Blaydon Races returns with new route for first time since 2019

The Blaydon Races will return today (9 June) for the first time since 2019.

As the song goes, thousands of runners will be 'gannin’n alang' the Scotswood Road this afternoon for the 40th anniversary race, which is a sell-out event.

Its return comes after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic and this year runners will be following a new course, starting on the Newcastle Quayside rather than the usual spot on Collingwood Street.

The race will then follow the river to the Newcastle Business Park and lead onto the Scotswood Road.

Racers will cross over the Scotswood Bridge and head towards the Metrocentre before turning back on themselves towards Blaydon and finishing on the Shibdon Road playing fields.

The annual 6-mile race will welcome 4,700 participants for a 7:15pm start later today.

It even got a mention in the House of Commons this morning.

The event is based on a Geordie folk song which documents an eventful coach ride from Newcastle to the Blaydon Races on 9 June 1862.

The folk song goes...

“Ah went to Blaydon Races, ‘twas on the ninth of Joon,In eighteen hundred an’ sixty-two, on a summer’s efternoon.Away we went alang Collingwood Street, that’s on the road to Blaydon.Ah me lads, ye shudda seen us gannin’,We pass’d the foaks upon the road just as they wor stannin’.Thor wes lots o’ lads an’ lasses there, all wi’ smiling faces,Gannin alang the Scotswood Road, to see the Blaydon Races.”