front of the Polytechnic Institute in Regent Street. For many years cycling events started at places like Purley or Croydon then went into London, from there they went to Brighton and finished back where they started. Eventually the authorities stopped ratifying these as records and the practice stopped in 1898. Roller skating races started from Brixton Town Hall. In Brighton the finish has been at various inns and coach offices, most famously the Old Ship Hotel, but also at St Peter's Church, at the Clock Tower, and more traditionally at the Aquarium, which opened in August 1872 and offered public baths for weary travellers until they closed in 1979. Large scale competitive events ended in the first five years of the twenty-first century caused by dwindling numbers of competitors, difficulties arranging for sufficient marshalls, and ensuring the safety of participants. Various charities continue to organise regular events on a smaller scale with the emphasis on completion rather than competition.

Brighthelmston, as Brighton was then called, started to become a popular seaside resort in 1754 when Dr. Russell moved there and made sea bathing popular. The town was advertised as the closest place to London where you could bathe in the sea. The Prince of Wales visited Brighton regularly from 1783 when he obtained his majority, originally renting a modest former farmhouse that he remodelled, extended, and enlarged so that by 1822 it had became a royal residence known as the Brighton Pavillion. This made Brighton a fashionable resort not just with the English but nobles and gentry from the continent came over for the entertainments, for parties and for the horse races at Brighton Racecourse. Due to his father's illness the Prince of Wales served as Prince Regent from February 1811 and succeeded his father as king George IV in January 1820. This required government ministers to attend him in Brighton and on more than one occasion he held a council there. This meant that getting there was important. In his 1894 history of the London and Brighton road, William Blew described it as, "the best-found, the most popular, and the busiest coach road out of London."

A coach and four with outside passengers on the King's Road, Brighton.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were three roads from London to Brighton, all of them turnpikes, with toll gates. One went by way of Lewes, one by way of Horsham, and one through Cuckfield. In 1764, it took two days for a stage coach to travel from London to Brighton. The first mail coach service ran from London to Bristol in 1784, and a service from London to Brighton commenced on 1 May 1791. By May 1810 there was a daily mail coach service taking eight hours to cover the approximately 58 miles (93.3km). By July 1811 there were competing passenger coach services, including Israel Alexander's Royal Blue Coach Company operating a twice-daily service from 35 Camomile Street in the City of London, and William Pattenden of Brighton departing the White Lion, Gracechurch Street, at eight o'clock every morning, Sundays excepted. This competition encouraged speculation as to the best route.

In 1813 Matthew Phillips, an engineer and surveyor from Yorkshire, undertook a survey of the route and in January 1814 there was a public meeting at the London Coffee-House, Ludgate Hill, to discuss a proposal based on his survey to re-draw the route to make it shorter and more efficient. The discussion included details of the channel coast fishing industry and the valuable commercial consequences of their plan. Brighton alone had sent 850,000 mackerel to London the previous year.

Work on the route actually commenced at Gatton Lodge, two miles north of Reigate and Redhill, in September 1816, and by 1825 the route was complete. This remained the main route from London to Brighton until extensive construction at Gatwick Airport in the 1950s.

In 1814 a coach called "Hero", owned by Whitchurch & Co., of North Street, Brighton was the very first coach to make the journey to London and back in a day. In 1819 Mr Matthews, of Bethnal Green, London, patented some improvements in the design of the four-horse coach and the time for the stage coach journey to Brighton came down to around six hours. Royal Blue added a freight service three times a week departing Camomile Street at half-past five on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, these heavier vehicles taking between ten and twelve hours to reach Brighton. Other coach companies started working the route and by 1831 passenger services regularly took five hours and "Red Rover", a coach operated by Robert Nelson of Brighton, had covered the route in a few minutes over four and a half hours. In October 1833 John Hayllar, a driver for Alexander and Co., of the Three Nunns Inn, Aldgate, London, drove his coach, "Criterion" to Brighton in three hours and fifty minutes. On 13 July 1888, James Selby won a bet of £1,000 sterling by driving his coach, "Old Times," from the White Horse Cellars, Piccadilly, to Brighton and back, in seven hours fifty minutes. The time from London to Brighton was three hours fifty-six minutes, and the return took three hours fifty-four minutes.

Although the stage coaches were in competition with each other they were not permitted to race, and an Act of 1790 (30 George III c. 36) stipulated that the coachman should not "drive furiously." In 1834 Charles Holmes, the driver of the "Red Rover", was fined £5 and costs for racing against the "Waterwitch". The first known race of any kind was a horse versus buggy match that took place in April 1793. An unnamed Brighton clergyman wagered that he could ride a horse to London faster than a certain Artillery officer could drive his gig, the vehicle being permitted to change horses as often as required. They set off at midnight and the clergyman arrived at five o'clock in the morning, first by only a few minutes after the gig was driven into a ditch in the dark. There have been a small number of other events involving horses. In May 1809, J. Wedderburn Webster, a Cornet in the 10th (Prince of Wales's Own) Light Dragoons, wagered 300 guineas that he could ride one of his own horses from Brighton to Westminster Bridge in less than three and a half hours. Setting off at four o'clock in the morning, he accomplished his task with eight minutes to spare. Another horse and buggy match took place in December 1836. The race was between a pony called Clampfield owned by Mr Hodges of Sutton in Surrey and driven in the match by Mr Hall, and Black Bess, a pony owned and driven by Captain Martin Becher, the renowned steeple chase rider. They left the Elephant and Castle in Southwark at half past ten on the morning of Saturday 10 December, and covered the first 12 miles (19.3km) with hardly anything between them. At that point Hall stopped to refresh his horse, while Becher continued but slowed his pace. Hall caught him and overtook, then they each walked their horse for some way permitting the other to gain a lead. Then the antagonist caught him up and again they raced for a while until another decided to rest his horse. Around 13 miles (20.9km) from Brighton Mr Hodge's horse reared and damaged his cart and while Hall repaired the vehicle Captain Becher went on, but his horse was becoming distressed. Hall caught him up again and got ahead, but had to stop and push the cart up a hill as his horse was too tired, and Becher passed him again about 8 miles (12.8km) from Brighton and went on to win at a gallop. The winner's time is reported as either 4 h 48 min or 4 h 51 min, with Hall coming in ten to twelve minutes behind. Captain Becher is said to have won a bet of £100.

In August 1825 The Vacuum Tube Association announced that when completed their service would offer transport from London to Brighton in one hour. By September 1827 this had become The London, Brighton, and Shoreham Pneumatic Conveyance Company who submitted to Parliament that, "the principle of transmission by atmospheric pressure being incontrovertible, and its practicability having been demonstrated to the conviction of every one who has examined it, advantage may be taken of an opportunity for putting it profitably into practice." They estimated that it would cost no more than £20 to carry 300 people and 50 tons of goods from London to Brighton and back every day, and that passengers could profitably be charged two shillings for the journey, compared with the stage coach fare of twelve shillings. Parliament was not convinced and they were not granted a licence to commence public trials.

Steam powered road vehicles first appeared in England in 1801 and by 1829 experimental vehicles constructed by Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, by Walter Hancock, and by Sir James Anderson were carrying as many as eight passengers on journeys of up to 25 miles (40.2km). In November 1832 Walter Hancock drove his steam carriage "Infant" from London to Brighton and back in two days. He had problems arranging for supplies of appropriate coke to fuel his machine on the journey which was not without incident but it averaged 10 miles (16km) per hour for the whole trip. In September 1833 he repeated the experiment without incident arriving in Brighton in six hours. A few weeks later Gurney ran his steam carriage to Brighton in four hours fifty-nine minutes.

Advertisement announcing the opening of the London to Brighton Railway from London Bridge Station to Haywards Heath.

In January 1825 the Surrey, Sussex, and Hants Rail Road Company was formed with a view to creating a railroad service from London to Brighton, Lewes, Shoreham, and Portsmouth. They surveyed two routes, one longer than the other but requiring less tunneling and fewer cuttings, but the committee were unable to agree on which route was the best and this came to nothing. In January 1831 the London and Brighton Railway Company announced that they had commissioned G. and J. Rennie to survey a route suitable for a railroad line from London to Brighton. Steam ships were now making passenger journeys shorter and cheaper and in France a railway from Paris to Dieppe was under construction so that a railway from London to Brighton could potentially link London to Paris in thirty hours. Rennie had in turn engaged Charles Vignoles to survey another route and George Stephenson surveyed another route so that by 1835 there were four different railway companies debating six different routes to the south coast. In February 1836 there were three different bills before parliament for the right to build a railway to Brighton. This complexity meant there were repeated delays and the service eventually opened with trains from London Bridge to Haywards Heath four times a day from Monday 12 July 1841, with a connecting service continuing to Brighton by coach. The entire line from London through to Brighton opened on Tuesday 21 September 1841. The very first through service for press and officials took two hours and one minute and the regular express service was scheduled to take an hour and three-quarters.

The last toll on the Brighton road was collected in October 1881. The Reigate Turnpike Trust expired at midnight on Monday 31 October and from that time the Brighton road became free throughout.

Walking

This page is about competitive walking races. For other uses, see London to Brighton events.

Cottonshirt/sandbox
Date	April/May
Location	London-Brighton, United Kingdom
Event type	Road walk
Distance	51 miles 1,607 yards (83.5km)
Established	1886 (1886)
Last held	2003 (2003)
Course records	Men: 7:35:12 (1957) Don Thompson Women: 9:04:40 (2003) Sandra Brown
Participants	60-100

Main article: London to Brighton walk

For a complete list of winners, see List of winners of the London to Brighton walk.

The London to Brighton walk was a competitive walking race held on the road from London, England, to the south coast resort of Brighton. In the era before organised sport individuals covered the distance for wager or personal challenge with the first race occurring in 1872. Open races organised by athletics clubs commenced in 1886. From 1903 races took place almost every year and from 1919 they were held annually, organised principally by Surrey Walking Club and by the Stock Exchange Athletic Club. The Surrey Open included a team prize for the first three from any one club to finish, with the most number of wins being recorded by Belgrave Harriers. The first woman to finish arrived in Brighton in 1922. That same year there was a race for blind military veterans, and this continued until 1927. In 1935 Harold Whitlock (Metropolitan Walking Club) became the first man to complete the journey in less than eight hours. The record for the event was set in 1957 by Olympic champion Donald Thompson of the Metropolitan Walking Club at 7 h 35 min 12 s. The women's record is held by Sandra Brown (Surrey Walking Club) at 9 h 4 min 40 s. There was also a walk from London to Brighton and back held sporadically from 1902 until 1967, with the record of 18 h 5 min 51 s set by Billy Baker of Queen's Park Harriers in 1926. Dwindling numbers of competitors and difficulties with obtaining sufficient numbers of volunteer marshalls and walking judges meant that the Surrey Open was last held in 1984, and the Stock Exchange walk was last held in 2003.

History

In the age before mechanical transport there were clearly many people who had walked from London to Brighton for various purposes. As part of the French Revolution, for example, the French monarchy was abolished in September 1792, and in January 1793 the last French king Louis XVI was beheaded in Paris. Britain expelled the French ambassador from London and France declared war on Great Britain. In the following weeks large detachments of artillery marched from Woolwich with their field-pieces for south coast ports, particularly Brighton, Yarmouth, Dover and Hythe, until every port of any consequence opposite the French coast had forces stationed there ready to respond should any French privateers approach the coast. In December 1815 a gentleman presenting himself as Count Frederick de Rode, a Captain in the Emperor of Russia's Hussar Regiment, walked from London to Brighton with his servant to seek an audience with the Prince of Wales. He claimed to have "fought in all the battles throughout the two campaigns in France," and during his stay in Paris had his money and passport stolen. In August 1832 there was a cholera outbreak in London and it was decided to move as many troops as possible out of the city to protect them from the epidemic. The third batallion Royal Scots Fusiliers marched to the barracks at Brighton. Following the annual military camp at Chobham Common in August 1853, the 4th Light Dragoons marched from there to the barracks at Brighton.

The first person recorded to have covered the route for what might be considered sport was Captain Robertson of the South Gloucester Militia who walked from Brighton to London and back in September 1803. He wagered 40 guineas that he could do it within 48 hours and won his bet handsomely, arriving back at his camp in Brighton after 45 h 20 min. The following July John Bell walked from Brook Green, Hammersmith, to Brighton for a wager of 200 guineas that he could do it in fourteen hours, and won his bet with fifteen minutes to spare.

Start of the Stock Exchange walk from London to Brighton, Friday 1 May 1903.

In November 1822 a 58-year-old pedestrian called Wright covered the route on each of four consecutive days. Starting on Tuesday 5 November he walked from London to the Elephant and Castle in Brighton in 13 h 43 min, and the next day he walked back. On Thursday and Friday he repeated the walk finishing at the Crown and Barley Mow, Gray's Hill Lane, at seven o'clock in the evening having covered 216 miles (347.6km) in a total walking time of 2 days, 7 h 11 min.

On Good Friday in 1827 Edward F. Holtaway, of King's Lynn, Norfolk, walked to the Bricklayer's Arms, North Street, Brighton in 11 h 30 min, and that remained the record for more than forty years. Benjamin Trench must have at least equalled that time in March 1868 when he walked from Kennington Church to Brighton and back in twenty-three hours, but no splits are available for his walk. Starting at six o'clock on Friday evening he returned to warm and generous applause at five o'clock on Saturday afternoon, and walked round the Oval several times to amuse his friends.

Edgar F. Broad passing through Crawley on his way to winning the Stock Exchange walk from London to Brighton on Friday 1 May 1903.

In March 1869 the brothers Henry and Walter Chinnery, of the London Athletic Club, both walked to Brighton. Walter Chinnery was the Amateur Athletic Club 1 mile and 4 miles champion in 1868, the world record holder at both of those distances, and also the holder of the Marquess of Queensberry middleweight boxing cup. His younger brother Henry was better known for his performances over 440 yards. They were also both successful stockbrokers, so that this walk is the first link in the chain that leads to the creation of the Stock Exchange walk from London to Brighton. The brothers challenged themselves to complete the walk in twelve hours. They stopped at Crawley for a bath and arrived in Brighton after being on the road for 11 h 25 min. This was the first walk to start from Westminster Bridge, but not from Big Ben, the Chinnery's started instead from the Surrey side of the river outside St Thomas' Hospital.

In March 1872 Percival Burt, of London AC, was matched to walk to Brighton against Mr Whitelaw, and although Burt won the match, and the first walking race over the course, he was not able to beat Chinnery's time. So he came back in September and had another go over the same route, from Westminster Bridge to the Old Ship Hotel, and this time he broke eleven hours, recording 10 h 52 min.

American vaudeville artist Mlle Florence completing her walk from London to Brighton on a globe in June 1903.

Between November 1883 and March 1884, Edward Payson Weston walked 50 miles a day to complete 5,000 miles in 100 days, which included a walk from Brighton to London. A couple of weeks later, on Saturday 29 March 1884, Charles O'Malley and B. Nickels, both members of London AC, were matched to walk to Brighton with Francis Firminger of South London Harriers. O'Malley had finished second in the mile at the England vs Ireland athletics match at Stamford Bridge in May 1877, was considered a "splendid steeplechaser," and was also a first-rate swimmer and boxer. Firminger was principally a long-distance runner, having won a 50 miles (80.4km) race indoors in 1879. They started opposite the Westminster clock tower at a quarter past seven in the morning, with Firminger and O'Malley gradually pulling away from Nickels they reached Crawley, 29 miles (46.6km) in 5 h 16 min. Shortly after this Firminger was seized with stitch and cramp and gradually fell away and failed to finish. O'Malley kept up his pace and reached the Aquarium at Brighton in 9 h 48 min. Nickels suffered from pain in his feet but saw it through to the end and recorded 10 h 8 min 20 s.

The era of open races commenced on Saturday 10 April 1886 with a race organised jointly by South London Harriers and Ealing Harriers. This had ten men racing to the coast in unfavourable weather and the event was won by J. A. McIntosh of Compton Cricket Club in 9 h 25 min 8 s.

Antonín Hanslian walked round Europe from September 1900 to August 1903 pushing his wife Leopoldine and their daughter in a perambulator.

In 1891 Edward Cuthbertson of the Stock Exchange, in conversation with some friends over dinner, bet that he could beat the Chinnery's walking record from 1869, and that he could also walk, in twelve hours, the course used by James Selby in July 1888 when he set the record for driving a stage coach from London to Brighton and back. This required him to start outside the White Horse Cellars at Hatchett's Hotel in Piccadilly, and walk over Westminster Bridge, past Chinnery's start point outside St Thomas' Hospital and on to Brighton, where he would pass St Peter's Church and go on to the seafront where, instead of turning left for the Aquarium, opened in August 1872, he would turn right and continue for around a further 500 yards (450m) to the Old Ship Hotel. On Saturday 21 March he accomplished this in 10 h 6 min 18 s, winning both his wagers. Cuthbertson's time over McIntosh's course was a little more than 9 h 50 min, not a record, but a very fine performance, and it had the effect of stimulating walking at the Stock Exchange where other sports were already popular, so that by the time they came to organise an actual race there were plenty of walkers ready to take up the challenge.

In August 1895 W. Franks, a professional pedestrian, wagered £20 that he could beat McIntosh's time. The terms of the wager stipulated that he should start at four o'clock in the morning, so at that hour, accompanied by two men on bicycles, one of whom was a policeman on his day off, and witnessed by a surprisingly large crowd for such an hour, he stepped off and walked into the record books, arriving in Brighton 9 h 7 min 7 s later.

