Tracks That Seemingly Never Were

[HertsRacer]

I've been looking at some old newspaper items and have come across some names of proposed tracks which never seemed to have materialised. Does anybody know anything about them, eg where they were situated and why they never happened?

 

1, One of the original named members of the new 3rd Division in 1947 was Feltham.

 

2. A year later amongst the applications for preliminary licenses were Charlton, Cheltenham, Worksop, Romford, Braintree, Brighton, Stainforth, Nottingham, Stepps (Lanarkshire) and Kings Lynn.

 

I think Stepps was used as a training track, and Charlton would have been at the old greyhound stadium, but I'm not aware of this or any of the others ever staging speedway.

 

[daveallan81]

A wee bit of info regarding Stepps http://www.hiddenglasgow.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=7547

[customhouseregular]

Romford staged speedway at the old Brooklands track c. 1970.

 

I believe Braintree refers to the Essex Showground where speedway was planned but came to nowt.

 

I'm sure Nottingham staged speedway in the city but certainly outside at Long Eaton.

 

Kings Lynn have been staging speedway for c. 50 years.

[HertsRacer]

Thanks Customhouseregular,

What I actually meant (re-reading my post I probably didn't make myself clear) was that they didn't go on to stage speedway at the time.

Never missed a meeting at Romford during their existence at Brooklands, but was the 1948 application for speedway to be held there or somewhere else. Also was Kings Lynn at the current venue or somewhere else?

Thanks for the info re Braintree.

[Alan_Jones]

According to HoBS;

 

Charlton - A midget car meeting was held at The Valley in 1948.

Cheltenham - Not mentioned.

Worksop - Not mentioned.

Romford - Nothing mentioned before 1969.

Braintree - Nothing before the 1982 Towerlands tests.

Brighton - Only Hove Stadium in 1928 & the much later Brighton Centre.

Stainforth - Only Station Road Stadium in 1930.

Nottingham - The reintroduction of speedway to Long Eaton Stadium in 1949 was refused a licence with a different promotion successful in 1950.

Stepps - Refused a licence at the Trotting Stadium in 1948 & 1949. Midget cars tested in 1952 & ran in 1953 while speedway was again turned down.

Kings Lynn - Only mention before 1965 is of a few meetings on a grass & sand track at the stadium in 1952/3.

 

More local knowledge may bring up results under different names.

[customhouseregular]

According to HoBS;

 

Charlton - A midget car meeting was held at The Valley in 1948.

Cheltenham - Not mentioned.

Worksop - Not mentioned.

Romford - Nothing mentioned before 1969.

Braintree - Nothing before the 1982 Towerlands tests.

Brighton - Only Hove Stadium in 1928 & the much later Brighton Centre.

Stainforth - Only Station Road Stadium in 1930.

Nottingham - The reintroduction of speedway to Long Eaton Stadium in 1949 was refused a licence with a different promotion successful in 1950.

Stepps - Refused a licence at the Trotting Stadium in 1948 & 1949. Midget cars tested in 1952 & ran in 1953 while speedway was again turned down.

Kings Lynn - Only mention before 1965 is of a few meetings on a grass & sand track at the stadium in 1952/3.

 

More local knowledge may bring up results under different names.

Someone's done his research

[HertsRacer]

Thanks Alan,

I would have loved to have seen the midget car meeting at The Valley. Have been there hundreds of times supporting Charlton Athletic and can't imagine how they would have possibly built a track there. Would have been a wonderful place to view speedway though when they had the huge terracing, and would have been second only to Wembley capacity wise.

[norbold]

An application to run speedway at Charlton Greyhound Stadium was first proposed in 1938 and again in 1948 but on both occasions applications for a licence were turned down by the ACU. In 1965 another attempt was made by Wally Mawdsley, Pete Lansdale and Len Silver to enter a team in the newly formed British League. Charlton Stadium was owned by London Stadiums Ltd and they were looking for someone to take over the stadium as greyhound racing had just ceased.

 

Silver was confident that a Charlton team would be operating in the 1966 British League on Thursday evenings and even signed up the South African, Denis Newton, for the team as well as making several enquiries for other South African and Australian riders.

 

He said that he intended to go to the BSPA Conference and 'name our team which will substantiate our claim for a place in the British League.' He added that the stadium was one of the finest in the country with seating for 2000 spectators and covered accommodation for a further 4000. The track was 300 yards long with wide well-banked corners and short straights.

 

In the end the application came to nothing as London Stadiums Ltd found another greyhound promoter to take over the stadium instead.

 

In October 1961, the Speedway Star reported that a 'mystery man' with £10,000 backing had offered to promote speedway at Brooklands. The secretary of the football club, Herbert Muskett, said that the 'prospects of speedway racing here are virtually nil. A track would ruin the football pitch. We can never have both at Romford.' When it was pointed out to him by Dave Lanning that football and speedway ran at other stadiums without any problems, Mr Muskett replied, 'My board will improve this stadium when necessary.' The idea was subsequently dropped.

