merse
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Post by merse on Jan 21, 2009 17:57:44 GMT
 What an impressive and expansive stadium Millfields Road was. I always take a wistful look a the site whenever I am in the locality and one of the many addresses I have lived at in London looked down over Millfields towards it's former location at the bottom next to the River Lea. About a mile further down river on the opposite bank stood Hackney Stadium which was finally raised to the ground as little as six years ago and it also had a luxurious nice brand new multi span roofed stand on one side that bizarrely only "saw action" for less than nine months before the venue was shut down for good with the liquidation of the Brent Walker Group who owned it. Brent Walker was the company of George Walker one of the famous boxing Walker Twins (Billy being the other) who infamously had his nine month trial brought about for trading irregularities declared null and void and then had to endure another equally long re-trial which eventually brought down his empire. During this time the stadium was marketed as an attraction for the "City Whizz Kid Set" with extensive dining facilities behind plate glass windows, a panoramic view of procedings; table side betting facilities and a plush nightclub to boot. The old speedway track was relaid and floodlit for just one meeting - a World Cup Qualifier amidst rumours of "money laundering" amidst the profligate spending. the "City Set" never came though, and I well recall attending lunchtime dog racing there carried out before the proverbial "two bookies a man and his dog" so forlorn was the place. They were obviously scared off by the rather nefarious nature of Waterden Road (I should know, I used to work there!) and in it's last years it saw service as a notorious Sunday Market that was colloquially known as the "Hackney Wick Stolen Goods Market" which attracted tens of thousands of punters each Sunday until it's closure brought about by police raids which netted such illegal goods as guns, machetes, hard core porn and "designer goods" of the less than kosher variety some complete with cocaine sewn into the seams! Next door was the biggest Nigerian run Pentecostal scam you ever did see too and a typical Torquinian straying amongst the detritus, seething masses of humanity and noise would have had a heart attack....................Little Dave, eat your heart out!  At the Northern End of Waterden Road you'd find the old Eton Manor sports ground, in it's time another Essex CCC venue and a magnificently laid out complex that was also used by Leyton Orient as a training ground until West Ham stole in behind their backs and arranged to take the lease over from the trustees. However, Orient successfully fought that off somehow but now it's all raised to the ground as part of the Olympic Park. I only hope some of the thousands who throng there in 2012 will realise that just a decade before the elite of the World's athletes perform there one could witness bare knuckle gypsy fights, razor fights, illegal dog fighting...................and that was all before market opening time. What a den of iniquity!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2009 19:18:44 GMT
Excellent stuff, Merse, which got me thinking about the demise of all the old dog and speedway tracks. Having done a quick check I reckon you had Catford, Hackney Wick, Haringey, New Cross, Walthamstow, West Ham and White City in London - also places like Belle Vue in Manchester and Shawfield in Glasgow (which was used for much more than it is now, including Clyde FC). Add Wembley of course for all the events which happened there.
Not sure what this leaves? Wimbledon plus the dogs at Crayford and Romford in the London area?
Of these I went to Catford dogs in the early 1980s - hadn't realised it's long gone. Also went to the track at Hove, once mooted as a home for Brighton & Hove Albion.
And what about dog racing in South Devon? The old tracks on the Kingskerswell side of Torquay - hence the Hare and Hounds pub (and the houses on Stadium Drive) and at Newton Abbot racecourse?
Other sporting/recreational venues in South Devon...I can think of the lido at Penn Inn.. the golf course at Shorton in Paignton...and, of course, in Exeter there was the old County Ground used for rugby and speedway.