Harold Ross of Tooting Athletic Club became the first winner of the George Michael Challenge Cup when he won the Polytechnic Harriers' London to Brighton walk in September 1909.

In April 1897 Polytechnic Harriers organised an open amateur walking race with generous prizes. The winner was offered a gold medal and silver punch bowl, the next two finishers a similar but smaller silver bowl, all finishers under 10 h 15 min got a silver medal, a bronze medal was available for beating 10 h 45 min, and all finishers received a certificate. They offered overnight accommodation the night before for anyone that wanted it, cycling attendants for all competitors and refreshments available from select hotels on the route. There was to be a celebration dinner after the race where the Mayor of Brighton would present the prizes. These generous provisions attracted forty-six entries from places as far away as Northampton and Cornwall, and thirty-seven of those actually toed the line to start their walk at ten past six o'clock on the morning of Saturday 10 April, exactly eleven years to the day after McIntosh had set his record. Despite advertising in advance publicity that the walk was an attempt on the record, they chose to start not from Westminster Bridge, where McIntosh had started, but from outside the Polytechnic Institute in Regent Street. All competitors were then timed as they passed Big Ben, around thirteen minutes after they had started walking.

Starters included John Butler (Polytechnic H.) who would go on to win the Amateur Athletic Association 7 miles walk in 1901 and 1903; Edward "Teddy" Knott (Polytechnic H.), the founder of Surrey Walking Club; W. Endean and M. K. Forrester, both of Polytechnic Harriers who appeared in a total of nine Amateur Athletic Association championship finals between them. There were also two foreigners. A. T. Jensen (Copenhagen Foot Sport Club), and M. B. de Olszewski (St Petersburg Sport Club). The course was what was by now considered to be the usual cyclists route via Croydon, Redhill, Crawley, Hickstead and Dale Hill, finishing at the Aquarium, Brighton, and given on the programme as 51 miles 1,320 yards (83.2km) from Westminster Bridge. The winner of this race was Edward Knott (Polytechnic H.) with his cycling attendant Montague Holbein, a champion cyclist and the record holder for 15 miles. Knott reached the Aquarium after 9 h 10 min 44 s of walking, but had taken only 8 h 56 min 44 s from Westminster Bridge, over twenty-eight minutes inside McIntosh's record and over ten minutes inside the professional record of W. Franks. Twelve men finished inside ten hours, and thirty-one men finished the walk, including both the foreigners.

Edgar C. Horton (Surrey Walking Club) on his way to winning the London to Brighton walk in September 1913.

In 1903 a walking fever spread around the country. A twelve mile (19.3km) walk was organised in Arbroath with a local newspaper offering a gold watch as a prize.. The Society of Physical Culture organised a walk from Leeds to Pontefract and back. A long distance walk was organised from Manchester to Southport, another from Halifax to Bradford and back, and even the waitresses of the British Tea Table Company organised a "great" walk of their own around the streets of London. It was noted that on Whit Monday there were "a great many" walking matches taking place on the roads in the home counties, and "this form of athletic competition has become very popular." This fever was attributed by some to a misconception that walking, being natural and normal, required no training. As a result of this outburst of interest there were at least ten races from London to Brighton in 1903 alone. The first of these was held on Saturday 7 March when Ranelagh Harriers organised a walk for club members only. This took place in strong winds and torrential rain and despite these atrocious conditions all ten starters finished, the first man home being F. B. Thompson in 9 h 40 min 14 s. The following weekend the Hairdressers' Cycling and Athletic Club organised a walk in which fifty-seven men lined up in perfect weather, a warm day with a slight breeze, for John Butler of Surrey Walking Club to take the lead after 20 miles (32.1km) and win in new record time of 8 h 43 min 16 s.

On the Monday after that race, William Bramson of the Stock Exchange suggested to some colleagues that they organise a London to Brighton walk. This proved more popular than he might have expected and they had over one hundred entries and 77 men finished the walk. The starter was Bernard Angle, a well-known boxing referee, and the race referee was Walter Chinnery, whose walk to Brighton in 1869 had started the whole thing off. Extra trains were laid on to carry spectators to Brighton, arrangements had been made to have moving pictures taken during the event and in the evening a biograph of the race was shown at the London Hippodrome and a bioscope was shown at the Alhambra Theatre. Thousands of spectators turned out to watch the start, and as far as Crawley police were required to keep crowds off the road so that the walkers could get through. At villages along the way the road was lined with spectators and a dozen police on horses were required to control the crowds in Brighton where spectators lined the road eight-deep up to an hour before the winner arrived. The winner was a 25-year-old stockbroker's clerk called Edgar F. Broad completing his first competitive walk in 9 h 30 min 1 s, and ten men finished inside ten hours. The Manchester Courier said, "we can recall no sporting contest in recent years that has aroused so much interest among all classes of the community." But not everyone was quite so enthusiastic. The Aberdeen Journal said, "the stockbrokers have had their playful little holiday, that, we fancy, is the beginning and the end of the walk to Brighton."

Tommy Payne (Yorkshire WC) passing the George Hotel, Crawley, on his way to winning his second consecutive London to Brighton walk in September 1920.

The Stock Exchange next held this walk in 1912, and 1914, then from 1920 it became an annual event, usually held in April or May. The winner was awarded the William Bramson Trophy, named to celebrate the man whose idea it was to have the walk in the first place. Thomas Hammond finished third in the first Stock Exchange walk and won the 1912 edition in 8 h 44 min 10 s, establishing a record that was not beaten, in this event, until 1934. When they paused for the Second World War the record stood at 8 h 36 min 14 s by Harold Hake making the last of his five wins in 1938. After the Second World War the Stock Exchange walk resumed in 1947 and continued to be very popular for many years. Richard E. Green won the event thirteen times, including eight consecutive wins from 1954 to 1961. In 1999, their seventy-sixth walk, the Stock Exchange opened up their walk to celebrate the centenary of Surrey Walking Club and that year it was won by Ian Statter of the Surrey club. Paul King was the first Stock Exchange walker to finish, winning the sixth of his nine titles. The record for the Stock Exchange walk is held by Adrian H. James who won the fourth of his five titles in 1985 with 7 h 55 min 27 s, making him one of only eleven men to walk from London to Brighton in under eight hours. The first lady to complete the Stock Exchange walk was Louise Clamp who finished tenth in the open race in 1993 in 11 h 28 min 10 s. The women's record is held by Sandra Brown (Surrey Walking Club) who on 17 May 2003 finished fifth in the open race in 9 h 4 min 40 s. Sandra also holds the women's record for the Surrey Open, 9 h 37 min 35 s, achieved when finishing thirteenth in 1983.

Meanwhile, in March 1903 two professional pedestrians, Dave Fenton and Tom Gowan, separately wrote open letters to the press suggesting that if some, "enterprising sportsman" were to organise a sweepstake, or other suitable contest, they would be prepared to attack the walking record from London to Brighton. The Evening News responded by announcing two races, a walk and a run, for both amateurs and professionals. But the authorities pointed out that the amateur rules prevent them from competing alongside professionals, so there were eventually four races with generous prizes. A go-as-you-please race open to professionals, a walk for invited professional pedestrians and there were so many entries for an amateur walk that they split it into two races on consecutive weekends. The professional walk was held on Saturday 4 July and won by George Toplis from Kentish Town in 8 h 55 min 23 s. The two amateur walks were held on the 11 and 18 July and although each race had more than one hundred starters the standard was not high and the winners, C. Furby and G. Holmes, only just broke ten hours.

Donato Pavesi of Italy competing in the London to Brighton walk on Saturday 8 October 1921 in which he finished first.

In June 1903, an 18-year-old American vaudeville artist known professionally as Mlle. Florence walked from London to Brighton balanced on a globe. The event was the result of a wager for £500 that she could complete the walk in six days. She started from the south side of Westminster Bridge on Tuesday 16 June, and arrived in Brighton in the early hours of Sunday 21 June with crowds thronging the streets to cheer her on. She used two globes, one weighing 70 lb (31.7kg) for walking on the level or downhill, and one weighing 20 lb (9.0kg) for going uphill, which she did by walking backwards.

Antonín Hanslian from Austria set out from Vienna in September 1900 to walk around Europe pushing his wife Leopoldine and their young daughter in a three-wheeled perambulator to win a wager with a sports club in Vienna. Along the way he visited England in June 1903 arriving in Plymouth by ship, walked to London pushing his perambulator, and from there to Brighton, Chichester, Portsmouth and then Dover. Then he went north and visited Oxford, Manchester, Dundee, Bradford, Halifax, Hull, Oldham and left England by ship from Liverpool. He completed the leg from London to Brighton in eleven and a half hours.

Lilian Salkeld, of Manchester, aged 16, the first female to walk from London to Brighton, taking 12 hours and 20 minutes on the night of 28-29 April 1922.

Other organisations to arrange their own walk that year were the London & South West Railways and the Newspaper Trades Association. Also in June 1903, the butchers and porters at the Metropolitan Cattle Market and Smithfield Meat Market organised a walk of their own. This started at half past five in the morning of Saturday 6 June with 61 men from 77 entrants stepping over Westminster Bridge when Val Hunter dropped the flag and set them on their way. This was won by Harry F. Otway (Herne Hill Harriers) in 9 h 21 min 1 s, nine minutes faster than the winner of the Stock Exchange walk. This is notable as the first walk by what would later become Metropolitan Walking Club, one of Britain's leading walking clubs that nurtured three Olympians, Harold Whitlock (1936 50km Gold), Don Thompson (1960 50km Gold), and Phil Embleton (1972 20km).

That level of interest could not be sustained, however, and the problem of finding sufficient numbers of walking judges made it too difficult for many of these organisations to continue so that from that time Surrey Walking Club, Polytechnic Harriers and the Stock Exchange Sports Club became the main promotors of competitive walks on the Brighton road, although they did not all hold a walk every year. From 1907 Surrey Walking Club started presenting the Dithy Cup to the first man to finish in their event. The first winner was A. Hubbard, who worked in the sorting office at the post office. In 1909 Polytechnic Harriers started a series of biennial walks for the George Michael Cup, a 100 guinea trophy donated by Cyril Michael in memory of his son, George. The first winner of this trophy was Harold Ross (Tooting AC) in a new record of 8 h 11 min 14 s. In 1911 this race was held in conjunction with the Surrey Walking Club event when Tommy Payne of North Shields Polytechnic was first to finish and won the George Michael Cup, while S. C. Schofield in second place won the Dithy Cup for being the first Surrey member to finish. By the start of the First World War the record stood at 8 h 11 min 14 s to Harold Ross (Tooting AC) set in a race promoted by Polyechnic Harriers on Saturday 4 September 1909. One other event of note in this period was that in a walk organised by the Newspaper Trades Association in May 1904 F. W. Ward and F. Few, who both worked for the Evening Echo, walked the last twenty miles (32.1km) in lock step and the race was declared a dead heat.

Maud Brown and Christina Wright passing through Patcham on their way from London to Brighton, 29 April 1922. They finished together in 14 hours and 35 minutes.

In April 1914 a company of the London Rifle Brigade marched from London to Brighton to beat their own record for the journey established in 1911. The sixty men and two officers each carried 50lb (22.6kg) of field kit, and they made four stops totalling one hour forty-five minutes, and arrived at Brighton after 14 h 23 min, establishing a new world record for long-distance marching. The record was previously held by a company of the French Foreign Legion who had covered fifty miles (80.4km) in fifteen and a half hours.

Frederick W. Poynton of Leicester Harriers, winning the London to Brighton walk in September 1923.

In 1919 Surrey Walking Club turned their club walk into an open race, presenting the Victory Cup to the individual winner and the first Surrey WC member to finish won the Dithy Cup as before. The first winner of the Victory Cup was Tommy Payne (Yorkshire WC), while the Dithy Cup that year went to Edgar Horton. Surrey WC also became first winners of the team prize, scoring the first three to finish from each club, with Yorkshire WC second. This then became an annual event, and in 1921 it was won for the first time by a foreigner. On an unseasonably hot day Donato Pavesi of the Molinari Sports Club in Italy took the lead at Crawley and won in 8 h 37 min 27 s. The distance that year was reported as 51 miles 1,607 yards (83.5km).

J. Ingram (right) of the Seaforth Highlanders, on his way to winning the London to Brighton walk for blind ex-servicemen in October 1924.

In 1922 St Dunstan's Hospice, a charity for blind ex-servicemen based in Brighton organised a walk from London to Brighton for fourteen of their residents. The servicemen were guided by volunteers from a number of athletic clubs, Belgrave Harriers, Blackheath Harriers, Polytechnic Harriers and Surrey Walking Club among them, and they were escorted on the road by members of the National Cyclists' Union and the Royal Automobile Club. Lord Cadogan started the race from Westminster Bridge at five o'clock in the morning and the winner, F. M. Cassidy of the Middlesex Regiment, arrived in Brighton 10 h 45 min 34 s later. This was repeated each year until 1927 when St Dunstan's changed to a 25 mile (40.2km) walk on a closed circuit near Maidenhead. Around this time they established a relationship with the Stock Exchange Athletic Club and organised joint walking races around the Inner Circle and Outer Circle of Regent's Park in London, then after the Second World War residents of St Dunstans started participating in the Stock Exchange walk from London to Brighton. In the Stock Exchange walk in 1956, Billy Miller of St Dunstans completed the walk in 9 h 7 min 52 s.

In April 1922 Doris Joel, a daughter of the diamond magnate Solomon Joel announced that she was going to walk from London to Brighton to demonstrate that "girls were also able to perform long distance walks." That women could walk was not actually in doubt. Mrs. Harrison had walked 1,000 miles (1,609km) in 1,000 hours on the Leeds to Whitehill road in December 1843. And Jane Dunn, a tailor's wife from Manchester, had repeated the feat at Pendleton near Manchester in 1853. As recently as 1920, Winifred Green from Bolton had competed in the 51 mile (82km) Manchester to Blackpool walk, finishing in 12 h 32 min 25 s for twenty-fourth place in the open race. Doris Joel's announcement was motivated by a comment from a friend of her brother Wolfie, who had himself walked, for a bet, to Brighton, and told her that no woman could, or ever would, perform the feat.

Thomas Green (left) of Belgrave Harriers, coming up to pass Frank Holt (Yorkshire WC) on his way to winning the London to Brighton walk in September 1929.

In response to her announcement Joel received a reply from Maud Brown and Christina Wright, two ladies who both worked at Gamages, the London department store, and claimed that they had already walked from London to Brighton. They offered to accompany her on her walk, and were willing to turn it into a race. They also claimed to have previously walked the 58 miles (93.3km) from Beckenham to Clacton, and were confident they could walk to Brighton in a lot less than the twenty-four hours Joel had stated was her goal. Then Lilian Salkeld, a 16-year-old Manchester schoolgirl, also challenged Miss Joel. Lilian had completed a 33 mile (53.1km) walk in 7 h 2 min 39 s and covered 42 miles (67.5km) in a training walk and said she expected to get to Brighton in under thirteen hours. Doris Joel bet £50 that Lilian Salkeld would not get to Brighton in less than thirteen hours.

The start was to be from Big Ben at eight o'clock on the evening of Friday 28 April 1922. Doris Joel did not appear at the start and Maud Brown and Christina Wright simply walked from work, crossed over Westminster Bridge and carried on walking, in the same clothes they had worn at work that day, including their high-heeled shoes. There was a large crowd at Big Ben, some of whom were intent on preventing the event from taking place, and Lilian's start was delayed by ten minutes. She was dressed in a short-sleeved shirt-waister dress, short socks, stout walking shoes, and when it got cold at night she put on a woollen jumper and gloves. Her parents followed her in a car and she was accompanied by 10-year-old Georgie Edwards, the son of her coach, Albert Edwards, who was also in the car with her parents. Albert Edwards stopped after completing 30 miles (48.2km) while Lilian Salkeld finished in 12 h 20 min and is the first female for whom there is independent evidence that she walked from London to Brighton.

John Ludlow (Derby WC) being cheered on winning the London to Brighton walk in record time in September 1932.

Maud Brown and Christina Wright finished together at five minutes past eleven in the morning having taken 14 h 35 min. The details of their unverified claim to have completed the walk before are that they left Holborn at a quarter to six in the morning of Whit Sunday 1921, and after one or two setbacks on account of the weather arrived at Brighton a little before 12:30 am on the morning of Monday 8 May, having taken 18 h 45 min. On arrival they "placed themselves in the hands of a policeman," who found them lodgings at the Preston Park telephone exchange.

In 1923 the Surrey Open started at 7 o'clock in the morning on the first stroke of Big Ben. A 1905 walk organised by the Newspaper Trades Association started on the first stroke of Big Ben at midnight, but from 1923 it became the practice for races to be started by the sounding of the clock at 7 o'clock in the morning, and in the 1950s when annual running races started over the same route they also adopted the practice.

In 1927 a second Italian, Carlo Giani, a policeman from near Lake Como, won the event on a particularly hot day and in 1930 Thomas Green (Belgrave H.) broke the record set by Harold Ross in 1909, completing his walk in 8 h 2 min 55 s, opening up the possibility that less than eight hours might be possible. "I have beaten the record and this is one of the proudest moments in my life," he said.

