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We are all celebrating the return of Hereford after a 4 year gap, but what was the last former course to make a return. I know that, technically it was Chelmsford City, although it was previously Great Leighs, while Ffos Las is a brand new course. Those aside, does anyone know which of the current 85 (now 86 !!) courses was the most recent to make a comeback having closed? Does anyone know of a good book or good website (Wiki apart) on former racecourses?
In response to your closing question, the obvious answer is the excellent A Long Time Gone by Chris Pitt, published in 2006 (ISBN 978-1901570622)
As for the first question, pass.
I’m pretty sure there are a good fewer than 86 Rules courses in circulation at present – with Hereford’s return to business, isn’t the figure nearer 60?
That aside, the answer to your question will depend a lot about the definition of closed. Yarmouth, Southwell and Wolverhampton would be recent examples of courses closed for many months on end whilst remedial work has been carried out on their respective surfaces; whilst Ascot’s own works required Royal Ascot to be transferred to York in 2005.
The intention in all cases, however, was for the course in question to reopen – whether that’s always been the intention with Hereford may depend on which of its stakeholders you ask!
Technically you could count whichever of the current courses that returned after being closed during World War II, although the likes of Ripon, Newmarket, Windsor, Musselburgh and the since-defunct Hurst Park did apparently offer something in the way of continuity for the sport throughout the years of conflict.
Counting Point-to-Point courses would bring a few other possible candidates into the equation. The former Rules courses at Clifton-on-Dunsmore (aka Rugby), Buckfastleigh, Lanark, Lincoln, Bogside all saw further use as Pointing venues some time after Rules activity had ceased, although only the first two named are still used for action between the flags at the time of writing this.
You can additionally decide whether you’d want to consider Pointing courses that are resurrected years after closure, in which case Mollington a few years ago and Lower Machen at the start of this century would be the most recent examples. There will be another one this coming Pointing season, however, as a Pointing line at Revesby Park in Lincolnshire is set to be used for the first time since the mid-late 1970s.
Not sure if this helps or hinders!
Either way, the book you really need to take a look at for all things defunct racecourse-wise is A Long Time Gone by Chris Pitt. It’s already been released a couple of times, with the paperback version greatly expanding on the already splendid original.gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Thanks for both replies, particularly the very detailed one from graysonscolumn. I hadn’t realised that my question was so complex and ambiguous. The 85 courses I was referring are the Uk and Irish courses; I appreciate in England/Scotland/Wales there are now 59, with a further 26 under rules in Ireland.
Thanks for the tip on Chris Pitt’s Book, which I believe was written in 1996.Was Laytown “shut” for a few years for safety improvements after an unfortunate accident in the 90s?
No problem at all, Dashingcustomer. The Pitt book was indeed originally written in the mid-1990s, but the 2006 paperback edition (still a sizezable tome) adds plenty extra.
Another title you might like is Insane and Unseemly, written by John Saville and published in 2009. The publisher’s own blurb describes it thus: “A comprehensive account of how and why horse racing was able to continue throughout the Second World War, despite repeated controversy over its doing so. Insane and Unseemly is based on extensive, original research into Home Office and Jockey Club papers and first-hand recollections of staff from three leading stables”.
Most bibliographic aggregation sites such as OCLC Worldcat, incidentally, give Saville as having died in 2009. It would undoubtedly come as a shock to the author to learn that he’s actually dead, considering I still bump into him at one or more Point-to-Points in the Midlands each year.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Uttoxeter is a tenuous selection.
In 1945, following the end of WWII, some racecourses never re-opened but the vast majority did. However of those, Uttoxeter didn’t re-open until 1952. I believe there was a problem concerning ownership of the land. Anyway, excluding wartime, the course was closed for 7 years before resuming operations.
Questions like this would be much simpler if there were no wars and we all just loved each other.
As a side note, there was a Chelmsford racecourse at Galleywood long time past so ‘Chelmsford’ has had two past racecourses close down on them
Total for the UK is now 61 with Hereford reopening. 34 covered by RUK and 27 by ATR.
It’s great that Hereford has reopened. There was good coverage of the new era in the Racing Post.