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merse
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Post by merse on Jan 21, 2009 21:00:18 GMT
Excellent stuff, Merse, which got me thinking about the demise of all the old dog and speedway tracks. Having done a quick check I reckon you had Catford, Hackney Wick, Haringey, New Cross, Walthamstow, West Ham and White City in London - also places like Belle Vue in Manchester and Shawfield in Glasgow (which was used for much more than it is now, including Clyde FC). Add Wembley of course for all the events which happened there. Not sure what this leaves? Wimbledon plus the dogs at Crayford and Romford in the London area? To that you can add Stamford Bridge, Wandsworth and Watford to the "demised" list. The Penge Puffer  tells a lovely story of how he used to join the rush to get from the last race at Stamford Bridge, jump on the bus outside and make the ten minute journey to the other side of Wandsworth Bridge for the second meeting of the day...............if you missed an immediate bus you missed the first race south of the river! Who remembers the dog track at the old Vicarage Road - still in view when we visited there in 1967, my first time for sure? Harring ay Stadium (note the correct spelling - Haring ey is the name of the London borough, so that Harringay N4 is a neighbourhood in Haringey!) is only a ten minute walk across Finsbury Park from where I now live and was in constant use for dog racing from it's opening in 1927 for sixty years until it closed in 1987, whilst the Harringay Arena next door was a ubiquitous indoor stadium that held 10,000 for either ice hockey, boxing or even circuses.........that closed in 1957 I believe. the stadium was one of the first three opened by the Greyhound Racing Association - White City and Manchester's Belle Vue being the others but was sold for retail development and is now a shopping park  I'm told it was one of the few dog racing venues that used to suffer irregular crowd trouble and that on one occasion six fire engines were called to disperse a rioting crowd in 1957 and that in another famous incident that has passed into local folk lore, the bookmaker Joe Coral pulled a gun on mobster Darby Sabini! At the cost of repeating myself, the infamous CG owned dog B'Ville Pride (he of the occasional "no right turn" tendency) used to run at Crayford and on the odd occasion at Romford. Losing Walthamstow has been a huge loss and it was indeed the finest of dog racing venues right up until it's closure just before Christmas. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2009 22:44:23 GMT
Who remembers the dog track at the old Vicarage Road - still in view when we visited there in 1967, my first time for sure? Harring ay Stadium (note the correct spelling - Haring ey is the name of the London borough, so that Harringay N4 is a neighbourhood in Haringey!) I'm not a great racing expert - dogs or horses - but I did spend the summer of 1976 working in William Hill in Torquay and I remember Watford dogs from then. Just checked to discover racing at Vicarage Road was discontinued about two years afterwards. My first visit was in 1978 - the year Watford won Div 4 - so I may have seen the track. My clearest memory of the day is of sudden rain, the water remaining on the surface and some miserable git on the coach moaning about Mike Green all the way there and all the way back. And you know what? "Harringay" was exactly how I typed it originally but then I Googled it and was thrown by this lot - www.haringeygreyhounds.co.uk. - which made me change it. Yes, in the recess of my mind I knew there were two spellings -one for the location, one for the borough - but I'd forgotten there was a double difference. A spot more research and I find both Harringay Greyhounds and Harringay Racers from an earlier era of ice hockey...as well as Harringay Racers speedway..... The choice of London Borough names in the 1960s was a curious political balancing act and I suspect there's many a story to be told. In football terms Yiewsley wasted no time in becoming Hillingdon Borough and we've tracked the use of Redbridge. This map may interest:  |
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Post by stuartB on Jan 21, 2009 22:49:53 GMT
When i got stationed at RAF West Drayton for 6 years I quickly found Hillingdon Borough's ground as they defeated us in the FA Cup and i needed to know where it was.
when I found it, around 1983, 84, it was an overgrown patch of land. When I was posted to RAF Wyton, Cambs 1988, it had been re-developed with houses
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2009 23:13:42 GMT
Stuart, I can identify with the way you use the word "needed".
That would have been the Leas Stadium on Falling Lane, Yiewsley which once held 9,000 for a cup game against Luton. The club got into deep trouble when you were in the neighbourhood and merged with Burnham - to become Burnham & Hillingdon - before the Hillingdon tag was dropped. A new Hillingdon Borough came on the scene in 1990 and now plays in Ruislip (it's a big borough after all!).
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Post by stuartB on Jan 21, 2009 23:42:12 GMT
Stuart, I can identify with the way you use the word "needed". That would have been the Leas Stadium on Falling Lane, Yiewsley which once held 9,000 for a cup game against Luton. The club got into deep trouble when you were in the neighbourhood and merged with Burnham - to become Burnham & Hillingdon - before the Hillingdon tag was dropped. A new Hillingdon Borough came on the scene in 1990 and now plays in Ruislip (it's a big borough after all!). Thanks for that Nick. i also had the pleasure of playing for RAF West Drayton at Hayes Fc in a pre-season friendly. We wondered why there were 600 people watching a bunch of airmen in pumps (rock hard pitch) getting stuffed by the mighty Hayes. After the very welcoming buffet and bar we wandered out to the coach and happened to see the poster advertising that Hayes would be playing The RAF not some local camp!!! |
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Post by ealinggull on Jan 22, 2009 0:37:40 GMT
I presume you are all aware the derivation of the revision of Harringay to Haringey? . . . . . . . It was to supposed to be an amalgamation of the 2 principle districts that joined to form the Borough (as can be seen on the map above). I think Hornsey got short-changed in only having their 'E' incorporated, don't you?  |
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merse
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Post by merse on Jan 22, 2009 3:43:58 GMT