Olympic champion Harold Whitlock (Metropolitan WC) won the London to Brighton walk in 1935, becoming the first man to cover the distance in less than eight hours and establishing a record that stood until 1956. He was also the first man to win the event in four consecutive years. Billy Baker (Queen's Park H.) and Thomas Green (Belgrave H.) had both won it four times, but not consecutively. Whitlock won it in 1934-37 but in 1938 was in Paris winning the European Championship 50km walk when Tommy Richardson (Woodford Green AC) won the London to Brighton. Richardson, world record holder at 12 hours and 100 miles, was the holder of the much coveted Centurion number 100, and was later elected president of the Centurions.

In 1939 the universities of Oxford and Cambridge organised a relay walking match from London to Brighton. Teams of five started from the clock tower by Westminster Bridge at seven o'clock on the morning of Saturday 20 May, with handovers at Croydon, Redhill, Peas Pottage, and Sayers Common. Oxford were represented by R. M. Hanson (Worcester), J. R. C. Boys (St Peter's Hall), J. Allen (St Peter's Hall), F. Pickering (St Peter's Hall), and F. D. K. Williams (Balliol). Cambridge, who won the match by one minute and one second in 8 h 33 min 47 s, were represented by F. S. Carter (Queen's), I. R. Menzies (Jesus), P. W. Coggins (Jesus), F. J. G. Marley (Queen's), and D. R. Carter (Queen's).

The event scheduled for Saturday 1 September 1939 had to be cancelled due to the start of the Second World War and the next walk was not held until 1946. At that point the record stood to Harold Whitlock at 7 h 53 min 50 s and Surrey WC were leading the team contest with ten wins, Belgrave Harriers were next with eight wins. The only other clubs to have won by that point were Birmingham WC (1931) and Leicester WC (1938).

After the war competition resumed in 1946 when Leicester Walking Club retained the team prize they had won in 1938, so they held the Edward Knott Memorial Shield, first presented in 1929, for a record nine years. Apart from that anomaly the longest winning streak was four consecutive wins by Belgrave Harriers (1967-70). Before the race ended, in 1984, only eleven clubs won this trophy, and only four of them won it more than once. Belgrave Harriers (24) won it most often, with Surrey Walking Club (23) a close second. Leicester Walking Club's three wins places them third on the list.

The Road Walking Association, governing body for the sport, changed their name to the Race Walking Association in September 1954, and at that time the rules stipulated that competitors in long distance walks of more than 20 miles (32.1km) had to be at least 21-years-old. Don Thompson (Metropolitan WC) celebrated his 21st birthday in 1954 by submitting his entry for the London to Brighton road walk, and duly finished second to Norman Guilmant of Belgrave Harriers. At that point Harold Whitlock's 1935 record still stood and the best time by anyone else was Tommy Richardson's 8 h 8 min 1 s from 1938.

In 1955 Thompson won the event in 8 h 6 min 24 s and the following year he carved eight minutes off Whitlock's record. In 1957 he took a further ten minutes off his own record with 7 h 35 min 12 s, the biggest single improvement in the record since 1904. Thompson then won the race a further five years in succession, making eight consecutive wins overall. He came back in 1967 to add a ninth win to his tally.

The race had its third foreign winner in 1965, when another Italian, the reigning Olympic 50km champion Abdon Pamich, won the race with Thompson in second place. Shaul Ladany of Israel, who won the event three times (1970-71-73), completes the roster of foreign winners. Carlo Giani, who won the race in 1927, returned to Brighton for the 1977 race as a spectator, and was guest of honour at the prize-giving dinner in the evening.

Dwindling numbers of competitors, from over 100 starters in the 1950s to less than 20 by 1982, and difficulties with ensuring the safety of participants with appropriate numbers of marshals meant that the Surrey Open was last held in 1984. The Stock Exchange carried on with their walk for a few years, experimented with starting it earlier or switching to a Sunday but these changes did not solve the problem. After missing a year in 2002 they held a celebratory centenary walk in 2003, and the London to Brighton walk was no more.

The oldest person to have completed the walk in a competitive event is believed to be Tommy Hall of Sheffield who first walked from London to Brighton in 1922 when he was 72-years-old, and finished in 11 h 34 min 42 s, came back the next year and finished and in 1924 he collapsed when four miles from the finish. Harold B. Rhodes won the Stock Exchange walk in 1920-21-22, and his son, also Harold Rhodes, won the same event in 1952. Harold Whitlock won the event four times, and his younger brother George also won it four times, but only Harold's wins were consecutive. The first brothers to complete the walk in the same year were Stan and Maurice Horton in 1947, the first father and son were Brian and Dave Saunders in 1972 and the first father and daughter were Liz Claridge and her father Martin Ford-Dun in 1999.

To Brighton and back

In 1897 Edward "Teddy" Knott of South London Harriers set a record for the walk from London to Brighton, becoming the first man to do it in less than nine hours. But he rather modestly supposed that there were other men who could beat his record, so in 1899, with a couple of other members of South London Harriers, he formed Surrey Walking Club. In September 1900 this club announced their intention to arrange a walk from London to Brighton and back to permit members to attempt the feat of walking 100 miles (160.9km) in 24 hours. The route they eventually chose for this was to walk from their headquarters, the Swan and Sugar Loaf Hotel, in Brighton Road, Croydon, north to London, then turn round and walk back past their start point and continue on to Brighton, and then return to Croydon. They made this 104 miles 1,130 yards (168.4km), so that allowing for any miscalculations, it met their criteria of being at least 100 miles (160.9km).

Thomas E. Hammond (Blackheath H.) cooling off at a horse trough at Merstham during his record-breaking walk from London to Brighton and back on Saturday 22 June 1907.

The man who organised this walk was a London solicitor called Ernest Neville, a club member, a keen walker, and over sixty years later at the age of 80 he will still be found organising running and walking races over the Brighton road. The walk did not actually come off until the end of 1902, and was for club members only. They had ten entries, only nine of whom turned up at the start, at nine o'clock on the evening of Friday 31 October. But G. H. Schofield, a non-member, also turned up at the start and asked if he could walk with them. Since he had walked 16 miles (25.7km) just to get to the start they didn't think he would provide much opposition and willingly agreed to let him take part. That made ten starters, including Ernest Neville the organiser, only four of whom reached Brighton, and only three of them finished the whole event. The favourite was John "Jack" Butler, who owned all the amateur walking records from 14 miles (22.5km) to 21 miles (33.7km), and who justified his status with his winning margin of almost an hour in 21 h 36 min 27 s. Mr Schofield, the stranger who had no chance, finished second. The only other club member to finish was W. J. Taylor.

There are only two known prior occasions when the double journey had been accomplished. In 1803 Captain Robertson of the South Gloucester Militia walked from Brighton to London and back for a wager of 40 guineas, and in 1868 Benjamin Trench wagered that he could do it in 25 hours and succeeded with two hours to spare. Surrey Walking Club were not particularly concerned that it should be from London to Brighton, what mattered to them was that it was 100 miles, and they offered a gold medal to any club member who could complete this distance in twenty-four hours or less.

W.F. "Billy" Baker of Queen's Park Harriers completing his second consecutive win in the London to Brighton and back walk on Saturday 22 June 1929.

In 1903 they organised another of these events, that they did not call races. They referred to these as "trials." They were for members to attempt to earn the gold medal, and they did this in company with others because that made sense, but it was not a race, as such, and the first man home didn't "win," anything other than the gold medal, if he did it in time. There were six starters for the 1903 trial, and five of them finished and earned the gold medal for beating 24 hours. First man home was H. W. Horton, in 20 h 31 min 53 s, while Ernest Neville, who was by now the club secretary, finished third in 21 h 13 min 50 s.

There were other opportunities to earn the gold medal. Apart from 24-hour track races, Bath to London was 100 miles (160.9km), Birmingham to London was 103 miles (165.7km), and Blackpool to Manchester and back was also 100 miles, so it was not until June 1907 that the club organised another of these trials. The first of the six men to finish inside 24 hours and earn their medal was Thomas Hammond (Blackheath H.) who passed 50 miles (80.4km) in 8 h 26 min, 100 miles in 17 h 25 min 22 s, which beat the world best for that distance set by A. W. Sinclair at Lillie Bridge in August 1881, then went on to beat Horton's record by over two hours and finish in 18 h 13 min 37 s. The timekeeper for this trial was Teddy Knott, and both Jack Butler and H. W. Horton were judges.

Dan Gum (Essex Beagles) winning the London to Brighton and back walk organised by Surrey Walking Club in June 1933.

From 1911 to 1914 they held five trials during which no new records were established but several changes took place. In May 1911 a meeting took place at the Ship & Turtle, an inn at 131 Leadenhall Street in London, to which all those amateurs who had achieved the goal of walking 100 miles in 24 hours in competition, in Britain, were invited, and they agreed to form a membership society - not a club - to be called Centurions. James Fowler-Dixon, who had achieved his qualifying walk the earliest, in 1877, was elected President for life. At the suggestion of Ernest Neville they decided to number members in chronological order of their achievement of the qualifying goal, so Fowler-Dixon became Centurion number 1, and Neville was number 7.

The first woman to qualify for membership of the Centurions was Ann Sayer (Essex Ladies) who completed the Bristol 100 miles walk in 1977, and less than an hour and a half later Dianne Pegg (Medway AC) qualified in the same event. They are Centurions number 599 and 608 respectively.

In 1913 Thomas Hammond and Ernest Neville purchased a trophy, a two-foot tall "elegant nymph" mounted on a plinth, subsequently named the Hammond-Neville Trophy, to be awarded to the winner of the London to Brighton and back walk. So that it is now unequivocably a race. The first winner of this was Harold B. S. Rhodes (Stock Exchange AC), who finished in 20 h 53 min 22 s on Saturday 7 June 1913. The statuette is now lost but the Centurions retain the plinth.

In October 1913 Surrey Walking Club held a second London to Brighton and back walk that year, and the 1914 race was sponsored by a magazine called Health and Safety and included a veterans race, with competitors over 45 years of age starting forty-five minutes before the rest of the field. This was won by Edgar Broad (Surrey WC), who had won the first Stock Exchange walk from London to Brighton in 1903.

After the First World War events resumed in 1921 with a near-record twelve starters, but on a scorching hot day only three of these finished. First was Edgar Horton (Surrey WC) in 19 h 50 min 41 s, the best time since 1907. Up to this point races had followed a familiar pattern; one or more early leaders would gradually fall away to let the winner emerge from a more modest early pace. At the next race, in June 1926, W. F. "Billy" Baker of Queen's Park Harriers adopted different tactics and led from the start, followed closely by the Italian Olympian Donato Pavesi until they got to Brighton. Pavesi had won the London to Brighton walk in 1921, and Baker won it in 1924 and 1925, but when they turned round to head back to Croydon Baker moved ahead and Edgar Horton overtook the Italian for second place. By Handcross (80 miles 1,100 yards, 129.7km) Baker had got almost a minute inside Hammond's record from 1907, and he continued to gain ground until he got to Redhill where the sole of one shoe came off and he had to stop and change his shoes. Although he missed Hammond's 100 miles record he forced the pace over the closing miles and stole over seven minutes from the nineteen year-old record for the full distance.

From 1929 Surrey Walking Club proposed to hold the race on a four-year cycle, in the year after the Olympic Games, so there were further races in 1933 and 1937, but this schedule was amended by the Second World War. After the event was revived in 1947, when the winner was Stan Horton, the son of Edgar Horton who had won it in 1921, the schedule switched to being the year before the Olympic Games. There were no further revisions to the record set by Billy Baker in 1926, but one other man, Frank O'Reilly of Lozells Harriers, managed to win it twice in succession. By the 1960s road improvements and the sheer volume of traffic meant that it was no longer considered safe to be holding this event on public roads and it was last held on 24 June 1967 when it got its first foreign winner.

Arthur St Norman, who won the 1912 race, was technically a foreigner, because he represented South Africa in the Olympic Games in Stockholm, but he was born in Brighton and lived there for many years. The only person normally resident abroad to win the London to Brighton and back walk was Gerd Nickel from Hamburg, in what was then called West Germany. The weather was terrible and he had the slowest winning time since 1913, but none of that mattered when he became the last ever winner of the Hammond-Neville Trophy.

The race was held nineteen times in sixty-five years and had seventeen different winners. Less than 450 men started and fewer than 180 of them finished, and not all of those finished at their first attempt. W. N. Boys (Finchley H.) started in 1921 and 1926 but finally finished in 1929 when he became Centurion number 89. Some also finished their walk at the 100 miles point having achieved their goal of earning their medal and qualifying for the Centurions. One man to do this was Arthur Winter (Polytechnic H.) in 1929. There are no records of a woman ever starting in the race or of a woman ever walking from London to Brighton and back independently.

Performance progression

The route necessarily changed over the years as roads were altered, widened and straightened, with the invention of roundabouts, the construction of bridges, underpasses, new housing estates and of Gatwick airport. There was at one time a level crossing on the route and in 1909 Thomas Hammond had to stand and wait for a train to pass before he could continue. An underpass was eventually constructed there but one year that was flooded. The road surface itself also changed quite drastically. In 1903 it rained heavily the night before the walk and the road to Brighton was a quagmire of soft slushy mud that bears no comparison with the tarmac surface and storm drains of the 1950s. So there is not a single route from London to Brighton and it may not be valid to compare times achieved in different years. However, this is a chronological list of the shortest times achieved in walking from London to Brighton in an organised competitive event. For a complete list of winners, see: List of winners of the London to Brighton walk.

Progression of London to Brighton Walking Record

Time hh:mm:ss	Athlete (affiliation)	Date
10:52:00	Percival J. Burt (London Athletic Club)	22 Sep 1872
9:48:00	Charles L. O'Malley (London Athletic Club)	29 Mar 1884
9:25:08	J.A. McIntosh (Compton Cricket Club)	10 Apr 1886
9:07:07	W. Franks (professional)	4 Aug 1895
8:56:44	Edward Knott (South London H.)	10 Apr 1897
8:43:16	John Butler (Surrey Walking Club)	14 Mar 1903
8:26:57	Thomas E. Hammond (Blackheath H.)	9 Apr 1904
8:23:27	John Butler (Surrey Walking Club)	22 Sep 1906
8:18:18	Thomas E. Hammond (Blackheath H.)	1 May 1909
8:11:14	Harold V.L. Ross (Tooting AC)	4 Sep 1909
8:02:55	Thomas W. Green (Belgrave H.)	12 Sep 1930
8:01:06	John H. Ludlow (Derby Walking Club)	10 Sep 1932
7:53:50	Harold H. Whitlock (Metropolitan Walking Club)	7 Sep 1935
7:45:32	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan Walking Club)	8 Sep 1956
7:35:12	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan Walking Club)	14 Sep 1957

Progression of Women's London to Brighton Walking Record

Time hh:mm:ss	Athlete (affiliation)	Date
18:45:00	Maud Brown & Christina Wright	7-8 May 1921
12:20:00	Lilian Salkeld (aged 16)	28-29 Apr 1922
9:37:35	Sandra Brown (Surrey Walking Club)	3 Sep 1983
9:04:40	Sandra Brown (Surrey Walking Club)	17 May 2003

See also

• London to Brighton events

General references

• Brighton and Its Coaches: A History of the London and Brighton Road (1894) by William C. A. Blew
• The Brighton Road (1906) by Charles G. Harper (1863-1943)
• Centurions Handbook (2011)
• Surrey Walking Club results archive

Running

This page is about competitive running races. For other uses, see London to Brighton events.

Cottonshirt/sandbox
Date	October
Location	London-Brighton, United Kingdom
Event type	Road race
Distance	52 miles, 565 yards (84.2 km) - 55 miles (88.5 km)
Established	1889 (1889)
Last held	2005 (2005)
Course records	Men: 5:15:15 (1980) Ian Thompson Women: 6:34:10 (1993) Carolyn Hunter-Rowe
Participants	60-100

The London to Brighton road race was a competitive running race held on public roads from Westminster Bridge over the river Thames in central London, England, to the south coast resort of Brighton. The route was first covered by a professional pedestrian in 1825, and the first race took place in 1837. The era of open races organised by athletics clubs started in 1899, and in 1903 a newspaper offered significant prize money resulting in a race with almost one hundred starters that brought the event to much wider public notice. In 1924 an Englishman named Arthur Newton came from Natal in southern Africa specifically to break the record for the journey, and thirteen years later he mentored a South African named Hardy Ballington to break his own record. In 1951 a race was organised as part of the Festival of Britain, and the following year that became an annual event organised by the Road Runners Club. The first woman to cover the route was Dale Greig of Tannahill Harriers in 1972, and women's races started unofficially in 1979 and officially in 1980. Competitors came not just from England but also from Canada, Eire, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States. The distance of the race varied over the years so that the fastest time may not necessarily be the best performance. For the men, the fastest time was recorded by Alastair Wood of Aberdeen who ran 5 h 11 min 2 s in 1972, while the best performance is 5 h 15 min 15 s by Ian Thompson of Luton United Athletic Club in 1980 when the course measured 54 miles 460 yards (87.3 km). For the women the shortest time is the best performance since Carolyn Hunter-Rowe's 6 h 34 min 10 s in 1993 was achieved over the longest version of the course when it measured 55 miles (88.5 km). Advances in the volume and speed of traffic on the roads made it increasingly difficult to provide for the safety of both competitors and officials, and harder to recruit appropriate numbers of volunteer marshalls, and the race was last held in 2005. In 1921 Surrey Athletic Club organised a 10-stage relay run over the route and in 1924 this became an open race that was held annually until 1966 when the sponsor withdrew.

