billbabylon

CANTERBURY Canterbury Crusaders disbanded in 1987 after Wally Mawdsley (Speedway) Promotions Ltd failed to get permission from Canterbury City Council for speedway to continue at the site. Wally Mawdsley turned instead to greyhound racing which continued at the stadium until 1999. It was also adopted, unofficially at first, as the site of Canterbury's Sunday boot fair. Canterbury City Football Club continued to use the stadium for home games until the start of the 2001/2 season, when they too disbanded. The Council, always having an eye for the quick buck, transferred the boot fair to somewhere 'more suitable' and the stadium, never really in the best state of repair even in its heyday, rapidly fell into disrepair and was eventually bulldozed into oblivion. There was much discussion and public debate about what should happen to the derelict site but, much to the non-surprise of residents (and especially former speedway-goers), planning permission was eventually granted for the erection of 184 houses and apartments. The developer, Berkeley Homes, named the new development 'Kingsbrook Park'. At the time of writing the building work is virtually complete. Many fans, including myself, wrongly harbored suspicions that Wally Mawdsley had sold us out for a shot at promoting greyhound racing, which we somehow assumed must be more lucrative. It's doubtful that this was actually the case and all the documentation points to Mr Mawdsley having campaigned to keep speedway (a) in Canterbury, and ( at Kingsmead. You know how it is, when you lose something important in your life you have to find someone to blame. It won't mean much to him now of course because he died in February, but I'm sorry for all the negative thoughts we all had towards him for all those years. We got it wrong and nobody ever took much trouble to put us right. Here's a few links, some interesting and some heartbreaking: http://www.canterbury.gov.uk/kingsmead http://www.kingsbrookpark.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1 http://www.british-speedway.co.uk/news.php?extend.2444.1