On 5 June 1862, a 27-year-old music hall performer named George "Geordie" Ridley stood on stage at Balmbra's Music Hall in Newcastle and sang a comic song about a trip to the races. One hundred and sixty years later, that same song remains one of the most recognisable pieces of English regional folk music. It made Blaydon known far beyond the banks of the River Tyne.
The Man Who Wrote the Song
George Ridley was born on 10 February 1835 in Gateshead, the son of Matthew Ridley and Frances Stephenson. His early life followed a familiar pattern for working-class children in Victorian Tyneside. At about age eight, he began work as a trapper-boy at Oakwellgate Colliery. He later spent three years as a waggon-rider at Messrs Hawks, Crawshay and Company, a heavy engineering firm in Gateshead.
A crushing accident at Hawks, Crawshay left Ridley unfit for manual labour. This injury, devastating at the time, proved to be the turning point that launched his performing career. He made his professional debut at the Grainger Music Hall in Newcastle, where he introduced his first local song, "Joey Jones". His talent for writing comic material in the Geordie dialect soon found a home at the Wheatsheaf Music Hall, known locally as Balmbra's, in Newcastle's Cloth Market.
Ridley's life was cut short; he died at his residence in Grahamsley Street, Gateshead, on 9 September 1864, aged just 30. He was buried at St Edmund's Cemetery. Today, a blue plaque on the William IV Public House on High Street, Gateshead, marks a site where he once lived. In a curious footnote to history, his great-great-nephew is Eric Burdon, lead singer of The Animals.
The First Performance
The song that would define Ridley's legacy received its premiere at a testimonial concert for oarsman John H. Clasper at Balmbra's Music Hall on 5 June 1862. Ridley wrote the lyrics in Geordie dialect, setting them to the tune "Brighton", adapted from the American minstrel song "On the Road to Brighton" by Lon Morris (1858).
Four days later, on 9 June 1862, Ridley performed an expanded version at Whickham Mechanics' Institute in Blaydon, adding the now-famous final verse. That same date, 9 June 1862, is the day described in the song's opening lines: "Aa went to Blaydon Races, 'twas on the ninth of Joon, / Eiteen hundred an' sixty-two, on a summer's efternoon."
The song describes a fictional bus journey from Newcastle to Blaydon. Contemporary reports from the Newcastle Daily Chronicle confirm that heavy rain did indeed fall on that date, and the song's reference to missing horses ("the cuddy") reflected genuine transport difficulties of the day.
The Real Blaydon Races
The song's popularity has sometimes overshadowed the actual event it celebrated. Horse races at Blaydon had existed for decades, but the original course had been cut by the construction of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. The races were revived in 1860 after a hiatus of more than twenty years.
In 1862, the races took place on Dent's Meadows, an island in the River Tyne just north of Blaydon. The event was more than a horse race; it was a major Tyneside fair featuring spice stalls, monkey shows, acrobats, and big tops. This carnival atmosphere was captured in William Irving's 1903 painting The Blaydon Races: A Study from Life, which now hangs in the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead.
The races moved to a new course at Stella Haughs in 1889 and continued until their dramatic end on 1–2 September 1916. The final meeting descended into chaos when rioting broke out following the disqualification of the favourite, "Anxious Moments". The second day was abandoned, and the Blaydon Races were never held again.
A Geographical Journey in Verse
Part of the song's enduring appeal lies in its concrete sense of place. The lyrics function as a guided tour of the route from Newcastle to Blaydon, naming specific landmarks that remain familiar today.
The journey begins in Newcastle's Bigg Market and proceeds along Scotswood Road, the main thoroughfare running parallel to the River Tyne. The song passes Armstrong's factory at Elswick, the large engineering works established in 1847, and the village of Paradise to its west. It references the "Robin Adair" pub on Scotswood Road, named after the popular song, which stood until its demolition in December 1965.