History

The first man to run between London and Brighton was the, "celebrated runner" Tomlinson, who made a match for 100 guineas that he could go from "the extremity of Brighton," to the Quadrant Coffee House, Regent Street, London, in less than ten hours. On Monday 19 December 1825 he covered the first 20 miles (32.1 km) in a few minutes less than three hours, and after 26 miles (41.8 km) he stopped and had a short nap on some straw in a covered van that accompanied him. He got to the top of Reigate Hill, 31 miles (49.8 km), in 4 h 30 min, stopped at Tooting for half-an-hour for a mutton-chop supper and won the match with a leisurely ten minutes to spare.

The first foot race took place in January 1837 between two professional pedestrians, Jack Berry from Lancashire and John Townsend, whose father was the town crier at Lewes. Their match was a go-as-you-please event with the men allowed to walk or run as they desired, but they were required to stick to the highway through Sutton, Reigate, Crawley, and Hickstead, and were each trailed by two umpires in a buggy to ensure fair play. The first to touch the railings of St Peter's Church, Brighton, would be the winner. The church is on the edge of an open park called The Level and is around eleven hundred yards (1 km) short of the sea front. They started from the Elephant and Castle, Blackfriars Road, London, with Townsend given a twenty minute head start due to his age. Berry started at twenty-three minutes past eight in the morning of Monday 30 January 1837. The weather was not good. Only three weeks earlier a snow storm had closed the Brighton road for four days, and on the day it was windy and after an hour of the race a cold drizzle started that turned to sleet on the tops of hills. Berry got to the Swan Inn at Reigate in 1 h 36 min just four minutes behind Townsend, but then stopped for fifteen minutes for refreshments and to change his clothes. Berry passed Townsend at Hookwood Common, on the border of Surrey and Sussex (28 miles, 45 km), and ran non-stop to the thirty-third milestone (53 km), where he started to suffer cramps in his feet and was forced to walk. Townsend's more modest start and even pace saw him overtake Berry outside Patcham and he ran into Brighton to find Berry had beaten him to it. By the windmill at Patcham Berry had retired and ridden a barouche into town to witness the finish. Townsend was greeted by a numerous crowd that one newspaper described as "half of Brighton," gathered in the road to cheer and applaud, and touched the church railings in 8 h 37 min.

In 1899 South London Harriers organised an open go-as-you-please race that started from the clock tower on the Middlesex side of Westminster Bridge, and finished at Bell's Baths by the Aquarium at Brighton. It was scheduled to start at 7 o'clock in the morning of Saturday 6 May, but there was a slight delay and the starter, Harry Venn of London Athletic Club, did not get them going until fourteen minutes later. The race had created a lot of excitement in athletic circles and there was a sizeable crowd to see them off despite the early hour. There were nineteen entries from ten different running clubs, mostly across south London, but also one from Bexhill near Hastings and one from the Isle of Wight. The weather was fine, with clear skies, and warm, with a slight north-easterly breeze, as near perfect as could have been hoped. Each runner was accompanied by a cyclist, and arrangements had been made for refreshments to be available for competitors at several hotels along the route.

The lead was taken by E. Gavin (South London H.), with a group of four close together some distance behind. By Croydon (11 miles, 17.3 km) Gavin had a lead of some 200 yards (182 m) but then retired from the race. The group of four were still together at 15 miles (24.1 km) reached in 1 h 50 min 10 s, but by Redhill (20 miles, 33 km) Frederick Randall (Finchley H.) had opened a gap of 80 yards (73 m). Randall had predicted the coming of social media, and arranged for telegrams with details of his progress to be sent to The Plough Inn, Turkey Street, Enfield, for the benefit of his friends. As they progressed the group stretched out and at one point Randall was over a mile (1.6 km) in the lead, but the hills began to take their toll and he had to stop and walk several times allowing the second man, W. Saward (Essex Beagles) to get within two minutes of him.

Roads into Brighton were thronged with people cheering them on and there were so many cyclists accompanying the leader that his progress could be seen from a distance by the clouds of dust. When Randall crossed the line after 6 h 58 min 18 s he was hoisted aloft and carried to the carriage waiting to take him to the Baths. "Thank God it's over," he said.

The starters included Edward Knott of South London Harriers, who had won a walking race over the same route in 1897 and held the current walking record for the trip, 8 h 56 min 44 s, but he was among those who did not finish, and arrived in Brighton by train for the dinner in the evening for the presentation of the prizes, tickets three shillings each. The winner received a silver bowl on a plinth, and a gold medal. The next three all received a silver bowl. Second-placed W. Saward (Essex Beagles) also received a silver medal for breaking 7 h 30 min, and the next four finishers all received a bronze medal for beating 8 h 15 min.

In February 1903 two professional pedestrians, Dave Fenton and Tom Gowan, independently wrote to the press to suggest that if some "gentleman sportsman" would put up a suitable purse or arrange a sweepestake they would be prepared to attack the record for the journey. This prompted The Evening News to announce two races, a walk and a run for both amateurs and professionals. Sporting authorities pointed out that the rules prevented amateurs from competing alongside professionals and the arrangements were amended to a go-as-you-please race open to the whole world, a walk for invited professionals, and an amateur walk.

The considerable sum of fifty guineas was offered as first prize in the go-as-you-please, with 10 guineas for second, 5 guineas for third, and £1 for each of the next fifteen finishers. The foreign champions the public were promised didn't materialise but there were almost one hundred men on the start line at 5 o'clock on the morning of Saturday 20 June 1903. Among them was W. Saward of Essex Beagles who had finished second to Frederick Randall in the 1899 race, and Leonard Hurst, a well-known professional runner, cyclist, and pedestrian who had twice won the Paris marathon, won the world 25-mile (40.2 km) championship and a 6-day walk in New York.

A group of four went off at the start but Hurst, wearing a light blue jersey and white knee-length shorts, hung back and waited in a larger group, eventually moving to the front as they passed through Purley. He was never seriously challenged from that point and won by more than thirty eight minutes in 6 h 34 min 50 s. The first seven finishers were inside eight hours.

In January 1914 Charles Hart became the first man to run from London to Brighton and back. Starting from the Aquarium, Brighton, shortly before half past three on the afternoon of Sunday 25 January, he ran to Westminster Bridge in 8 h 44 min, turned round and ran back to Brighton, arriving there at quarter past one on Monday afternoon, he took a half hour break then ran back to London, completing the triple-journey in 34 h 37 min. Sporting Life said, "there is no performance on the road with which this can be compared." At that time the world record for the comparable distance of 156 miles (251 km) on the track was 26 h 40 min 15 s by J. Hughes at New York in 1882 and the walking record was 31 h 50 min 42 s, by George Littlewood in a six-day walk at Sheffield also in 1882.

Arthur Newton at the age of 49, running in Natal.

Arthur Newton was an English man who had emigrated to South Africa where he owned a farm. In 1924, at the age of 41, he returned to England to air a grievance he had about the way the English were being treated in Natal, and he chose to do this through running. He had already twice won the 55 miles (88 km) Comrades Marathon in South Africa, beating the previous record by over two hours. On Friday 3 October 1924 he staged a deliberate attack on Len Hurst's record for the Brighton run. Running on his own with Len Hurst watching from a following car, he reached Redhill (20 miles, 32.1 km) in 2 h 6 min 5 s, Hickstead Castle (40 miles, 64.3 km) in 4 h 37 min 6 s, and crossed the finish line in Brighton in 6 h 11 min 4 2/5 s to huge applause from a very appreciative crowd. It was later described as, "one of the most remarkable long distance runs in history."

A bust of Wally Hayward, winner of the 1953 race, displayed in the museum of the Comrades Marathon, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

Not satisfied with this performance, he came back less than six weeks later, on Thursday 13 November, and had another go. This time the weather was not quite so congenial and he had to battle against drizzling rain and a head wind the whole way, but beat his own record by more than 17 minutes and recorded 5 h 53 min 43 s, revising the world record for 50 miles (80.4 km) en route.

Tom Richards (South London H.), winner of the 1955 race, running in the Enschede marathon in 1951.

That record lasted for thirteen years, and the man who beat it actually came from South Africa, and used Arthur Newton's training methods. In 1937 Hardy Ballington from Durban, South Africa, was twenty-four years old. He had won the Comrades Marathon three times, beating the course record for both the up and down races, and he was being coached by post by Arthur Newton, who was in England. So the members of Durban Athletic Club got up a subscription to send the diminutive Ballington to London for the specific purpose of attacking Arthur Newton's record on the Brighton road. He arrived in England on 19 April and met Newton for the first time at Waterloo Station.

John Newsome (42) winner of the 1974 race, running in the Enschede marathon in 1967.

Eight men lined up for the start on the morning of Saturday 22 May and at first the conditions were good, but after the leaders, Ballington and J. H. Chapman, reached the Greyhound at Croydon (10 miles, 16.0 km) in 1 h 3 min 45 s it started to rain and a strong south-west wind got up. By 20 miles (32.1 km) Ballington was exactly five minutes behind Newton's schedule in 2 h 9 min 15 s. Encouraged by Newton from a following car Ballington worked hard and by Crawley (31 miles 1,408 yards, 51.1 km) he was forty-nine seconds ahead of schedule. At Pyecombe, the top of Dale Hill, he was 7 min 4 s ahead of Newton's schedule and he slowed down to conserve his resources. He set new figures of 5 h 33 min 15 s for 50 miles (80.4 km) and cutting it remarkably close beat Newton's record for the full distance by exactly one second.

Shaun Meiklejohn, winner of the 1994 race, competing in the Mandela Marathon 2014.

In August 1951, as part of the Festival of Britain, Surbiton Town Sports Club wanted to stage a road race from London to Brighton with the specific aim of challenging Hardy Ballington's course record from 1937. Ernest Neville of the Surrey Walking Club had been organising walking races from London to Brighton since 1902, and in 1948 organised a 24-hour track race for the Surbiton Town Sports Club, so they asked him to organise their road race. The race was sponsored by the News-Chronicle, and forty-seven men faced the starter on Westminster Bridge, but the weather was not conducive to record breaking and the winner, a 40-year-old insurance clerk, Lewis Piper of Blackheath Harriers, recorded 6 h 18 min 40 s, over two minutes ahead of second-placed J. Crossley of Rochdale.

Hilary Walker (left) and Eleanor Robinson (right), winners of the 1988 and 1986 races respectively, on the podium at the IAU European Championships, 1993.

The 1951 race made it more widely known that running from London to Brighton was not reserved solely for outrageously talented professionals, but that Brighton was within reach of a well-trained marathon runner. The following year Ernest Neville founded the Road Runners Club, and they took on the role of organising an annual London to Brighton road race with their first race held in September 1952. The winner was Derek Reynolds, a 30-year-old insurance clerk and a member of Blackheath Harriers, in 5 h 52 min 22 s. The winner was presented the Arthur Newton Cup, and Newton himself presented this perpetual trophy to its first winner.

In 1953 Len Hurst's widow presented the Road Runners Club a magnificent gold and silver belt her husband had won in a 10-mile professional handicap race at Bow on Boxing Day 1902, to be used as a trophy for the team winners of their annual London to Brighton race. Rex Cross as president accepted the belt on behalf of the club, and then handed it back to Caroline Hurst for her to present it to the first winners, Blackheath Harriers. In 2005 when the race was held for the last time, the belt was presented to Crawley Athletics Club, who had won it the most number of times, and they in turn presented it to Crawley Museum.

Due to the similarity of the event to the Comrades Marathon in South Africa, and the connection with Arthur Newton and Hardy Ballington, athletes from South Africa entered in increasing numbers, won the event several times, set records and won the team prize, until 1976 when South Africa were expelled from the IAAF (now known as World Athletics). The first South African winner was Wally Hayward of Germiston Callies, in 1953, who also set an unofficial world road best for 50 miles (80.4 km) of 5 h 14 min 22 s to replace the figures established by Hardy Ballington in 1937.

But it was not just South Africans that came; in 1967, the first time the event was held on a Sunday, in addition to the usual English men there were starters from Canada, Eire, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, the United States and Roger Alcorn from New Zealand finished second. In 1976 the team prize was won by the Millrose Athletic Association from New York. By that time it was sufficiently popular that the Road Runners Club had to impose entry qualifications, limiting entry to athletes who had demonstrated the ability to finish in less than eight and a half hours.

In 1971, the 21st annual open race was won by 21-year-old Dave Levick of Witwatersrand University from a field of 66 starters. The following year Scottish marathon runner Alastair Wood (Aberdeen AC) beat 58 others to Brighton in 5 h 11 min 2 s, making the single largest improvement in the record since 1953 and becoming the first man to run from London to Brighton at an average speed of more than 10 miles per hour (16.0 kmh). Mick Orton (Tipton H.) also beat the previous record in finishing second but was over eight minutes behind Wood, who three months later celebrated his fortieth birthday. A record number of 94 starters contested the event in 1974, when John Newsome (Wakefield H. & AC) beat Cavin Woodward (Leamington AC) by just six seconds and the first twelve men finished inside six hours.

Bernard Gomersall (Leeds Harehills) holds the record for consecutive wins, with four from 1963-66, and with a total of four wins shares with Stephen Moore (Hertford & Ware AC) the record for the most number of wins overall.

The first woman to run from London to Brighton was Dale Greig of Tannahill Harriers, who started one hour in front of the men's race in 1972 and finished in 8 h 30 min 4 s. At the prize giving dinner in the evening she was presented with a special award and given a standing ovation. At the same time Ernest Neville announced his retirement from the role of race organiser, and the Mayor of Brighton presented him with a souvenir of Brighton to mark his seven decades association with events on the Brighton road. In 1979 three women participated unofficially, the first to finish being Leslie Watson of London Olympidaes in 6 h 55 min 11 s, and the following year she also won the first official womens race in 6 h 56 min 10 s. The Northern Rock Trophy presented to the winner of the lady's race was named after its sponsors, the Northern Rock Building Society.

Hilary Walker holds the records for the most wins and the most consecutive wins in the women's race. She finished fourth in the women's race in 1985, third in 1986, then won it three years in succession from 1988 and added two more in 1996 and 1999. In 1988 in Blackpool she set a women's world record for 48-hours that remained the British record until 2023. She also served as president of Serpentine running club, as general secretary of the International Association of Ultrarunners, and has been inducted into the Ultrarunning Hall of Fame.

The distance of the race varied from a low of 51 miles 1,607 yards (83.5 km) to a maximum of 55 miles (88.5 km), which means that the lowest time may not be the best performance. For the men the lowest time recorded was the 5 h 11 min 2 s by Alastair Wood of Aberdeen in 1972 when the course measured 52 miles 1,172 yards (84.7 km). Allowing for these differences the best performance is 5 h 15 min 15 s by Ian Thompson in 1980 when the course measured 54 miles 460 yards (87.3 km). This is equivalent to running two 2:32 marathons back to back. For the women, however, the fastest time is also the best performance, Carolyn Hunter-Rowe's 6 h 34 min 10 s in 1993 was achieved over the longest version of the course when it measured 55 miles (88.5 km).

In July 1954, Derek Reynolds of Blackheath Harriers won the only known race from London to Brighton and back in 14 h 54 min 59 s. The only other finisher, of nine starters, was L. Pocock in 15 h 22 min 6 s.

News of the World relay

Edward F. Vowles of Surrey Athletic Club conceived of the idea of a team relay to be run on the Brighton road, with ten men covering an average of 5 miles (8 km) each he estimated that they should be able to reach Brighton in around four and a half hours. This was first held as a test of concept on Wednesday 16 February 1921, starting from Westminster Bridge they ran to the Aquarium at Brighton in 4 h 39 min 44 s. As an event it was deemed a huge success but the cost of organising it and the organisation involved with transporting runners to their respective handover points made it seem unlikely that it would ever become an open race. In 1902 Joe Binks was Amateur Athletic Association 1 mile champion and British record holder at the distance but by 1921 he was a correspondent for the News of the World and he persuaded the newspaper to sponsor the event. The first actual race was held in January 1924 with sixteen invited teams facing the starter. This was over a slightly different course and took a little longer, 4 h 50 min, with the winners again being Surrey AC. The following year the start was moved to April to get better weather, and invitations spread further than just southern teams and the race was won by Birchfield Harriers in 4 h 50 min 52 s. This then became an annual event that attracted the top teams in the country and by 1939 Birchfield Harriers had won it five times, Mitcham Athletic Club won it three times in succession, and Belgrave Harriers had posted the best time of 4 h 37 min 55 s in winning the 1936 edition on a course advertised as 54 miles 1,232 yards (88.0 km).

The event was not without controversy, however. The 1936 edition saw a fatality as a runner collided with a car on the leg from Duxhurst to Crawley. A St John Ambulance took the runner to hospital but G. Young, a 28-year-old insurance agent and a member of Queen's Park Harriers on his fourth London to Brighton relay, was found to be dead on arrival. Another runner was also knocked down but was not seriously injured and continued his run. Young's colleagues completed the run even though they were technically eliminated. Adverse comments in the press included that, "It seems extremely doubtful whether the roads nowadays are fit places for contests of this kind."

