A play about a former miner turned boat inventor and rower is to hit the stage in Hexham.

"Hadaway Harry" a one-man show starring top North East actor Jamie Brown, as Harry Clasper, a former miner turned boat inventor and rower from Dunston is to be on at Hexham Queen's Hall Arts Centre on Friday, June 17 at 7:30pm.

Audiences will experience the story behind the rower and see that the title of the play 'Hadaway Harry' is from the common call for Clasper from his vast army of supporters as he raced the best rowers in the world.

The play comes from the South Shields-based Von Fox Promotions (VFP), who have produced Hadaway Harry for the current tour that has seen sell out performances at Northern Stage (Newcastle) and near-capacity crowds at Alnwick Playhouse and The Exchange in North Shields.

Richard Flood of VFP said: "The response has been incredible with standing ovations and prolonged applause. We recorded people coming out of the North Shields performance and the most popular words to describe the show were "incredible", "brilliant" and fantastic".

"Harry actually invented the thin boats we see in the Olympics and the Oxbridge boat race. He led his brothers to victory on the Thames in London in 1845 to secure the first world championship title for the Tynesmen.

"It was a fantastic occasion. Charles Dickens was a big fan of the Geordie teams and wrote about the stylish Tyne rowers. Harry went on to lead teams to win seven world titles and even trained a world champion in Walker-lad Robert Chambers."

"The Geordie Anthem The Blaydon Races was first performed by Geordie Ridley at Clasper's testimonial in 1862 at Balmbra's Music Hall in Newcastle, and such was Harry's rarefied status more that 130,000 people lined the route of his funeral cortege to pay their last respects.

"Hadaway Harry is very emotional. Like every true champion Harry had to overcome huge setbacks, including the death of his brother, a fellow team member.

"Audiences go on an emotional roller coaster throughout the show which recaptures an important part of Geordie history that has largely been forgotten."