As your map hasn't materialised on your posting on my computer Ealing, at the risk of duplication here is the story behind "Harringay/Haringey - so good they named it twice".......... Some two hundred years ago, Harringay House had extensive grounds to the north of Islington around the area which is now Green Lanes N4 it's name is derived from the Saxon - Haering's hege, meaning the enclosure of Haering's people. Over several hundred years there have been many variants on the spelling but the present one of Harringay first appeared in 1569, with the oldest known spelling - Haringey dating back to 1387. The old house was built under the current spelling of Harringay in 1792 and thus the name remains for the area outlined above. At the beginning of the twentieth century Hornsey Council tried to (as local council bureaucracy does) force the oldest known spelling on the residents but they objected and resisted the spelling of Haringey and it wasn't until the merging of the three councils of Tottenham, Wood Green and Hornsey in 1965 that these Town Hall oiks (things never change do they!) got their revenge by naming the new London borough Haringey! So, to be accurate today we have the area of Harringay existing between the areas of Manor House to the south and Turnpike Lane to the north in the London Borough of Haringey. In the early sixties local schoolchildren were "informed" by the teaching profession that Harringay should be pronounced Harin gee as in Finchley, but that again was another example of bureaucracy attempting to force the populace to serve them rather than vice versa.......................and you think you have trouble with a silly balloon in Torbay!  The very spine of Harringay (which is a somewhat elongated north/south area) is the traffic congested and busy Green Lanes. Any first time visitor would be forgiven for thinking they were in Istanbul, such is the predominance of Turkish life with virtually every shop along this mile and a half strip being either Turkish or Kurdish. An area that became the centre of Greek Cypriot influx soon after WW2 slowly but surely turned Turkish Cypriot and later Turkish mainland and Kurdish as the arrivals of many refugees from that conflict torn area sought a new life amongst a culture they felt comfortable in. Thus the neighbourhood is a riot of lively and positive vitality - colourful, noisy and vibrant set amongst some really magnificent Victorian architecture if one takes the trouble to step back and crane one's neck upwards at the ornate cream coloured stucco fascia of the terra cotta brick buildings so typical of this area of North London that stretches across to Hornsey and Crouch End in the West, and Muswell Hill and Alexandra Palace and beyond to the North. Whilst Islington to the South eventually becomes a a homage to Georgian architecture as one approaches the older and more historic areas of Clerkenwell and Smithfield. This is one of the joys of contemporary London, the way that the influx of the world's people has shaped and revitalised magnificent old neighbourhoods and brought many cultures and ambiances to what were quiet and quite middle class areas. Appreciation of this variety of life could never be appreciated by those who have never lived here and maintain a degree of suspicion and a certain amount of ignorance of the very real pride that many of us present day Londoners hold in our city. Whenever people ask me if I am a Londoner, I always answer - "yes, a typical Londoner - I wasn't born here!" 
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jan 22, 2009 6:22:25 GMT
ealinggull looking inside your post I do not see any image tags or any links etc(ie photobucket) you can always send me the image via email and I will sort it for you.
Dave R
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Post by Budleigh on Jan 22, 2009 8:52:39 GMT
This picture from Google Earth shows all those sites as they are today... In one book I have it says that part of an old stand at Lea Bridge was filled in and is still being used as a storage shed but I could never find any trace of this and zooming in on Google Earth with a layout of the ground imposed shows no sign...  |
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Post by Budleigh on Jan 22, 2009 9:11:15 GMT
Indeed in this close up of the Millfields Road ground it is possible to make out the ground's boundaries comparing it to Barton's picture with the Tower block and houses either side still standing at A and the area where the now demolished shed with the further building above it shown at B. The player icon is near enough on the centre spot.  |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2009 11:47:04 GMT
The one and only original 'Greavsie never played for either Enfield or Hendon but ended his playing career with Tin Pot Barnet, Brentwood Town, Chelmsford City and finally, Woodford Town. Bloody hell, I vaguely remember reading about Greavsie signing for Woodford - he must have been pushing forty at the time! Woodford Town was a club which once had "ambitions" joining the Southern League in the 1970s when it fielded players such as Les Allen and Brian Dear and played at a ground in Snakes Lane. It didn't work out and the club went down - then back up - and then down, down, down before folding in 2003. Not to be confused with Southern League Woodford United who play in the sticks in Northants. Another club, from those parts, which had plans was Chingford Town which - going against the grain in an area were the Amateur was king - was formed as a pro club in 1947. Chingford - managed by an old Spurs and England player called Willie Hall - soon entered the Southern League where they played Torquay United Reserves on several occasions before withdrawing during the 1950/51 season. Chingford's problem was their pitch at Hatch Lane which was prone to flooding. The club folded in the early 1950s and, whilst various clubs have since adopted the title, there is no longer a club bearing the name. This is taken from the Southern League's official history:  There's also a tale behind Brentwood Town, another one of Greavsie's clubs. The club had been playing as Brentwood & Warley before turning pro in 1965 and joining the Southern League in 1967 with a home ground known as The Hive. Success came quickly and the new Brentwood Town even reached the 3rd Round of the FA Cup in 1970 (beating Reading in the process). By this time the club's owners had their eyes on Chelmsford City. A "merger" of sorts took place with Brentwood vanishing and the manager - and some players - moving to Chelmsford where they soon took part in a FA Cup tie against Torquay United. Another club in the town has changed name several times, made steady progress and now plays as Brentwood Town in the Isthmian League. |
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