When the war intervened it seemed unlikely that the event would continue but in 1940 the teams organised a substitue to be run around Wimbledon Common. Twenty-eight teams entered, with eight men per team, running one lap of the common, around 4 1/4 miles (6.8 km) each. Belgrave Harriers were comfortable winners in 2 h 57 min 8 s. The relay proper, still sponsored by the News of the World, resumed in April 1947, on a course measured at "46 odd miles" (74 km). The first post-war winners were Belgrave Harriers in 4 h 3 min 19 s. Belgrave repeated the feat of winning it three times in succession with a best time of 3 h 57 min 29 s in 1948.

The next development was that in 1950 it was decided that rather than invite teams to take part there would be regional qualifying relays held in April and a National final held in September or October. So in April 1950 the News of the World Relay for Southern clubs was won by Thames Valley Harriers in 3 h 54 min 10 s. In response to the traffic pressure the start had been moved to the News of the World Sports Ground at Mitcham so the route was now quite a bit shorter, around 44 miles 528 yards (71.2 km), and winners now regularly finished in under four hours.

However, in September of that year there was a meeting of many interested parties to thrash out details of the cross country season, and it was generally agreed that the focus in the winter should be on preparation for the National Cross Country Championship and the relay season should stay where it had traditionally always been, March and April. As a result the national final of the News of the World relay was switched back to April, the event planned for September 1950 never happened and the only News of the World relay that year was the southern qualifier. From 1951 the April event was called the News of the World National London to Brighton Road Relay, and the southern clubs held their qualifying event in late September or early October. From 1954 it became an 11-stage relay, then from 1957 when the route had to be changed due to work at Gatwick Airport it became a 12-stage relay. The best post-war time for the 10-stage relay is 3 h 48 min 34 s by Belgrave Harriers in 1952, and the record for the 11-stage relay is 4 h 25 min 51 s by South London Harriers on 13 April 1957.

In 1965 the Southern qualifier was held over a new course on Wimbledon Common in a race organised by Belgrave Harriers, that was won by the host club in 4 h 8 min 20 s, with Portsmouth AC in second place and Ealing Harriers in third place.

Then in February 1966 the News of the World announced that they would no longer be able to sponsor the relay, no other sponsor came along to take it over and the race ended. The editor of Athletics Weekly said: "The London to Brighton Relay was the Blue Riband of road relay racing. To many this event was the greatest on the athletics calendar. ... Whatever can be arranged to take its place, the year's athletics will never be quite the same again. It is the end of an era, with memories which will never be erased and rank with anything else we have seen in athletics in this country."

The last winners of the News of the World London to Brighton Relay were Coventry Godiva Harriers, their third consecutive win, in 4 h 26 min 11 s, on Saturday 10 April 1965. The club that won it the most was Belgrave Harriers with seven wins in two streaks, 1934-35-36, and 1947-48-49-51, which is technically a streak because there was no national in 1950. Birchfield Harriers won it six times, 1925-26-28-30-31-52. The best time over the last iteration of the course was put up by Coventry Godiva Harriers in 1964 when they ran 4 h 19 min 34 s.

Thames Valley Harriers (1950-55-56-57-60) and Portsmouth Athletic Club (1958-59-61-62-64) tied for five wins each in the Southern relay, and Portsmouth also put up the best time of 4 h 27 min 4 s on 13 October 1964.

Performance progression

Progression of London to Brighton Best Performance (Running)

Time	Athlete (affiliation)	Date	Distance
8:37:00	John Townsend (pedestrian)	30 Jan 1837
6:58:18	Frederick D. Randall (Finchley H.)	6 May 1899
6:34:50	Leonard Hurst (professional)	20 Jun 1903
6:11:04	Arthur Newton	3 Oct 1924	51 miles, 1607 yards (83.5 km)
5:53:43	Arthur Newton	13 Nov 1924	51 miles, 1607 yards (83.5 km)
5:53:42	Hardy Ballington (Durban AC, RSA)	22 May 1937	51 miles, 1737 yards (83.6 km)
5:52:22	Derek E. Reynolds (Blackheath H.)	27 Sep 1952	52 miles, 566 yards (84.2 km)
5:29:40	Wally Hayward (Germiston Callies, RSA)	26 Sep 1953	52 miles, 566 yards (84.2 km)
5:27:24	Tom Richards (South London H.)	24 Sep 1955	52 miles, 566 yards (84.2 km)
5:26:20	Gerald Walsh (Durban AC, RSA)	28 Sep 1957	52 miles, 876 yards (84.4 km)
5:25:56	Jackie Mekler (Germiston Callies, RSA)	24 Sep 1960	52 miles, 876 yards (84.4 km)
5:21:45	David Levick (Witwatersrand Un., RSA)	26 Sep 1971	52 miles, 1172 yards (84.7 km)
5:11:02	Alastair J. Wood (Aberdeen AC)	1 Oct 1972	52 miles, 1172 yards (84.7 km)
5:13:02	Donald Ritchie (Forres H.)	1 Oct 1978	53 miles, 856 yards (86.0 km)
5:15:15	Ian Thompson (Luton United AC)	28 Sep 1980	54 miles, 460 yards (87.3 km)

Progression of London to Brighton Best Performance (Running, Women)

Time	Athlete (affiliation)	Date	Distance
8:30:04	Dale Greig (Tannahill Harriers)	1 Oct 1972	52 miles, 1172 yards (84.7 km)
6:55:11	Leslie Watson (London Olympiades AC)	30 Sep 1979	54 miles, 460 yards (87.3 km)
6:37:08	Ann Franklin (Mynyddwr de Cymru)	25 Sep 1983	53 miles, 1082 yards (86.2 km)
6:34:10	Carolyn Hunter-Rowe (Pudsey & Bramley AC)	3 Oct 1993	55 miles (88.5 km)

Top Twenty Best Performances - Men

Time	Athlete (affiliation)	Pos.	Date	Distance	Speed (kmh)
5:15:15	Ian Thompson (Luton United AC)	1	28 Sep 1980	54 miles 460 yards (87.3 km)	16.62
5:12:32	Bruce Fordyce (Witwatersrand Un., RSA)	1	25 Sep 1983	53 miles 1,082 yards (86.3 km)	16.565
5:13:02	Donald Ritchie (Forres H.)	1	01 Oct 1978	53 miles 856 yards (86.1 km)	16.499
5:11:02	Alastair J. Wood (Aberdeen AC)	1	01 Oct 1972	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)	16.35
5:11:30	Joe Keating (Ealing & Southall AC)	1	30 Sep 1973	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)	16.326
5:12:07	Cavin Woodward (Leamington C. & AC)	1	28 Sep 1975	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)	16.293
5:21:55	Allan Kirik (Central Park Track Club, USA)	2	28 Sep 1980	54 miles 460 yards (87.3 km)	16.276
5:18:30	Cavin Woodward (Leamington C. & AC)	2	01 Oct 1978	53 miles 856 yards (86.1 km)	16.216
5:18:36	Bruce Fordyce (Witwatersrand Un., RSA)	1	26 Sep 1982	53 miles 856 yards (86.1 km)	16.211
5:16:05	Donald Ritchie (Forres H.)	1	25 Sep 1977	52 miles 1,568 yards (85.1 km)	16.158
5:16:07	John V. Newsome (Wakefield H. & AC)	1	29 Sep 1974	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)	16.087
5:16:13	Cavin Woodward (Leamington C. & AC)	2	29 Sep 1974	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)	16.082
5:21:15	Bruce Fordyce (Witwatersrand Un., RSA)	1	27 Sep 1981	53 miles 856 yards (86.1 km)	16.077
5:16:36	Cavin Woodward (Leamington C. & AC)	2	30 Sep 1973	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)	16.063
5:23:29	Graeme Fraser (Hillcrest Villagers AC, RSA)	2	25 Sep 1983	53 miles 1,082 yards (86.3 km)	16.004
5:19:47	Robert Heron (Brighton & Hove AC)	2	25 Sep 1977	52 miles 1,568 yards (85.1 km)	15.971
5:24:23	Donald Ritchie (Forres H.)	3	25 Sep 1983	53 miles 1,082 yards (86.3 km)	15.96
5:19:28	Mick Orton (Tipton Harriers)	2	01 Oct 1972	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)	15.919
5:24:55	Mark Pickard (Epsom & Ewell H.)	2	27 Sep 1981	53 miles 856 yards (86.1 km)	15.895
5:24:15	Barry Heath (Royal Marines)	1	07 Oct 1984	53 miles 540 yards (85.8 km)	15.875

Top Twenty Best Performances - Women

Time	Athlete (affiliation)	Pos.	Date	Distance	Speed (kmh)
6:34:10	Carolyn Hunter-Rowe (Pudsey & Bramley AC)	1	03 Oct 1993	55 miles (88.5 km)	13.474
6:37:08	Ann Franklin (Mynyddwr de Cymru)	1	25 Sep 1983	53 miles 1,082 yards (86.3 km)	13.036
6:42:40	Eleanor Robinson (Sutton-in-Ashfield AC)	1	05 Oct 1986	53 miles 540 yards (85.8 km)	12.783
6:43:22	Hilary Walker (Serpentine Running Club)	1	08 Oct 1989	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)	12.755
6:55:11	Leslie Watson (London Olympiades AC)	1	30 Sep 1979	54 miles 460 yards (87.3 km)	12.62
6:56:10	Leslie Watson (London Olympiades AC)	1	28 Sep 1980	54 miles 460 yards (87.3 km)	12.59
7:02:26	Ina Sanders (Rand Athletic Club, RSA)	1	04 Oct 1998	55 miles (88.5 km)	12.572
6:51:24	Hilary Walker (Serpentine Running Club)	1	07 Oct 1990	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)	12.506
7:05:56	Rae Bisschoff (Rocky Road Runners, RSA)	1	05 Oct 1997	55 miles (88.5 km)	12.469
7:06:22	Jackie Leak (Chiltern Harriers)	1	02 Oct 1994	55 miles (88.5 km)	12.456
7:07:12	Danielle Sanderson (Watford Harriers)	1	01 Oct 2000	55 miles (88.5 km)	12.432
7:02:27	Ellen McCurtin (Millrose AAC, USA)	1	05 Oct 2003	54 miles 194 yards (87.1 km)	12.368
6:56:59	Marianne Savage (Centurion Road Runners)	2	08 Oct 1989	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)	12.338
7:11:39	Lesley Turner (Rowheath Harriers)	1	01 Oct 1995	55 miles (88.5 km)	12.304
7:01:51	Ann Franklin (Mynyddwr de Cymru)	1	26 Sep 1982	53 miles 856 yards (86.1 km)	12.243
7:02:37	Sandra Kiddy (Palm Springs, USA)	1	06 Oct 1985	53 miles 540 yards (85.8 km)	12.18
7:16:24	Karen Bradford (Varsity Old Boys RC, RSA)	2	01 Oct 2000	55 miles (88.5 km)	12.17
7:18:09	Carolyn Hunter-Rowe (Pudsey & Bramley AC)	1	06 Oct 1991	55 miles (88.5 km)	12.121
7:07:48	Hilary Walker (Serpentine Running Club)	1	09 Oct 1988	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)	12.026
7:10:36	Celia Hargrave (Stone Master Marathoners)	2	25 Sep 1983	53 miles 1,082 yards (86.3 km)	12.023

See also

• London to Brighton events

General references

• Brighton and Its Coaches: A History of the London and Brighton Road (1894) by William C. A. Blew
• The Brighton Road (1906) by Charles G. Harper (1863-1943)
• Road Runners Club History of the London to Brighton
• Association of Road Race Statisticians
• Ultra Marathon Statistics (Deutsche Ultramarathon Vereiniging) - London to Brighton road race

Cycling

In June 1819, Mr. T. Alford and three friends travelled from London to Brighton on velocipedes in 9 hours. A velocipede, also often called a hobby horse, was a wheeled machine propelled by the rider pressing their feet on the ground. The first person to ride a pedal-powered bicycle from London to Brighton was John Mayall junior, the son of a well-known photographer, who, accompanied by two friends on similar machines, left Trafalgar Square London on the morning of Wednesday 17 February 1869 and arrived in Brighton some 12 hours later. His bicycle was described at the time as a velocipede, but had cranked pedals on the front wheel, 34 inches (86cm) in diameter, and weighed sixty pounds (27.2kg).

Drawing by Charles Harper from a photograph of John Mayall jnr, on the occasion of the first bicycle ride from London to Brighton, February 1869.

In 1870 three separate groups of cyclists covered the route. There was an annual review of the Volunteer Reserve held in Brighton in April, and a troop of the Queen's Westminster Volunteer Reserve cycled to Brighton for the occasion.

On Monday 19 September, Mr Jackson, of Paris, described in newspaper reports as, "a well-known manufacturer of bicycles," cycled from London to Brighton on a tricycle of his own design. The two larger wheels, 39 inches (99cm) in diameter and covered with india-rubber, were at the front of the machine which weighed about 90lbs (40.8kg). He was accompanied by his 14-year-old son, on an Ordinary bicycle, and by Mr. Flower, of Westminster Bridge Road, London, on a velocipede. They arrived at the Albion Hotel, Brighton after 7 hrs. 30 min.

Exactly one week later, on Monday 26 September, Thomas Moon, the son of the landlord of the Union Inn, Gloucester Road, Brighton, cycled from London to Brighton in 5 hrs. 40 min. The following week, on Tuesday 4 October, accompanied by Captain Fry of the Brighton Fire Brigade, he cycled from Brighton to London and back. They left Brighton just before five o'clock in the morning, took breakfast at Crawley, lunched in London, stopped for tea at Crawley on the way home and arrived in Brighton just after ten o'clock at night. Actual cycling time was 6 hrs. 5 min. to London, and 7 hrs. 4 min. for the return, covering the 104 miles (167.3km) in 13 hrs. 9 min. at an average speed of 7.9 miles per hour (12.7kmh).

In August 1873 Surrey Bicycle Club and Middlesex Bicycle Club organised a race to Brighton and back. Each club could start six riders, and the first club to finish three men would be the winner. They started from the Kennington Oval, the headquarters of the Surrey club, shortly after six o'clock in the morning of Saturday 16 August. The first man to Brighton was R. T. Causton of the Surrey club, in 5 hrs. 10 min., riding an Ordinary bicycle built by John Keen. Several of the riders stopped for lunch in Brighton but W. C. Wood of the Middlesex club, riding a machine built by Sparrow's of Piccadilly, turned round without stopping and was first home in 11 hrs. 10 min., but Surrey, led home by Causton, took the next five places and won the match.

Following a debacle at a 50 mile road race at Catford in 1886, the National Cyclists' Union (N.C.U.), the governing body of the sport in Britain, voted to actively discourage cycle racing on public roads and encourage cyclists to instead pursue racing on tracks. They also stopped recognising records set on road courses and this led to a meeting of representatives of leading cycle clubs at Freemasons' Tavern in April 1888 where they formed a Roads Records Committee that ratified records for long distance cycling, and eventually to time trialling becoming the predominant form of road cycle racing in Britain. Mass participation races would never become a part of the cycling culture in Britain.

In July 1888 James Selby drove a coach called "Old Times" from Hatchett's Hotel, in Piccadilly, to the Old Ship at Brighton, and back, in 7 hrs. 50 min. to win a wager of £1,000 sterling. From that point cyclists started to use Selby's record time as a reference point for attempts on the Brighton road, and within weeks a team of four members of the Polytechnic Cycling Club, E. J. Willis, G. L. Morris, S. C. Schafer, and S. Walker, rode, in relays, a single Ormonde Roadster safety bicycle weighing 35lb (15.8kg) over exactly the same route taken by Selby and reached Brighton in 3 hrs. 56 min., returned to London in 3 hrs. 40 min. 19 2/5 sec. for a total of 7 hrs. 36 min. 19 2/5 sec. The record lasted two years, until March 1890, when four members of Brighton Excelsior Cycling Club, A. E. Griffin, T. Girling, R. Wilson, and F. Shute, completed the run in 7 hrs 32 min. That record lasted less than two weeks, when E. R. and W. A. Scantlebury, W. W. Arnott, and J. Blair, of Catford Cycling Club, completed the relay in 7 hrs. 25 min. 15 sec.

Selwyn Edge of the Surrey Bicycle Club set a record for cycling from London to Brighton and back in June 1892.

Then on Wednesday 25 June 1890 Frank Shorland of the Southgate Cycling Club, changed the nature of the game. Instead of having four different riders each cycling some of the route, he did the whole thing himself, and returned to London in 7 hrs. 19 min. to become the first man to cycle from London to Brighton and back inside Selby's coach record time. That record lasted less than one month. Exactly four weeks later, on Wednesday 23 July 1890, Selwyn Edge riding a safety bicycle with pneumatic tyres reached Brighton in 3 hrs. 18 min., and returned to London in 3 hrs. 44 min. 50 sec., for a total of 7 hrs. 2 min. 50 sec.

In September of that year the record fell again. C. A. Smith, the Honorary Secretary of the Bath Road Cycling Club, and holder of the record for the ride from London to Bath and back, finished almost an hour inside Selby's esteemed coach driving record. Leaving Hatchett's Hotel at 9 o'clock in the morning of Wednesday 3 September on a pneumatic tyred Cumber safety bicycle, Smith got to Brighton in 3 hrs. 26 min. 3 sec. He took a 10 minute break for refreshments, and returned to Piccadilly in a total of 6 hrs. 52 min. 10 sec.

