Rochester speedway

[racers and royals]

I came across information on this Kent track by accident. The stadium staged some Speedway in 1931 and 32 and in 1969  a demonstration was put on to try and allow racing again at the venue. In fact the team rode 2 away matches before being denied permission to use the venue and ended up at Romford.

Did anyone attend those council demonstrations ?       http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/Rochester.htm

[norbold]

Meetings were held at Rochester with a few trial meetings at the end of 1931. Two more were held in 1932, on 1 and 9 August. Lea Bridge's Alf Foulds won the Chatham Scratch Race.

Pete Lansdale and Wally Mawdsley looked to revive speedway at Rochester in 1969 and built a 340 yard track. A demonstration race was held for the local Council on 14 March which was won by Martyn Piddock from Reg Luckhurst, Judd Drew and Ron Stewart. On 25 March, Rochester Council gave permission for a one-year trial period.

Rochester then raced their first fixture, away at Ipswich on 17 April, followed by a second at Long Eaton.

Following this meeting, Kent County Council overturned Rochester's approval and Lansdale and Mawdsley submitted an appeal, but thought it prudent to look for another home for the Bombers. As their office was in Romford, they spoke to the owners of Brooklands Stadium and reached agreement with them to stage speedway there. Before finally moving to Romford, they raced two more fixtures as Rochester (so four altogether), but then on 29 May, Romford opened and that was the end of Rochester.

Edited May 8, 2020 by norbold

[salty]

http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/Rochester.htm

Scrolling down to the bottom of that page there is a front cover of the Canterbury programme with a bottle of sherry to the lucky patrons who are circled. In front of the gent who is circled is that Carl Glover?

[steve roberts]

5 minutes ago, salty said:

http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/Rochester.htm

Scrolling down to the bottom of that page there is a front cover of the Canterbury programme with a bottle of sherry to the lucky patrons who are circled. In front of the gent who is circled is that Carl Glover?

Well spotted...I think that you are correct!

[iris123]

21 hours ago, norbold said:

Meetings were held at Rochester with a few trial meetings at the end of 1931. Two more were held in 1932, on 1 and 9 August. Lea Bridge's Alf Foulds won the Chatham Scratch Race.

Pete Lansdale and Wally Mawdsley looked to revive speedway at Rochester in 1969 and built a 340 yard track. A demonstration race was held for the local Council on 14 March which was won by Martyn Piddock from Reg Luckhurst, Judd Drew and Ron Stewart. On 25 March, Rochester Council gave permission for a one-year trial period.

Rochester then raced their first fixture, away at Ipswich on 17 April, followed by a second at Long Eaton.

Following this meeting, Kent County Council overturned Rochester's approval and Lansdale and Mawdsley submitted an appeal, but thought it prudent to look for another home for the Bombers. As their office was in Romford, they spoke to the owners of Brooklands Stadium and reached agreement with them to stage speedway there. Before finally moving to Romford, they raced two more fixtures as Rochester (so four altogether), but then on 29 May, Romford opened and that was the end of Rochester.

Scandalous from the council to overturn that decision. Do you know if the promoters got any compensation for their track work ?

[Guest]

The block on a Rochester revival appears to have been made by Kent County Council rather than the local council. At least that's the impression I get from reading  the preceding posts.

[iris123]

That is right, but I imagine after that initial track building they then built some sort of stadium around it on the basis they had a years license. Were they then too keen and went ahead without going through the proper procedures or did Kent overstep the norm ? Surely they then had grounds for compensation for the work done ?

[norbold]

1 hour ago, iris123 said:

That is right, but I imagine after that initial track building they then built some sort of stadium around it on the basis they had a years license. Were they then too keen and went ahead without going through the proper procedures or did Kent overstep the norm ? Surely they then had grounds for compensation for the work done ?

I'm not sure what the proper procedure was. It depends on who had the authority to grant approval in such matter. If the procedure at the time was that an application like the one Lansdale and Mawdsley submitted had to be approved by the County Council, then the District Council's approval would have in effect been a recommendation to the County Council that the application be approved, in which case, they should have waited until the County Council's final approval before starting work and if they started before receiving final approval than it's their own fault and can't be compensated.

If the District Council had the authority to grant the approval, then, yes, you could be right, but I wouldn't have thought that was the position if the County Council overruled the District Council's approval.

[salty]

2 hours ago, iris123 said:

That is right, but I imagine after that initial track building they then built some sort of stadium around it on the basis they had a years license. Were they then too keen and went ahead without going through the proper procedures or did Kent overstep the norm ? Surely they then had grounds for compensation for the work done ?

The stadium was already there, being used for Greyhounds - see pic on defunct site.