Chris Pitt
16 Oct 2017
The first known local horse race took place in 1711 at Coleshill, apparently. More is known about a two day meeting on Lode Heath in 1780 (the same year as The Derby started). One race was held each day, preceded by three heats of roughly three miles. The landlord of The Holly Bush acted as Clerk of the Course, taking entries and distributing the 50 guinea prizes each day – but 45 guineas had to be returned to him for the next meeting. In the early days of horseracing the meetings were always held at a local pub because the landlord held a licence to sell alcohol, which was essential as an accompaniment to the racing and brought in cash.
Several locations around Birmingham had race meetings during the 19th century, eg Digbeth, Handsworth (which had three courses), and many more. Women were first allowed as jockeys in 1972, but on 30 August 1880 a pony racing meeting took place in Small Heath with a £12 prize for lady riders (although these were not named); indeed several owners were probably female, but they used men’s names. Sutton Park had three courses, one of which near Four Oaks had five magnificent stands and attracted over 20,000 people at a meeting in March 1881. When Four Oaks Station was opened a road was built from it to the racecourse. The last meetings were in 1889; it was demolished a year later and is now the home of the Four Oaks Tennis Club. In 1973 Aintree was having a difficult time and was to be sold for a retail development. Following a petition Bob Burns offered to recreate the Grand National Course in Sutton Park. But the Park authorities and Sutton Coldfield Council were against the idea, so it came to nothing; moreover Aintree survived.
In 1752 Mr Blake and Mr O’Callaghan challenged each other to a direct line race between St John’s Church, Buttevant (Co. Cork) and St Mary, Doneraile, both of which had steeples. Hence the word Steeplechase. On 14 March 1836 a steeplechase was held at Barr Beacon, in which Sir Edward Scott was one of the riders. The Birmingham Steeplechase moved to Oscott (where the College is today) and then to Knowle – first 2.5 miles from Hampton Station (where William Archer rode in 1852, before winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup the following year) and then 0.5 miles from Dorridge Station from 1853. In 1855 it went to Aston Park, but there was a recreation of the Crimean Battle of Alma nearby. The crowd became drunk and there were no police to prevent thieving and disorder, so the jockeys refused to race. The race returned to Knowle in 1856 before going to Sutton Coldfield in 1857 where it stayed annually until 1872. In 1873-1891 it was held at Packington, where the golf course is today.
Olton had a course of 1.5 miles in 1875-80 which was a mile from the station and is now a golf course. Hall Green, recently closed for dog racing, had horse racing from 1871 to 1910 off Gospel Lane, originally run by Joseph Page of The Bull’s Head. It had two grandstands and at a meeting on a Monday in May 1902 the Birmingham Post reported a huge crowd there celebrating the end of the Boer War. The Yardley Racing Club lasted four months in 1916. It held a meeting on Billesley Common of six races for ponies, as a morale booster for troops on leave and factory workers, which was successful. So another was planned for Whitsun, to start at 3.30pm. But Lord Kitchener was drowned on 5 June and all racing (including meetings at Epsom and Newmarket) was cancelled..
Shirley had a course that held meetings from 1895 to 11 March 1940, including steeplechasing. It was revived after the war but went bankrupt in 1948. George Featherston offered to revive it the following year with an indoor sports centre within the track (approved by Solihull Council and a motor racing circuit beyond it (rejected by the Council). Racing finally finished in 1953, and were the last pony races in England. The land was sold for £19,500 to the Jewish Golf Club.
Bromford Bridge obtained a lease from the Earl of Bradford’s Estate in 1894 for a racecourse. John & Stanley Ford who had saved the Nottingham and Lincoln Courses, held their first meetings in June 1895 (flat) and December (jumps). The course was a straight mile on level ground. The Suffragettes set fire to two of the grandstands. Golden Miller which won the Cheltenham Gold Cup 1932-36, raced at Bromford twice. After WWII, during which it was bombed, racing continued and many famous jockeys appeared there, including Gordon Richards (who won a two horse race in which both jockeys had been told not to tire their mounts prior to the St Ledger, so it became the slowest race), Lester Piggott and Josh Gifford. In 1950 a grandstand had the longest bar (330ft) in the world, and famous pop stars performed on The Mound between races. Michael Lynch was a well known tipster, and there were many evening meetings. Women had free admittance and there was even a crèche for babies. All these initiatives were designed to attract people. Many came by train to Bromford Bridge Station, and in coaches from a wide area. The Queen Mother attended more than once. But the years of success faded as punters preferred to move away from the nearby factories in which they worked, and began to favour courses at places like Warwick. The City bought the land for £1.5m for residential development in which all the roads were named after horses or race courses. The final meeting was on 21 June 1965.
In the discussions that followed this much appreciated talk (no slides), mention was made of a racecourse in the 1890s off the Warwick Road near Broad Oaks, and Point to Points were raised. These were normally of three miles, lasted a day with no permanent structures, no professional jockeys were allowed to take part, and constituted valuable training for both riders and horses.