Royal Chester Rowing Club - Chester | UK Rowing Clubs | Row HQ

Royal Chester Rowing Club is based at The Groves on the River Dee in Chester. It has a full range of squads, coaches, a large club fleet and beginner programmes, with more than ten kilometres of navigable rowing water.

Chester Victoria Rowing Club was formally organised at Chester Castle on 27 May 1838. Royal patronage followed in 1840 and the club adopted the Royal Chester Rowing Club name. In 1856 it became the first eight from northern England to compete at Henley.

The club runs adult Learn to Row courses and a junior summer programme for boys and girls aged 12 to 16, teaching safety, boats and equipment, sculling and coxing. Senior, development, junior and masters routes support both social and competitive rowing.

Richard Stanhope began at Royal Chester with wins on the Dee in 1976, then won Olympic silver for Britain in 1980 and competed at three further Olympics, eight World Championships and eight winning Henley campaigns.

The senior men's squad won the provincial Jackson Trophy at the Head of the River Race in 2023 and 2024 and reached the Britannia Challenge Cup final at Henley in 2024. The senior women have qualified multiple Henley Women's Regatta crews and reached club-event finals.

Royal Chester is one of six volunteer clubs that jointly host Chester Regatta. The event's history reaches back to 1733, while the current regatta offers head-to-head racing on the Dee. The club is also a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation serving social and competitive rowers in Chester.