In June 1892 Selwyn Edge regained the record with 6 hrs. 51 min. 7 sec., then in September Edward Dance of the Catford Cycling Club beat Selby's coach record by over an hour returning 6 hrs. 49 min. 1 sec. This was his third attempt at the record with previous attempts spoiled by bad weather. Just three days later, R. C. Nesbit made what is believed to be the last record-breaking appearance of an Ordinary on the Brighton road, completing his run to Brighton and back in 7 hrs. 42 min. 50 sec. An Ordinary is a bicycle that has the front wheel significantly larger than the rear; diameters up to 55 inches (1.39m) were quite common. The prevailing wisdom at the time was that, "machines with large driving wheels and small hind ones are the best for getting over the ground quickly." The larger the wheel, the further you go per revolution. The introduction of chain drive and geared sprockets in the following decade changed all this.

Drawing by Alfred Quinton (1853-1934) for the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News showing a cyclist passing the George Hotel in Crawley in 1893.

In 1893 the record changed hands four times, but this all happened in the space of ten days in September so some of these records were very short-lived. But 1893 is especially notable for the appearance of a lady on the Brighton road. At five o'clock on the morning of Sunday 10 September 16-year-old Teresa Reynolds, the daughter of a Brighton bicycle shop owner, set off from Brighton accompanied by four male friends and riding a Premium safety bicycle reached Hyde Park Corner in London just before quarter past nine and returned to Brighton with three brief stops for refreshments in 8 hrs. 38 min. Cycling magazine described her feat as a "lamentable incident," took issue with the fact that she was neither dressed like a female nor rode a lady's bicycle, "we will not pander to the unwholesome vanity of the Brighton female scorcher, by either advertising her name or the time she did it in," and thought it bad for the sport, "we regard the danger to the sport, and consequently to the trade, of such exhibitions to be so great that it demands imperatively a vehement protest." She was described as wearing "knickers," the knee-length shorts worn by football players and other sportsmen at that time, and other newspapers described her achievement as "extraordinary," or "a remarkable feat."

A. E. Knight of the Polytechnic Cycling Club broke Edge's record on Sunday 17 September, returning 6 hrs. 10 min. 29 sec. on a Marriott and Cooper safety bicycle. Two days later C. A. Smith of the Bath Road Club covered the course in 6 hrs. 6 min. 46 sec. on a Humber. Then on Friday 22 September Edge returned to the fray and set a new record, his last on the Brighton road, of 5 hrs. 52 min. 30 sec. on a Rudge.

In 1894 cycling had a reckoning with itself. Record attempts were being sponsored by bicycle and tyre manufacturers, who provided pacers to shadow the record breaker along parts of the route, and the routes themselves were being carefully altered to maximise the chances of a new record being established. In his latest record Edge had started from Purley, rode to London, then to Brighton and finished back at Purley. While Smith had started at Croydon, and gone from there to Hyde Park Corner then to Brighton and finished at Croydon. No one else had ever ridden these exact routes and the Road Records Committee decided that this was ultimately bad for the sport, and that in future they would recognise records on the Brighton road only if they were unpaced, and started and finished at Hyde Park corner and the Aquarium at Brighton, which had opened in August 1872 and was conveniently situated directly opposite the end of the main road into town, right on the sea front. The Ship Hotel, from where Selby's coach record had been timed, was around 1,500 feet (450m) further along the seafront.

Roller skating

The first person to roller skate from London to Brighton was 18-year-old Ben Lee of Streatham, a member of the Norbury Speed Club, on Sunday 6 May 1923. He started with a friend, Jack Herrod, who had a fall shortly after the start and gave up his skates seven miles from the finish, but Lee finished in 7 hrs. 27 min. The first race on roller skates was on Friday 15 April 1927, between twenty members of the Brixton All Blacks, a roller skating club. They started from Brixton Town Hall at half past four in the morning, but falls and problems with their wheels prevented ten of them from finishing. The race was won by A. Dunn in 5 hrs. 17 min.

The first woman to roller skate from London to Brighton was 19-year-old Vera Harper, the first of two women to finish a race held on Sunday 25 September 1927. This race, also held between members of the Brixton All Blacks, had 29 starters, five of them women. The winner was A. Harmer in 4 hrs. 56 min., and Vera Harper finished in 6 hrs. 41 min. The other woman to finish, M. Sherwood, cut her knees badly in a fall and finished with her legs heavily bandaged after 8 hrs. 10 min.

A few weeks later, on Sunday 9 October 1927, Ben Lee, by now the world professional half-mile roller skating champion, skated from London to Brighton paced by motor cycle in 4 hrs. 5 min. 3 1/2sec.

Motoring

The vehicles passing through London on their way to Brighton on the occasion of the Emancipation Run, Sat 14 Nov 1896, to celebrate the change in the law to permit vehicles to travel at up to twelve miles per hour.

The first motor car to appear on a public road in Britain was probably the four-wheeled vehicle built by Frederick Bremer, a plumber and gas-fitter from Walthamstow in east London, who first drove his car around the streets of London in December 1894. By June 1895 the Honourable Evelyn Ellis, the fifth son of Baron Howard de Walden had imported a Panhard et Levassor from France and the following month he drove from Southampton to Malvern. The National Motor Museum estimate there were some fifteen cars in Britain by the end of that year. Speed limits had been introduced on the roads as early as the 1830's, initially as low as 4 mph (6.4kmh) in the countryside and 2 mph (3.2kmh) in towns. These limits were still in effect as motorcars began to be introduced in the 1890's. Self-propelled vehicles, including steam carriages and traction engines, were required to be preceded on the road by a walking man carrying a red flag. A Bill was put before Parliament to raise the speed limit to 14 mph (22.5kmh) and dispense with the walking man and red flag. This Bill was due to take effect at midnight on 13 November 1896, and motorists celebrated the occasion with a drive to Brighton the following morning. This was not a race, it was a co-ordinated celebratory procession. There is no record of anyone driving a car from London to Brighton until the "Emancipation Run" of November 1896. The first vehicle to arrive in Brighton was one of two three-wheeled Bollée Motette that completed the route that day. They did not take the programmed lunch break at Reigate and arrived in Brighton around ninety minutes ahead of the next vehicle. The name of the first driver to finish is not known, but it was almost certainly one of the three sons of Amédée Bollée, most probably Léon Bollée (1870-1913) who was responsible for production of the Bollée Motette and demonstrated the vehicle at the Stanley Cycle Show at the Royal Agricultural Hall in November of that year.

Records

There is no such thing as "the" route from London to Brighton, each event and in some cases each individual performer has chosen their own way to reach the south coast. Even within a single event the details may change from year to year. Until 1937 the road relay, for example, started from Westminster Palace Yard, in front of the statue of Richard the Lionheart, but after the Second World War the number of teams involved meant that the start had to be moved to the News of the World Sports Ground at Mitcham. Road works, the weather, and other events taking place that day all influence the precise route being followed. From 1957 there was an extra 1,195 yards (1,092.7m) added to the route as a result of the expansion of Gatwick Airport and all performances from that point will be over the longer route. Which means that comparison of performances from one event to another, or even within single events, are not as meaningful as they might be in other circumstances. Organising bodies, the Road Runners Club, the Race Walking Association, and the Roads Records Committee, among others, have however recognised and ratified records for performances on the Brighton road and these are collected here. There will of course be other records that were set in the course of these performances. In 1924, for example, Arthur Newton broke the World Best for 50 miles en route to the second of his record-breaking London to Brighton runs. One record that cannot be expressed in numbers is that in 1903 S. E. Horton won the London to Brighton and back walk in 20 hrs. 31 min. 53 sec. In 1921 his son, E. C. Horton, also won the London to Brighton and back walk, beating his father's time with 19 hrs. 50 min. 41 sec. Then in 1947 his son, another S. E. Horton, also won the London to Brighton and back walk, and again beat his father's time with 18 hrs. 56 min. 9 sec., an occurrence that is possibly unique in the annals of sport.

Progression of London to Brighton Walking Record

Time	Athlete (affiliation)	Date
21:20:00	Captain Robertson (South Gloucester Militia)	12 Sep 1803
13:45:00	John Bell	20 Jul 1804
13:43:00	Wright (pedestrian)	5 Nov 1822
11:30:00	Edward F. Holtaway (Lynn, Norfolk)	4 Apr 1827
11:25:00	Walter & Henry Chinnery (London Athletic Club)	7 Mar 1869
10:52:00	Percival J. Burt (London Athletic Club)	22 Sep 1872
9:48:00	Charles L. O'Malley (London Athletic Club)	29 Mar 1884
9:25:08	J.A. McIntosh (South London & Ealing H.)	10 Apr 1886
9:07:07	W. Franks	4 Aug 1896
8:56:44	E. Knott (Polytechnic H.)	10 Apr 1897
8:43:16	J. Butler (Surrey Walking Club)	14 Mar 1903
8:26:57	Thomas E. Hammond (Blackheath H.)	9 Apr 1904
8:23:27	J. Butler (Surrey Walking Club)	22 Sep 1906
8:18:18	Thomas E. Hammond (Blackheath H.)	1 May 1909
8:11:14	H.V.L. Ross	4 Sep 1909
8:02:55	T.W. Green	12 Sep 1930
8:01:06	J.H. Ludlow	10 Sep 1932
7:53:50	Harold H. Whitlock (Metropolitan Walking Club)	7 Sep 1935
7:45:32	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan Walking Club)	8 Sep 1956
7:35:12	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan Walking Club)	14 Sep 1957

Progression of Women's London to Brighton Walking Record

Time	Athlete (affiliation)	Date
18:45:00	Maud Brown & Christina Wright	7-8 May 1921
12:20:00	Lilian Salkeld (aged 16)	28-29 Apr 1922
9:37:35	Sandra Brown (Surrey Walking Club)	3 Sep 1983
9:04:40	Sandra Brown (Surrey Walking Club)	17 May 2003

Progression of London to Brighton Running Record

Time	Athlete (affiliation)	Date
9:50:00	Tomlinson (celebrated runner)	19 Dec 1825
8:37:00	John Townsend (pedestrian)	30 Jan 1837
6:58:18	Frank D. Randall (South London H.)	6 May 1899
6:34:50	Len Hurst (professional)	20 Jun 1903
6:11:04	Arthur Newton	3 Oct 1924
5:53:43	Arthur Newton	13 Nov 1924
5:53:42	Hardy Ballington (Durban AC, RSA)	22 May 1937
5:52:22	Derek E. Reynolds (Blackheath H.)	27 Sep 1952
5:29:40	Wally Hayward (Germiston Callies, RSA)	26 Sep 1953
5:27:24	Tom Richards (South London H.)	24 Sep 1955
5:26:20	Gerald Walsh (Durban AC, RSA)	28 Sep 1957
5:25:56	Jackie Mekler (Germiston Callies, RSA)	24 Sep 1960
5:21:45	David Levick (Witwatersrand Un., RSA)	26 Sep 1971
5:11:02	Alastair J. Wood (Aberdeen)	1 Oct 1972

Progression of London to Brighton Best Performance (Running)

Time	Athlete (affiliation)	Date	Distance
8:37:00	John Townsend (pedestrian)	30 Jan 1837
6:58:18	Frank D. Randall (South London H.)	6 May 1899
6:34:50	Len Hurst (professional)	20 Jun 1903
6:11:04	Arthur Newton ()	3 Oct 1924
5:53:43	Arthur Newton ()	13 Nov 1924
5:53:42	Hardy Ballington (Durban AC, RSA)	22 May 1937
5:52:22	Derek E. Reynolds (Blackheath H.)	27 Sep 1952	52 miles, 565 yards
5:29:40	Wally Hayward (Germiston Callies, RSA)	26 Sep 1953	52 miles, 565 yards
5:27:24	Tom Richards (South London H.)	24 Sep 1955	52 miles, 565 yards
5:26:20	Gerald Walsh (Durban AC, RSA)	28 Sep 1957	52 miles, 875 yards
5:25:56	Jackie Mekler (Germiston Callies, RSA)	24 Sep 1960	52 miles, 875 yards
5:21:45	David Levick (Witwatersrand Un., RSA)	26 Sep 1971	52 miles, 1,172 yards
5:11:02	Alastair J. Wood (Aberdeen AC)	1 Oct 1972	52 miles, 1,172 yards
5:13:02	Donald Ritchie (Forres H.)	1 Oct 1978	53 miles, 854 yards
5:15:15	Ian Thompson (Luton United AC)	28 Sep 1980	54 miles, 459 yards

List of winners of the London to Brighton walk

The London to Brighton walk was a long distance walking race held on public roads from Westminster Bridge over the river Thames in London, England, to Brighton on the south coast. The route went through Croydon, Redhill, Crawley, Hickstead and Dale Hill, and finished at the Aquarium on the sea front at Brighton. The actual distance varied over the years as new roads were built, and existing roads were altered, but the programme for one race in 1897 advertised the distance as 51 miles 1,320 yards (83.2km).

The first race was held in 1872, between two men. In April 1886 South London Harriers and Ealing Harriers organised a race for their club members. In April 1897 Polytechnic Harriers organised an open amateur walking race with generous prizes that had thirty-seven starters. In 1903 there were at least ten races from London to Brighton but many of these were never held again and from 1919 there were just two events being held regularly. Surrey Walking Club organised an open race held usually in September each year, and the Stock Exchange Athletic Club held a race for their own members each May. The first woman to cover the distance was 16-year-old Lilian Salkeld in 1922, and that same year there was a race for blind ex-servicemen, residents at St Dunstan's Hospice, in Brighton. From 1902 there was also a walk from London to Brighton and back. This was held at infrequent intervals until 1967 when it was decided that the roads were too busy for it to be safe to continue to hold this event on public roads. The Surrey Open walk continued until 1984, and the Stock Exchange walk was last held in their centenary year, 2003.

Edward Knott of South London Harriers was the first man to finish in less than nine hours. Harold Whitlock of the Metropolitan Walking Club was the first man under eight hours, and the men's record was set in 1957 by Donald Thompson (Metropolitan WC). The women's record is held by Sandra Brown of Surrey Walking Club. the record for the walk to Brighton and back was set by Billy Baker (Queen's Park H.) in 1926.

Winners of the London to Brighton Walk

Date	Athlete	Time h:mm:ss	Promotor	Source
10 Apr 1886	J.A. McIntosh (Compton Cricket Club)	9:25:08	South London H. & Ealing H.
4 Aug 1895	W. Franks (professional)	9:07:07	wager
10 Apr 1897	Edward Knott (South London H.)	8:56:44	Polytechnic Harriers
7 Mar 1903	F.B. Thompson (Ranelagh H.)	9:40:14	Ranelagh H. Club Walk
14 Mar 1903	John Butler (Surrey WC)	8:43:16	Hairdressers AC
1 May 1903	Edgar F. Broad	9:30:01	Stock Exchange
6 Jun 1903	Harry F. Otway (Herne Hill H.)	9:21:01	Metropolitan Meat Market
14 Jun 1903	A. Church (Locomotive)	10:42:00	London & South West Railways
4 Jul 1903	George C. Toplis (Kentish Town)	8:55:23	Evening News (professional)
11 Jul 1903	C. Furby (Kentish Town)	9:55:00	Evening News (amateur)
18 Jul 1903	G. Holmes	9:51:20	Evening News (amateur)
9 Apr 1904	Thomas E. Hammond (Blackheath H.)	8:26:57	Ranelagh H. & Blackheath H.
1 May 1904	F.W. Ward & F. Few dead heat	10:22:32	Newspaper Trades Association
4 Jun 1904	J. Jaggers	9:46:50	Metropolitan Meat Market
7 May 1905	F.W. Ward	10:12:30	Newspaper Trades Association
2 Sep 1905	Ernest H. Neville (Surrey WC)	9:47:52	Surrey Walking Club
22 Sep 1906	John Butler (Surrey WC)	8:23:27	Polytechnic Harriers
29 Sep 1907	A. Hubbard (Surrey WC)	8:51:00	Surrey Walking Club
17 Oct 1908	H.E. Lang (Surrey WC)	9:30:36	Surrey Walking Club
1 May 1909	Thomas E. Hammond (Blackheath H.)	8:18:18	Surrey Walking Club
4 Sep 1909	Harold V.L. Ross (Tooting AC)	8:11:14	Polytechnic Harriers
24 Sep 1910	Sidney C. Schofield (Surrey WC)	8:26:58	Surrey Walking Club
29 Oct 1910	Thomas P. Fox (Vegetarian AC)	8:56:44	Vegetarian Athletic Club
29 Jul 1911	A.R. Edwards (Lancashire WC)	9:24:01	Electrical Trades Association
30 Sep 1911	Tommy Payne (North Shields Polytechnic)	8:20:06	Polytechnic H. & Surrey WC
1 May 1912	Thomas E. Hammond	8:44:10	Stock Exchange
14 Sep 1912	Edgar C. Horton (Surrey WC)	8:40:20	Surrey WC & Middlesex AC
27 Sep 1913	Edgar C. Horton (Surrey WC)	8:36:08	Polytechnic H. & Surrey WC
18 Oct 1913	A.T. Gardiner (London News Agency)	10:22:40	London News Agencies
1 May 1914	Harry E. Shattock	8:59:26	Stock Exchange
13 Sep 1919	Tommy Payne (Yorkshire WC)	8:38:23	Surrey Walking Club
1 May 1920	Harold B.S. Rhodes	9:37:52	Stock Exchange
25 Sep 1920	Tommy Payne (Yorkshire WC)	8:21:33	Surrey Walking Club
30 Apr 1921	Harold B.S. Rhodes	9:16:23	Stock Exchange
8 Oct 1921	Donato Pavesi (Molinari Sports Club, ITA)	8:37:27	Surrey Walking Club
29 Apr 1922	Harold B.S. Rhodes	9:13:55	Stock Exchange
23 Sep 1922	Edgar C. Horton (Surrey WC)	8:27:12	Surrey Walking Club
21 Oct 1922	F.M. Cassidy (Middlesex Regt.)	10:45:34	St Dunstan's Hospice
28 Apr 1923	H. St G. Taylor	9:28:35	Stock Exchange
15 Sep 1923	Frederick W. Poynton (Leicester H.)	8:35:37	Surrey Walking Club
6 Oct 1923	W. Birch (1st Life Guards)	10:33:02	St Dunstan's Hospice
3 May 1924	H.J. Grimwade	9:25:46	Stock Exchange
13 Sep 1924	W.F. "Billy" Baker (Queen's Park H.)	8:40:51	Surrey Walking Club
4 Oct 1924	Jack Ingram (Seaforth Highlanders)	10:32:25	St Dunstan's Hospice
1 May 1925	Stanley M. Ayles	8:51:52	Stock Exchange
12 Sep 1925	W.F. "Billy" Baker (Queen's Park H.)	8:16:16	Surrey Walking Club
26 Sep 1925	Jack Ingram (Seaforth Highlanders)	9:57:20	St Dunstan's Hospice
1 May 1926	Stanley M. Ayles	8:51:25	Stock Exchange
5 Jun 1926	Jack Ingram (Seaforth Highlanders)	10:01:55	St Dunstan's Hospice
11 Sep 1926	W.F. "Billy" Baker (Queen's Park H.)	8:39:39	Surrey Walking Club
30 Apr 1927	Stanley M. Ayles	8:44:15	Stock Exchange
10 Sep 1927	Carlo Giani (Italy)	8:18:33	Surrey Walking Club
28 Apr 1928	William F. Bascombe	9:24:45	Stock Exchange
8 Sep 1928	W.F. "Billy" Baker (Queen's Park H.)	8:32:39	Surrey Walking Club
27 Apr 1929	Thomas D. Mullins	9:08:39	Stock Exchange
14 Sep 1929	Thomas W. Green (Belgrave H.)	8:15:41	Surrey Walking Club
3 May 1930	Sydney H. Schlesinger	9:00:15	Stock Exchange
12 Sep 1930	Thomas W. Green (Belgrave H.)	8:02:55	Surrey Walking Club
1 May 1931	Harold A. Hake	9:04:32	Stock Exchange
12 Sep 1931	Thomas W. Green (Belgrave H.)	8:05:43	Surrey Walking Club
30 Apr 1932	Lawrence J. Hollyer	8:52:50	Stock Exchange
10 Sep 1932	John H. Ludlow (Derby WC)	8:01:06	Surrey Walking Club
1 May 1933	Lawrence J. Hollyer	8:58:13	Stock Exchange
9 Sep 1933	Thomas W. Green (Belgrave H.)	8:01:19	Surrey Walking Club
1 May 1934	Harold A. Hake	8:42:33	Stock Exchange
8 Sep 1934	Harold H. Whitlock (Metropolitan WC)	8:17:23	Surrey Walking Club
27 Apr 1935	Harold A. Hake	8:53:13	Stock Exchange
7 Sep 1935	Harold H. Whitlock (Metropolitan WC)	7:53:50	Surrey Walking Club
2 May 1936	Stanley R. D'Arcy	9:11:34	Stock Exchange
5 Sep 1936	Harold H. Whitlock (Metropolitan WC)	8:01:25	Surrey Walking Club
1 May 1937	Harold A. Hake	8:44:44	Stock Exchange
4 Sep 1937	Harold H. Whitlock (Metropolitan WC)	8:02:38	Surrey Walking Club
30 Apr 1938	Harold A. Hake	8:36:14	Stock Exchange
3 Sep 1938	Tommy W. Richardson (Woodford Green AC)	8:08:01	Surrey Walking Club
6 May 1939	E.H. Johnson (Surrey WC)	8:56:06	Stock Exchange
14 Sep 1946	Harry J. Forbes (Birmingham WC)	8:20:12	Surrey Walking Club
3 May 1947	E.H. Johnson (Surrey WC)	9:26:07	Stock Exchange
6 Sep 1947	George B.R. Whitlock (Metropolitan WC)	8:21:51	Surrey Walking Club
1 May 1948	E.H. Johnson (Surrey WC)	9:03:42	Stock Exchange
11 Sep 1948	George B.R. Whitlock (Metropolitan WC)	8:14:29	Surrey Walking Club
30 Apr 1949	Donald A. Tunbridge (Highgate H.)	9:12:23	Stock Exchange
10 Sep 1949	Charles Megnin (Highgate H.)	8:34:31	Surrey Walking Club
29 Apr 1950	W.G. Lawrence	9:28:58	Stock Exchange
9 Sep 1950	George B.R. Whitlock (Metropolitan WC)	8:19:13	Surrey Walking Club
5 May 1951	L.H. Griffiths (Insurance AA)	9:18:05	Stock Exchange
8 Sep 1951	George B.R. Whitlock (Metropolitan WC)	8:14:36	Surrey Walking Club
24 May 1952	Harold Rhodes	9:17:32	Stock Exchange
13 Sep 1952	Vic W.G. Stone (Polytechnic AC)	8:25:35	Surrey Walking Club
16 May 1953	Donald A. Tunbridge (Highgate H.)	8:38:18	Stock Exchange
12 Sep 1953	Wilfrid T. Cowley (Surrey WC)	8:20:38	Surrey Walking Club
22 May 1954	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	9:01:33	Stock Exchange
11 Sep 1954	Norman Guilmant (Belgrave H.)	8:20:44	Surrey Walking Club
21 May 1955	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	8:42:34	Stock Exchange
7 Sep 1955	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan WC)	8:06:24	Surrey Walking Club
26 May 1956	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	8:47:35	Stock Exchange
8 Sep 1956	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan WC)	7:45:32	Surrey Walking Club
18 May 1957	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	8:54:36	Stock Exchange
14 Sep 1957	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan WC)	7:35:12	Surrey Walking Club
17 May 1958	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	8:48:43	Stock Exchange
13 Sep 1958	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan WC)	7:49:57	Surrey Walking Club
30 May 1959	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	8:33:34	Stock Exchange
12 Sep 1959	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan WC)	7:35:28	Surrey Walking Club
21 May 1960	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	8:29:26	Stock Exchange
17 Sep 1960	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan WC)	7:37:42	Surrey Walking Club
27 May 1961	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	8:33:53	Stock Exchange
9 Sep 1961	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan WC)	7:39:57	Surrey Walking Club
26 May 1962	Ray C. Hall (Belgrave H.)	7:58:33	Stock Exchange
7 Sep 1962	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan WC)	7:49:58	Surrey Walking Club
25 May 1963	Ken J. W. Mason (Surrey WC)	8:16:41	Stock Exchange
7 Sep 1963	Dennis Read (Steyning AC)	8:06:58	Surrey Walking Club
23 May 1964	Ken J. W. Mason (Surrey WC)	8:26:04	Stock Exchange
5 Sep 1964	George G. Hazle (Germiston Calles, RSA)	8:25:20	Surrey Walking Club
22 May 1965	Ken J. W. Mason (Surrey WC)	8:21:22	Stock Exchange
3 Sep 1965	Abdon Pamich (Italy)	7:37:42	Surrey Walking Club
21 May 1966	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	8:39:44	Stock Exchange
3 Sep 1966	Ken W. Mason (Surrey WC)	8:21:37	Surrey Walking Club
20 May 1967	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	8:59:47	Stock Exchange
2 Sep 1967	Donald J. Thompson (Metropolitan WC)	7:55:12	Surrey Walking Club
1 Jun 1968	Sidney G. Pearson	9:50:12	Stock Exchange
7 Sep 1968	Brian Eley (Bristol WC)	8:00:50	Surrey Walking Club
17 May 1969	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	9:12:02	Stock Exchange
6 Sep 1969	Brian Eley (Bristol WC)	8:02:09	Surrey Walking Club
16 May 1970	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	8:54:22	Stock Exchange
5 Sep 1970	Shaul Ladany (Israel)	7:46:37	Surrey Walking Club
22 May 1971	Ken G. Tuson	9:04:32	Stock Exchange
4 Sep 1971	Shaul Ladany (Israel)	7:57:17	Surrey Walking Club
20 May 1972	Richard E. Green (Surrey WC)	9:05:17	Stock Exchange
9 Sep 1972	Peter Selby (Surrey WC)	8:13:47	Surrey Walking Club
19 May 1973	John B.B. Nye	8:29:16	Stock Exchange
1 Sep 1973	Shaul Ladany (Israel)	7:57:27	Surrey Walking Club
18 May 1974	John B.B. Nye	8:24:29	Stock Exchange
7 Sep 1974	Ray Middleton (Belgrave H.)	8:17:50	Surrey Walking Club
17 May 1975	David J. Stevens (Steyning AC)	8:43:15	Stock Exchange
5 Sep 1975	Ray Middleton (Belgrave H.)	8:10:27	Surrey Walking Club
22 May 1976	Adrian H. James (Borough of Enfield H.)	8:18:12	Stock Exchange
4 Sep 1976	Peter Hodgkinson (Cambridge H.)	8:06:13	Surrey Walking Club
28 May 1977	Adrian H. James (Borough of Enfield H.)	8:38:06	Stock Exchange
3 Sep 1977	John Lees (Brighton & Hove AC)	7:54:32	Surrey Walking Club
20 May 1978	Adrian H. James (Borough of Enfield H.)	8:05:24	Stock Exchange
2 Sep 1978	Shaun Lightman (Metropolitan WC)	8:06:39	Surrey Walking Club
19 May 1979	Roger J. Lancefield (Surrey WC)	8:34:21	Stock Exchange
1 Sep 1979	Ian Richards (Coventry Godiva H.)	8:08:22	Surrey Walking Club
17 May 1980	Roger J. Lancefield (Surrey WC)	8:21:55	Stock Exchange
6 Sep 1980	Peter Selby (Surrey WC)	8:21:35	Surrey Walking Club
16 May 1981	S. C. Davis	9:14:02	Stock Exchange
5 Sep 1981	Carl Lawton (Belgrave H.)	8:20:51	Surrey Walking Club
15 May 1982	D. Railton	9:58:09	Stock Exchange
4 Sep 1982	John Warhurst (Sheffield WC)	8:24:04	Surrey Walking Club
14 May 1983	David G. Jarman (Surrey WC)	7:59:07	Stock Exchange
3 Sep 1983	Peter Hodgkinson (Cambridge H.)	8:28:17	Surrey Walking Club
12 May 1984	K. D. Rodrigues	9:08:19	Stock Exchange
1 Sep 1984	Brian Adams (Leicester WC)	8:37:30	Surrey Walking Club
1 Jun 1985	Adrian H. James (Borough of Enfield H.)	7:55:27	Stock Exchange
31 May 1986	Paul J. Jarman (Surrey WC)	9:13:14	Stock Exchange
30 May 1987	Adrian H. James (Borough of Enfield H.)	8:28:18	Stock Exchange
21 May 1988	R. Attfield	9:40:02	Stock Exchange
20 May 1989	Paul G. King (Belgrave H.)	9:51:43	Stock Exchange
19 May 1990	J. M. Harris-St John	9:51:40	Stock Exchange
19 May 1991	J. M. Harris-St John	9:34:14	Stock Exchange
6 Jun 1992	R. Best	10:21:07	Stock Exchange
22 May 1993	J. M. Harris-St John	9:59:06	Stock Exchange
21 May 1994	Paul G. King (Belgrave H.)	9:22:44	Stock Exchange
20 May 1995	Paul G. King (Belgrave H.)	9:18:16	Stock Exchange
18 May 1996	Paul G. King (Belgrave H.)	9:23:16	Stock Exchange
17 May 1997	Paul G. King (Belgrave H.)	10:17:39	Stock Exchange
16 May 1998	J. M. Harris-St John	10:08:00	Stock Exchange
15 May 1999	Ian Statter (Surrey WC)	9:30:13	Stock Exchange (Open)
15 May 1999	Paul G. King (Belgrave H.)	9:40:01	Stock Exchange
20 May 2000	Ian Statter (Surrey WC)	9:15:12	Stock Exchange (Open)
20 May 2000	Paul G. King (Belgrave H.)	9:39:34	Stock Exchange
19 May 2001	Ian Statter (Surrey WC)	9:29:21	Stock Exchange (Open)
19 May 2001	Paul G. King (Belgrave H.)	9:35:33	Stock Exchange
17 May 2003	Mark Easton (Surrey WC)	8:16:15	Stock Exchange (Open)
17 May 2003	Paul G. King (Belgrave H.)	9:15:27	Stock Exchange

Winners of the London to Brighton And Back Walk

Date	Athlete (affiliation)	Time h:mm:ss
12 Sep 1803	Captain Robertson (South Gloucester Militia)	21:20:00
20 Mar 1868	Benjamin B. Trench (Oxford Un.)	23:00:00
1 Nov 1902	John Butler (Polytechnic H.)	21:36:27
7 Nov 1903	H.W. Horton (Surrey WC)	20:31:53
22 Jun 1907	Thomas E. Hammond (Blackheath H.)	18:13:37
15 Jul 1911	T.E. Bartlett (Surrey WC)	1:37:30
31 Aug 1912	Arthur C. St Norman (Surrey WC, RSA)	21:18:45
7 Jun 1913	Harold B.S. Rhodes (Stock Exchange AC)	20:53:22
25 Oct 1913	James E. Burwash (Surrey WC)	23:45:02
18 Jul 1914	Edgar F. Broad (Surrey WC)	19:57:50
25 Jun 1921	Edgar C. Horton (Surrey WC)	19:50:41
19 Jun 1926	W.F. "Billy" Baker (Queens Park H.)	18:05:51
22 Jun 1929	W.F. "Billy" Baker (Queens Park H.)	18:38:08
24 Jun 1933	Dan Gum (Essex Beagles)	18:53:07
19 Jun 1937	Jonnie F.L. Henderson (Sussex WC)	18:37:40
21 Jun 1947	Stan E. Horton (Surrey WC)	18:56:20
7 Jul 1951	A.J. "Jack" Stirling-Wakeley (Belgrave H.)	18:46:00
2 Jul 1955	Hew D. Neilson (Woodford Green AC)	18:26:27
4 Jul 1959	Frank O'Reilly (Lozells H.)	18:56:28
6 Jul 1963	Frank O'Reilly (Lozells H.)	18:43:53
24 Jun 1967	Gerd Nickel (Hamburg SP, FRG)	20:46:51

List of winners of the London to Brighton road race

The London to Brighton road race was a long distance run held on public roads from Westminster Bridge over the river Thames in London, England, to Brighton on the south coast. The route went through Croydon, Redhill, Crawley, Hickstead and Dale Hill, and finished at the Aquarium on the sea front at Brighton with both the start and finish being at sea level. The actual distance varied over the years as new roads were built, and existing roads were altered, but one event in 1924 was 51 miles, 1,607 yards (83.5 km), a much later iteration of the course in use from 1991 was 55 miles (88.5 km) and from 1957 it was always more than twice as long as a marathon.

The first race was held in 1837, between two professional pedestrians. In May 1899 South London Harriers organised an open race that tempted nineteen men to try the route. In 1903 the Evening News offered generous prizes and over ninety men raced to Brighton, but there were no further attempts for over twenty years. In both 1924 and 1937 men trained on the very similar Comrades marathon in South Africa came to England to successfully challenge the record. In 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain, Surbiton Town sports club organised a race, and the following year the Road Runners Club was founded and turned it into an annual race. The first woman to cover the distance, Dale Greig of Tannahill Harriers, arrived in Brighton in 1972. An unofficial women's race was held in 1979 and from 1980 women officially had their own race.

In 1921 Surrey Athletic Club tried out a 10-stage relay run to Brighton and in 1924 this became an annual race sponsored by the News of the World that attracted the best clubs in the country until 1966 when the sponsor withdrew. As the volume and speed of traffic on the roads increased it gradually became unsafe to hold the event on public roads, and it also became more difficult to recruit appropriate numbers of volunteer marshals and so the event was last held in 2005.

In 1972 Alastair Wood of Aberdeen became the first man to cover the route at an average speed of more than 10 miles per hour (16.0 kmh), crossing the finishing line in the lowest recorded time of 5 h 11 min 2 s, but since the route varied the lowest time may not necessarily be the best performance. The best men's performance is 5 h 15 min 15 s for 54 miles 460 yards (87.3 km) by Ian Thompson of Luton United AC in 1980, and the best performance by a woman was 6 h 34 min 10 s by Carolyn Hunter-Rowe in 1993 over the longest version of the course when it measured 55 miles (88.5 km).