 

An application to run meetings at Brighton (Hove Stadium) was turned down by the local council in 1947 as were further request in 1948, 1965 and 1966. In the summer of 1976, Bob Dugard confirmed that he had opened negotiations with the stadium to bring speedway back to Brighton. The local council gave provisional approval for speedway as long as they could be satisfied that restrictions over noise levels could be met.

 

Dugard asked Sussex University to help him come up with a satisfactory answer to the noise problem but they were unable to and in August 1977, Brighton Council finally refused permission for speedway to take place at the stadium and that was the end of that.

Edited July 13, 2015 by norbold

[iris123]

There was another rumour of speedway starting at Charlton in the 70s.Was this attempt at the Valley?

[Guest]

There was another rumour of speedway starting at Charlton in the 70s.Was this attempt at the Valley?

Midget car racing 1948 at Charlton gets a mention in this Link as does the old 1930s speedway at Stamford Bridge and there's also comment on London's Walthamstow Stadium. It all happened when a USA team visited London.

http://forums.autosport.com/topic/124703-american-midget-car-races-in-london-1948/

[iris123]

Midget car racing 1948 at Charlton gets a mention in this Link as does the old 1930s speedway at Stamford Bridge and there's also comment on London's Walthamstow Stadium. It all happened when a USA team visited London.

http://forums.autosport.com/topic/124703-american-midget-car-races-in-london-1948/

Midget car racing in 1948 doesn't really help me with my question about speedway in the 70s though,does it?

[HertsRacer]

There was another rumour of speedway starting at Charlton in the 70s.Was this attempt at the Valley?

Going to Charlton for football at the time, I don't remember any stories of speedway being planned to be staged there. As the pitch was right up against the terraces, it would have been impossible to build a track there. Even by taking up/relaying the grass it would have been far too small.

I remember the greyhound stadium just down the road still standing in the 70's, and I think it was unused at the time. I do seem to remember a story of speedway being planned there before the owner suddenly decided to sell to developers.

[lucifer sam]

Rochester Bombers became Romford Bombers before they ever rode a home meeting.

 

All the best

Rob

[daveallan81]

Here's an excellent piece from a 1978 King's Lynn programme entitled 'East Anglia's other speedways'. I was just going to post the KL related part here, but it's such a good article that I've typed it out in full.

 

Take a look https://www.dropbox.com/s/fj7kcofef0yrr90/1978%20East%20Anglia%27s%20other%20speedways.pdf?dl=0

[Guest]

Midget car racing 1948 at Charlton gets a mention in this Link as does the old 1930s speedway at Stamford Bridge and there's also comment on London's Walthamstow Stadium. It all happened when a USA team visited London.

http://forums.autosport.com/topic/124703-american-midget-car-races-in-london-1948/

 

 

Midget car racing in 1948 doesn't really help me with my question about speedway in the 70s though,does it?

 

I must apologise to you for upsetting your trend in this debate. Most remiss of me. However, I mainly drew attention to these happenings in response to Post 5 from Alan Jones where a reference to midget cars at Charlton The Valley in 1948 was made.

According to HoBS;

 

Charlton - A midget car meeting was held at The Valley in 1948.

Cheltenham - Not mentioned.

Worksop - Not mentioned.

Romford - Nothing mentioned before 1969.

Braintree - Nothing before the 1982 Towerlands tests.

Brighton - Only Hove Stadium in 1928 & the much later Brighton Centre.

Stainforth - Only Station Road Stadium in 1930.

Nottingham - The reintroduction of speedway to Long Eaton Stadium in 1949 was refused a licence with a different promotion successful in 1950.

Stepps - Refused a licence at the Trotting Stadium in 1948 & 1949. Midget cars tested in 1952 & ran in 1953 while speedway was again turned down.

Kings Lynn - Only mention before 1965 is of a few meetings on a grass & sand track at the stadium in 1952/3.

 

More local knowledge may bring up results under different names.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Guest

[Guest compost]

On a slight digression, I seem to remember that back in the early 1970's you could still see the outline of the old speedway track at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge.

 

Does anyone know when the track was finally removed and was there any effort made to revive the sport at the venue after 1934 (after speedway finished the track was used by greyhounds for a while) ?

[Guest]

On a slight digression, I seem to remember that back in the early 1970's you could still see the outline of the old speedway track at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge.

 

Does anyone know when the track was finally removed and was there any effort made to revive the sport at the venue after 1934 (after speedway finished the track was used by greyhounds for a while) ?

The touring USA midget car team was based briefly at Stamford Bridge in 1948 - attracted a reported 50,000 crowd for their first meeting. Speedway never seem to be considered for the venue after the 1932 closure. Greyhounds were staged at Stamford Bridge for many years not just "for a while".

 

http://www.greyhoundracinghistory.co.uk/stamfordbridge.pdf

Edited July 14, 2015 by Guest