The narrator crosses the Chain Bridge, properly known as Scotswood Bridge, which opened on 12 May 1831. Tolls were removed on 18 March 1907, and the original bridge was replaced by the present structure on 20 March 1967. The song also mentions the Newcastle Dispensary, founded in 1777, and the Newcastle Infirmary, opened in 1753 and replaced by the Royal Victoria Infirmary in 1906.
In Blaydon itself, the song immortalises two local characters: "Jackie Broon", the town crier whose bell, inscribed "Blaydon" and dated 1861, now resides in the Discovery Museum in Newcastle; and "Coffy Johnny", the 6½-foot-tall ex-blacksmith John Oliver (1828–1900) from Winlaton, famous for wearing a white top hat to the races.
From Local Song to National Anthem
The song's reach extended far beyond the music halls of Tyneside. It became a staple at sporting events, particularly football matches involving Newcastle United. Supporters sang it repeatedly at the 1974 FA Cup final. It was also adopted by Newcastle Red Bulls rugby club and Durham County Cricket Club.
Military units embraced the tune as well. The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (5th Foot) used it as a march, as did the Durham Light Infantry. The tradition continues with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers today.
The song has been recorded numerous times. In 2009, Jimmy Nail, Kevin Whately, and Tim Healy, the stars of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, recorded a charity version for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, adding an extra verse about the football manager. The tune even found its way to Hollywood, appearing in the 2013 film The Lone Ranger as "On the Road to Brighton".
The Living Tradition: Blaydon Today
Blaydon, now part of the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, sits on the south bank of the River Tyne, approximately four miles west of Newcastle. With a population of 15,155 according to the 2011 census, it remains a distinct community with a strong sense of identity rooted in its industrial past and musical heritage.
The song's legacy is most visibly celebrated in the annual Blaydon Race, founded in 1981 by Dr James Dewar of Blaydon Harriers. This 5.8-mile athletics race from Newcastle to Blaydon takes place every 9 June, the anniversary of the original song. The event begins with a mass singing of "Blaydon Races" in Newcastle's Bigg Market. Runners then follow a route that retraces the journey described in the lyrics, along Scotswood Road to the finish in Blaydon.
Since 2023, the race has begun with the ringing of the original 1861 Blaydon Bell, the same bell once carried by town crier Jackie Broon. The bell is brought from the Discovery Museum for the occasion, and the start is signalled by the Lord Mayor of Newcastle. The 2019 race attracted 4,700 entries. The men's course record stands at 25:16, set by K. Forster, while Jill Hunter holds the women's record at 28:03.
The Blaydon Festival, held annually during race week, features music, sport, and arts events throughout the town. Major anniversaries have prompted significant celebrations. The centenary in 1962 saw a £21,000 budget from Newcastle Corporation and a procession on 9 June retracing the song's journey, attended by Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell. The 150th anniversary in 2012 included the naming of a Class 91 locomotive "Blaydon Races" at Newcastle railway station, with former footballer Alan Shearer in attendance, and a parliamentary petition presented by Chi Onwurah MP.
Blaydon's Place in Tyneside History
The town offers more than its musical claim to fame. Local landmarks include Axwell Hall, a Grade II* listed building designed by James Paine and completed in 1761; Stella Hall, demolished in 1955; and Shibdon Pond, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The area's industrial heritage is evident at Blaydon Burn and in the landscape shaped by coal mining and brickworks.
Yet it is Ridley's song that has given Blaydon its place in the wider cultural consciousness. Of the 19 songs he is known to have written, 16 survive, most concerning local people and events. None achieved the reach of "Blaydon Races". A comic song about a wet day at the races, written in dialect by an injured factory worker who would die two years later, has become the unofficial anthem of a region.
What began as a music hall performance in 1862 continues to echo through the streets of Blaydon each June, as thousands of runners and singers mark a day that exists now more in cultural memory than in historical record. The races themselves ended in 1916. The song endures.