Winners of the London to Brighton Road Race (Men)

Date	Athlete (Affiliation)	Time h:mm:ss	Distance	Source
30 Jan 1837	John Townsend (pedestrian)	8:37:00
6 May 1899	Frederick D. Randall (Finchley H.)	6:58:18
20 Jun 1903	Leonard Hurst (professional)	6:34:50
3 Oct 1924	Arthur Newton	6:11:04	51 miles 1,607 yards (83.5 km)
13 Nov 1924	Arthur Newton	5:53:43	51 miles 1,607 yards (83.5 km)
22 May 1937	Hardy Ballington (Durban AC, RSA)	5:53:42	51 miles 1,737 yards (83.7 km)
18 Aug 1951	Lewis E. Piper (Blackheath H.)	6:18:40	52 miles 566 yards (84.2 km)
27 Sep 1952	Derek E. Reynolds (Blackheath H.)	5:52:22	52 miles 566 yards (84.2 km)
26 Sep 1953	Wally Hayward (Germiston Callies H., RSA)	5:29:40	52 miles 566 yards (84.2 km)
25 Sep 1954	William H. Kelly (Reading AC)	5:39:46	52 miles 566 yards (84.2 km)
24 Sep 1955	Tom Richards (South London H.)	5:27:24	52 miles 566 yards (84.2 km)
29 Sep 1956	Ron F. Hopcroft (Thames Valley H.)	5:36:25	52 miles 566 yards (84.2 km)
28 Sep 1957	Gerald Walsh (Durban AC, RSA)	5:26:20	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
27 Sep 1958	Mike I. Kirkwood (Haltemprice)	5:47:44	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
26 Sep 1959	Fritz Madel (Durban AC, RSA)	5:43:58	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
24 Sep 1960	Jackie Mekler (Germiston Callies H., RSA)	5:25:56	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
30 Sep 1961	John C. Smith (Epsom & Ewell H.)	5:37:43	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
29 Sep 1962	John C. Smith (Epsom & Ewell H.)	5:35:22	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
28 Sep 1963	Bernard Gomersall (Leeds Harehills)	5:47:55	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
26 Sep 1964	Bernard Gomersall (Leeds Harehills)	5:39:44	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
25 Sep 1965	Bernard Gomersall (Leeds Harehills)	5:40:11	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
24 Sep 1966	Bernard Gomersall (Leeds Harehills)	5:32:50	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
8 Oct 1967	John Tarrant (Salford H.)	5:41:50	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
29 Sep 1968	John Tarrant (Salford H.)	5:37:27	52 miles 876 yards (84.5 km)
28 Sep 1969	Dave Bagshaw (Savages AC, RSA)	5:28:35	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)
27 Sep 1970	Joseph Clare (Blackheath H. & Royal Navy)	5:41:08	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)
26 Sep 1971	David Levick (Witwatersrand Un., RSA)	5:21:45	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)
1 Oct 1972	Alastair J. Wood (Aberdeen AC)	5:11:02	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)
30 Sep 1973	Joe Keating (Ealing & Southall AC)	5:11:30	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)
29 Sep 1974	John V. Newsome (Wakefield H. & AC)	5:16:07	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)
28 Sep 1975	Cavin Woodward (Leamington C. & AC)	5:12:07	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)
26 Sep 1976	Thomas P. O'Reilly (Small Heath H.)	5:23:32	52 miles 1,568 yards (85.1 km)
25 Sep 1977	Donald Ritchie (Forres H.)	5:16:05	52 miles 1,568 yards (85.1 km)
1 Oct 1978	Donald Ritchie (Forres H.)	5:13:02	53 miles 856 yards (86.1 km)
30 Sep 1979	Allan Kirik (Central Park Track Club, USA)	5:32:37	54 miles 460 yards (87.3 km)
28 Sep 1980	Ian Thompson (Luton United AC)	5:15:15	54 miles 460 yards (87.3 km)
27 Sep 1981	Bruce Fordyce (Witwatersrand Un., RSA)	5:21:15	53 miles 856 yards (86.1 km)
26 Sep 1982	Bruce Fordyce (Witwatersrand Un., RSA)	5:18:36	53 miles 856 yards (86.1 km)
25 Sep 1983	Bruce Fordyce (Witwatersrand Un., RSA)	5:12:32	53 miles 1,082 yards (86.3 km)
7 Oct 1984	Barry Heath (Royal Marines)	5:24:15	53 miles 540 yards (85.8 km)
6 Oct 1985	Hoseah Tjale (Johannesburg H., RSA)	5:31:26	53 miles 540 yards (85.8 km)
5 Oct 1986	Terry Tullett (Brighton & Hove AC)	5:53:10	53 miles 540 yards (85.8 km)
4 Oct 1987	Peter Sugden (Reading AC)	5:36:59	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)
9 Oct 1988	Mark Pickard (Epsom & Ewell H.)	6:06:25	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)
8 Oct 1989	Erik Seedhouse (City of Hull AC)	5:24:48	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)
7 Oct 1990	David Beattie (Crawley AC)	5:54:32	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)
6 Oct 1991	David Kelly (Barrow AC)	6:13:56	55 miles (88.5 km)
4 Oct 1992	Stephen Moore (Hertford & Ware AC)	6:01:09	55 miles (88.5 km)
3 Oct 1993	Stephen Moore (Hertford & Ware AC)	6:07:22	55 miles (88.5 km)
2 Oct 1994	Shaun Meiklejohn (Collegian H., RSA)	6:01:02	55 miles (88.5 km)
1 Oct 1995	Sarel Ackermann (Verwoerdburg Marathon Club, RSA)	5:55:49	55 miles (88.5 km)
6 Oct 1996	Greg Dell (Woodstock Harriers)	6:00:59	55 miles (88.5 km)
5 Oct 1997	Stephen Moore (Hertford & Ware AC)	6:05:32	55 miles (88.5 km)
4 Oct 1998	Colin Thomas (Liberty Life Reebok AC, RSA)	6:02:17	55 miles (88.5 km)
3 Oct 1999	Stephen Moore (Hertford & Ware AC)	6:02:45	55 miles (88.5 km)
1 Oct 2000	Sarel Ackermann (Verwoerdburg Marathon Club, RSA)	5:56:50	55 miles (88.5 km)
7 Oct 2001	Andriy Kotsybka (Sport Club Parus, UKR)	6:42:13	55 miles (88.5 km)
6 Oct 2002	Brian Hennessey (Crawley AC)	6:00:57	54 miles 194 yards (87.1 km)
5 Oct 2003	Brian Hennessey (Crawley AC)	6:24:04	54 miles 194 yards (87.1 km)
3 Oct 2004	Brian Hennessey (Crawley AC)	6:13:59	54 miles 194 yards (87.1 km)
2 Oct 2005	Johannes Oosthuizen (Liberty Life Nike AC, RSA)	5:50:30	54 miles 194 yards (87.1 km)

Winners of the London to Brighton Road Race (Women)

Date	Athlete (Affiliation)	Time h:mm:ss	Distance	Source
1 Oct 1972	Dale Greig (Tannahill Harriers)	8:30:04	52 miles 1,172 yards (84.8 km)
30 Sep 1979	Leslie Watson (London Olympiades AC)	6:55:11	54 miles 460 yards (87.3 km)
28 Sep 1980	Leslie Watson (London Olympiades AC)	6:56:10	54 miles 460 yards (87.3 km)
27 Sep 1981	Lynn Fitzgerald (Highgate Harriers)	7:47:28	53 miles 856 yards (86.1 km)
26 Sep 1982	Ann Franklin (Mynyddwr de Cymru)	7:01:51	53 miles 856 yards (86.1 km)
25 Sep 1983	Ann Franklin (Mynyddwr de Cymru)	6:37:08	53 miles 1,082 yards (86.3 km)
6 Oct 1985	Sandra Kiddy (Palm Springs, USA)	7:02:37	53 miles 540 yards (85.8 km)
5 Oct 1986	Eleanor Robinson (Sutton-in-Ashfield AC)	6:42:40	53 miles 540 yards (85.8 km)
4 Oct 1987	Hilary Johnson (Harborough AC)	7:15:40	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)
9 Oct 1988	Hilary Walker (Serpentine RC)	7:07:48	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)
8 Oct 1989	Hilary Walker (Serpentine RC)	6:43:22	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)
7 Oct 1990	Hilary Walker (Serpentine RC)	6:51:24	53 miles 495 yards (85.7 km)
6 Oct 1991	Carolyn Hunter-Rowe (Pudsey & Bramley AC)	7:18:09	55 miles (88.5 km)
4 Oct 1992	Dalene Vermeulen (Ceres AC, RSA)	7:54:55	55 miles (88.5 km)
3 Oct 1993	Carolyn Hunter-Rowe (Pudsey & Bramley AC)	6:34:10	55 miles (88.5 km)
2 Oct 1994	Jackie Leak (Chiltern Harriers)	7:06:22	55 miles (88.5 km)
1 Oct 1995	Lesley Turner (Rowheath Harriers)	7:11:39	55 miles (88.5 km)
6 Oct 1996	Hilary Walker (Serpentine RC)	7:40:13	55 miles (88.5 km)
5 Oct 1997	Rae Bisschoff (Rocky Road Runners, RSA)	7:05:56	55 miles (88.5 km)
4 Oct 1998	Ina Sanders (Rand Athletic Club, RSA)	7:02:26	55 miles (88.5 km)
3 Oct 1999	Hilary Walker (Serpentine RC)	7:42:29	55 miles (88.5 km)
1 Oct 2000	Danielle Sanderson (Watford Harriers)	7:07:12	55 miles (88.5 km)
7 Oct 2001	Elizabeth Neville (Epsom Allsorts)	8:42:03	55 miles (88.5 km)
6 Oct 2002	Michelle Stewart (Edgemead Runners, RSA)	7:25:07	54 miles 194 yards (87.1 km)
5 Oct 2003	Ellen McCurtin (Millrose AAC, USA)	7:02:27	54 miles 194 yards (87.1 km)
3 Oct 2004	Vicky Skelton (North Devon Road Runners)	7:20:43	54 miles 194 yards (87.1 km)
2 Oct 2005	Vicky Skelton (North Devon Road Runners)	7:17:10	54 miles 194 yards (87.1 km)

Winners of News of the World London to Brighton Relay

Date	Winning Club	Time h:mm:ss
5 Jan 1924	Surrey AC	4:50:00
18 Apr 1925	Birchfield H.	4:50:52
10 Apr 1926	Birchfield H.	4:45:34
9 Apr 1927	Hallamshire H.	4:41:17
14 Apr 1928	Birchfield H.	4:41:49
6 Apr 1929	Hallamshire H.	4:48:37
12 Apr 1930	Birchfield H.	4:47:29
11 Apr 1931	Birchfield H.	4:48:58
16 Apr 1932	Salford H.	4:39:52
15 Apr 1933	Salford H.	4:45:30
14 Apr 1934	Belgrave H.	4:49:55
13 Apr 1935	Belgrave H.	4:49:59
25 Apr 1936	Belgrave H.	4:37:55
13 Apr 1937	Mitcham AC	3:52:05
7 May 1938	Mitcham AC	3:48:29
10 Apr 1939	Mitcham AC	3:54:19
19 Apr 1947	Belgrave H.	4:03:19
10 Apr 1948	Belgrave H.	3:57:29
2 Apr 1949	Belgrave H.	3:57:35
7 Apr 1951	Belgrave H.	3:53:38
5 Apr 1952	Birchfield H.	3:54:55
11 Apr 1953	Thames Valley H.	3:52:16
10 Apr 1954	South London H.	4:31:37
16 Apr 1955	South London H.	4:29:19
14 Apr 1956	South London H.	4:29:33
13 Apr 1957	South London H.	4:25:51
12 Apr 1958	Thames Valley H.	4:29:13
11 Apr 1959	Derby & County AC	4:40:21
9 Apr 1960	Derby & County AC	4:33:18
8 Apr 1961	Derby & County AC	4:29:15
14 Apr 1962	Derby & County AC	4:23:42
6 Apr 1963	Coventry Godiva H.	4:26:15
4 Apr 1964	Coventry Godiva H.	4:19:34
10 Apr 1965	Coventry Godiva H.	4:26:11

steeplechase in other media

Since the event began there has been a debate as to whether athletes should train as hurdlers who can run a long way, or as middle-distance runners who can also hurdle. Technical books and training guides tend to include the steeplechase in amongst the other middle-distance events and there are to date no books specifically about the steeplechase. There is at least one film about a steeplechaser, Paan Singh Tomar was a soldier in the Indian army and was seven times national steeplechase champion, then he did something, different. There is also a song Hey There Delilah by American pop rock band the Plain White T's about American steelechaser Delilah DiCrescenzo.

External links

National Union of Track Statisticians [27]

Horsebread

The making and selling of horse bread was controlled by law. In 1389 an act of parliament, The Statute of Victuallers and Hostellers (13 Richard II c. 8.) specified that hostelers and inn keepers were not permitted to make horse bread for sale, but that it could only be made by certified bakers, and that the weight and price of loaves should be, "Reasonable after the price of Corn in the Market." No punishment was specified for offenders, but in 1402 under king Henry IV (4 Henry IV c. 25.) the fine was set at three times the value of the bread sold.

In 1540 under king Henry VIII (32 Henry VIII c. 41) these terms were amended so that any hosteller or inn keeper in a town where there had been no baker for seven years was permitted to make horse bread for sale as long as the price was reasonable, according as the price of the graynes of corn that now is. And this was confirmed in 1623 by a further act under king James I, An Acte Concerning Hostlers or Inholders (21 James 1. c. 21) where justices of the peace were given authority to set the fine as they saw fit.

Firearms Legislation in England

The concept of legislating the use and ownership of weapons goes back at least as far as 1285 (13 Edward I) when the teaching or practice of fencing with a buckler was banned in the City of London. In 1305 the Statue of Arms stipulated the weapons that could be carried or used at a tournament of knights. This stated that not even a knight could bring a pointed sword, and his attendants were not permitted to wear or have a dagger. Throwing spears were banned in 1383 (7 Richard II c. 13.), and in 1388 servants, apprentices, and labourers were banned from wearing a sword in public except in time of war (12 Richard II c. 6.). A statute of 1511 (3 Henry VIII c. 3.) banned foreigners from having or using a longbow in England, and also banned them from taking bows or arrows out of the country.

The first legislation to specifically mention firearms was 6 Henry VIII c. 13 (1514) that prohibited the use of hand guns by anyone who did not own land with an income of at least forty marks per year. The same rule also applied to crossbows. There was an exception if you lived on a ship, or within seven miles of the sea, or, "upon any of the English Marches foranenst Scotland," when you were allowed to use a gun or crossbow to defend your home or the town. In 1522 the value of the land you had to hold was amended to £100 sterling (14 Henry VIII c. 7.), and these rules were repeated in 1533 (25 Henry VIII c. 17.).

In 1534, as a result of dissent within Wales to King Henry VIII proclaiming himself head of the Church of England, it was made illegal for any Welsh man or anyone in Wales to take a weapon of any sort, "any bill, longebowe, crosbowe, handgon, swerde, staffe, daggare, halberde, morespike, speare, or any other maner of weapon," to any public assembly, fair, market, church, or meeting, or within two miles of any court (26 Henry VIII c. 6.).

By 1541 the increased variety of hand held firearms required new legislation and it was then made illegal to own any, "handgun hagbutt or demy hake, or use or kepe in his or their houses or elsewhere any handgun hagbut or demy hake," unless you owned land worth more than £100 sterling. These weapons were required to be at least three feet long (91.4 cm), unless they were a "hagbutt or demyhake," when the minimum length was three-quarters of a yard (68 cm). In addition, these weapons could be used only for firing at a bank of earth, a butt, or a mark, and not for shooting game (33 Henry VIII. c. 6.).

An act of 1548 (II Edward VI c. 14.) stipulated that no one less than a Lord could fire a handgun within any town or city, that hayleshot, or any other form of shot that delivered more than one pellet at a time, was banned entirely, and that anyone wishing to fire a handgun had to register with the Justice of the Peace first. The purpose of this was given as that the king might know where in the country armed men were to be found should he need them for any purpose. This is not yet gun licensing, but owner registration.

A statute of 1558 (4-5 Philip & Mary I c. 2.), when England was at war with both Scotland and France, stipulated that everyone with property, including "anye Honoures Lordeshipes Manours Houses Landes Meadowes Pastires or Wooddes," over certain thresholds had to provide specific numbers of horses, armour and weapons, including hagbutts, "for the better furniture and defence of this Realme." Every one worth more than £1,000 sterling had to have six horses suitable for knights in armour, complete with saddle and harness, ten more horses for light cavalry, forty sets of armour, forty pikes, thirty longbows, thirty sheaves of arrows, thirty metal helmets, twenty halberds, twenty hagbutts, and twenty salets. Men with lesser amounts of property were required to provided fewer weapons, so that a man whose property was valued at £20 sterling had to provide one set of armour, one longbow with one sheaf of arrows, one steel helmet, and one hagbutt. There is no mention of whether or not these men had to be registered, but anyone living in Wales was excused finding a hagbutt, and had to replace each weapon with a longbow and sheaf of arrows. Furthermore, these hagbutts were to be used only in accordance with the existing statute (33 Henry VIII. c. 6.) and could not be carried on the public highway unless going to or from a muster or to war.

References

Category:1864 establishments in England Category:Annual events in London Category:Athletics competitions in England Category:Recurring sporting events established in 1864 Category:Sport at the University of Oxford Category:Sport at the University of Cambridge Category:Sports competitions in London