Today is the first day of the Henley Royal Regatta.
Henley Regatta was first held in 1839 and has been held annually ever since, except during the two World Wars. Originally staged by the Mayor and people of Henley as a public attraction with a fair and other amusements, the emphasis rapidly changed so that competitive amateur rowing became its main purpose.
The traditional length of the Course is 1 mile 550 yards (2,112 metres),
which was the longest distance of open water that could be obtained in 1839 on the Henley Reach.
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Ladies and Gentleman have been arriving in their finery over the last day or two and the masses have now arrived filling our small town of Henley on Thames with a swathe of Striped jackets, boater hats and flowing hemlines.
Groups of extremely tall men parade the streets, rowing teams from all over the globe. Henley on Thames is currently a hive of activity with different languages filling the air.
Today there will be over 80 races which go on all day from 9am until the early evening with the obligatory lunch and tea breaks of course.
There are teams from all the top colleges in the UK, Oxford and Cambridge and such like. We also have teams from the USA Ivy League colleges including Harvard and Princeton and even a Team from Mitsubishi Japan.
There are enclosures lining the Thames where the Hoi Polloi sip Champagne or Pimms and have wonderful Michelin class meals at the various pop up Restaurants.
The Henley Regatta has a strict dress code with women having to wear dresses which must under no circumstances be above the knee. I must confess one year my dress was slightly risqué and just on the knee, I was refused entrance and had to go and change, very embarrassing!
Men wear their finest blazers and boater hats and there is not exception even in the rare hot summer weather here in England.
The first two days of the Regatta are all about the rowing but this all changes come the weekend when the throngs descend from all over the country for a jolly. No one will be paying attention to the rowers just the bars. So my pictures over this time will be somewhat different. The "dark" side of the Regatta!