The rise of the phoenix from the ashes seems to owe its new lease of life to a change of personnel at ARC and a more benign approach to supposed racecourse assets. It’s the most unlikely comeback since Lazarus and very good news as far as I’m concerned.
The omens appear to be good from the enthusiastic welcome that the reopening has been given.
It’s a shame that there will be no comeback for sister course Folkestone but that was always a much more unpopular and less well supported course.
My visits there were always very enjoyable but the Kent course seems, from the Racing Post update, to be being used as a dumping ground for equipment being used by workmen busy on housing projects nearby.
It’s a shame to see these courses go but I remember being reminded on this forum years ago that sentiment has no place when it is hard-headed business acumen that is needed to run racecourses profitably.
I still regret never getting to Teesside Park before it closed in 1981, especially as I had been to nearby Sedgefield several times by then.
I remember hearing about the closure in a cursory one-sentence mention on a Radio 2 sports desk bulletin. I also remember when it was announced that Lanark was closing.
A scheme to reopen Lincoln quite a few years ago, for point-to-points, I seem to remember, came to nothing.
Thanks for the reply; I still make it only 60 outside of Ireland; are you including Folkestone?
Thanks for the really heart-felt response. You clearly know your stuff and still pine for the likes of Lincoln, Teesside Park and possibly even Lewes (which still has a very good following). I even know of some people who continue to miss Rothbury and Bogside.
Chris Pitt’s excellent book, written 20 years ago, covers all of these.
Does anyone know of any other books on the subject?Thanks for the reply; I still make it only 60 outside of Ireland; are you including Folkestone?
A lot of purists insist quite rightly on counting Newmarket as two courses, the July course and the Rowley Mile, for official counts of the number of racecourses, rather than just the name of the town.
Not surprising when they have completely separate courses and grandstands.
This could be the reason why you say there are 60 courses but others say 61.
I fell foul of this many years ago when I originally completed my tour of visiting every racecourse in the country.
I was proudly celebrating visiting every course until it was pointed out to me that I had only visited the July Course and not the Rowley Mile. I hastily corrected this and scheduled a visit to the Rowley Mile to rectify the glaringly obvious accounting error.
Thanks for the clarification. I guess pundits fall into two camps, the purists and the basic noncomformists. Although both Chris Pitt, in his book ‘A Long Time Gone’, and I are unorthodox in most people’s eyes, we will now be ‘working towards’ purist status by trying to count Newmarket twice. It is much appreciated that you have pointed this out.
A scheme to reopen Lincoln quite a few years ago, for point-to-points, I seem to remember, came to nothing.
Although a venue for Points on and off since Rules racing ceased at the Carholme, the local council in its various political hues has had something of an antagonistic relationship with the sport.
That Pointing finished there for the final time in (I think) the early 1990s owed everything to the council permitting its continuation only on the understanding that the meetings made no mention of hunting, had neither hounds present nor huntsmen on horseback, and so on and soforth. The hunts hosting the meetings there duly picked up their proverbial ball and went home with it instead.
All attempts to resurrect Pointing there since then have foundered on the council’s insistence that the A57 which runs between the course and the grandstand simply couldn’t be closed for the duration of the meeting on account of the traffic chaos it would cause. A specious argument, considering the A57 was definitely already there when Pointing took place previously, and for all I know – someone can confirm – was also there for much of the course’s latter years as a Rules venue.
Most of the hunts primarily associated with Pointing at the Carholme are currently absent from the fixture list. The Burton and the Blankney raced at North Carlton – just north of the city on the Lincolnshire Showground, as charmless a venue as you’ll ever encounter in any mode of racing – until that venue drew stumps on racing in 2014, and there had been some use made of a Pointing line on the inside of Market Rasen’s jumps track before that. I think the Grove & Rufford used the Carholme on occasion, too, but I’d have to check the old Annuals to be certain – either way, they’ve not hosted a Point since the 2012 renewal of their fixture on the Welbeck estate, home until her death of Lady Anne Bentinck (of Strath Royal fame).
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
<p abp=”390″>Thanks for the reply; I still make it only 60 outside of Ireland; are you including Folkestone?
Yes, quite right I did mistakenly include it.
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