The Penarth Road Stadium, was a former

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

stadium, on Penarth Road in the Grangetown area

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. The stadium was located adjacent to the

River Ely The River Ely ( cy, Afon Elái) is in South Wales flowing generally southeast, from Tonyrefail to Cardiff. The river is about long. The Ely's numerous sources lie in the mountains to the south of Tonypandy, near the town of Tonyrefail, ris ...

, where it meanders between Penarth Road and the Barry railway line. Today it is the site of an industrial park on a road called Stadium Close.

Speedway

History

The nearby

White City Stadium White City Stadium was a stadium located in White City, London, England. Built for the 1908 Summer Olympics, it hosted the finish of the first modern marathon and other sports like swimming, speedway, boxing, show jumping, athletics, stock car ...

had been sold to a steel works in 1937, leaving Cardiff without speedway. During 1950, Mr. A.J. Lennox and Mr. Leslie Maidment started to build a speedway track at the site of a rubbish dump in the Grangetown Area of Cardiff and speedway training events were held there during the year. In November 1950, the Speedway Control Board visited the track in order to issue a licence for league racing the following year. The venue was able to hold up to 30,000 spectators with its terracing. In January 1951, attempts were made by the Cardiff rugby league team to negotiate a lease for part of the stadium. The Cardiff Dragons speedway team began racing in 1951, competing in the

1951 Speedway National League Division Three The 1951 National League Division Three was the fifth and final season of British speedway's National League Division Three The league remained with 10 teams but there were changes. Oxford Cheetahs, Leicester Hunters and Liverpool Chads had all ...

. The first home fixture was on 5 April 1951 and the stadium underwent an official opening by the Lord Mayor Alderman George Ferrier. On 31 May, the stadium held its most significant event to date, a qualifying round of the

1951 Individual Speedway World Championship The 1951 Individual Speedway World Championship was the sixth edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider. Speedway riders from Sweden, Scotland and Republic of South Africa appeared in the World Championshi ...

. The team raced in the Southern League in 1952 and attracted healthy crowds of 9,000 but the rugby league attendances were poor. In 1953, speedway attendances dropped to 3,000 and mid-way through the 1953 season the team folded and their results were expunged. The stadium remained derelict until 1969, when the site was replaced with industrial units.

References

{{Motorcycle speedway tracks Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom Defunct sports venues in Wales Defunct speedway venues in Wales Demolished buildings and structures in Wales Demolished sports venues in the United Kingdom Grangetown, Cardiff 1950 establishments in Wales Defunct rugby league venues in Wales