1908 London Olympic Gold Medal at Muncaster Castle
Last updated at 16:57, Tuesday, 31 July 2012
AN OLYMPIC gold medal from one of Britain’s greatest ever Olympians is now on display at Muncaster Castle in the Lake District.
Swimmer Henry Taylor, from Oldham, won 3 Gold medals at the 1908 London Olympics – a feat that wasn’t matched for 100 years until Sir Chris Hoy won 3 Golds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The 1908 Olympic Games were originally awarded to Rome, but were subsequently moved to London. The destruction of Naples by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906 meant all available funds were diverted to help rebuild the city, so a new venue was sought, with London winning ahead of the other original candidates Berlin and Milan
The medal is on loan to Muncaster from Henry’s granddaughter Ann Foster who works at the Castle.
Henry won Gold medals in the 400m and 1500m freestyle and the 4 x 200m freestyle relay.
To find out more about events at Muncaster visit www.muncaster.co.uk
First published at 11:49, Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
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Very interested to read about Henry Taylors medal. As the current president of Chadderton Amateur Swimming club and as custodian of other mementoes from Henry's brilliant career I will make sure that I go to Muncaster to at last see one of his medals.When our new pool was opened in Chadderton in 2009 we made sure that it was named after Henry and we maintain a display of items from Henry,s past in the pool area. In oldham there is currently a display at Gallery Oldham which pays respect to Henry and has the silver Trophy he won at the 1906 intercalated Games in Greece on show. The club always trys to make sure that our new generation of swimmers understand Henrys achievements.I also currently have on loan Three 1908 olympic certificates and many Morecambe Bay and ASA champion certificates. i would love to meet with Mr Foster and his daughter so I could get more information from them and pehaps let them see some of the mementoes.I will be on holiday in ambleside during the last week of August and will visit Muncaster then.
Posted by Duncan Prince on 8 August 2012 at 00:30