West Suffolk Greyhound Stadium was a

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tra ...

stadium on Spring Lane in

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

Origins

The stadium was constructed in 1949 on the south side of the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

Cambridge, Newmarket and Bury branch line on an area known as Tayfen Meadows which was an actual

Meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...

. The stadium was accessed from the north end of Spring Lane by passing the Silver Jubilee Secondary School for Girls (now King Edward VI school).

Opening

The stadium was opened on 1 December 1949 by brothers Joby and Dougie Dutton. The greyhound racing was independent (not affiliated to the sports governing body the

National Greyhound Racing Club The National Greyhound Racing Club was an organisation that governed Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom. History The National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC) was formed in 1928 and this body would be responsible for regulation, licensing and the r ...

) and was known as a flapping track which was the nickname given to independent tracks.

History

Racing was held every Thursday and Saturday evening with trial sessions on a Sunday. The track circumference was 440 metres and race distances of 277, 471, 655 and 877 metres were used. The hare system was an 'Inside Sumner' and annual competitions consisted of the Spring and Summer Cup and Magna Carta Stakes. There was car parking for 150 vehicles and 48 kennels on site with ten on-course

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookma ...

Closure

The stadium closed in 1996 and was demolished soon afterwards to make way for the Tayfen Estate. The location today would be the housing on Bulrush Crescent.

References

{{English greyhound tracks Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom