Old Road Ground, also known as the Clacton Greyhound Stadium, was a cricket, football, and greyhound racing stadium in

Clacton-on-Sea Clacton-on-Sea is a seaside town in the Tendring District in the county of Essex, England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District with a population of 56,874 (2016). The town is situated ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

Origins and opening

The Old Road Ground was located south of the

gas works A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...

and water works on Anchor Road and was originally used by Clacton Cricket Club. In 1905, Clacton Town was invited to use the ground and a wooden stand was built. The cricket club later folded and was replaced by Clacton St Paul's between 1918 and 1923.Our grounds
F.C. Clacton The council, which owned the ground, forced it to be rebuilt in 1935 so that a new car park could be put in its place. As a result, the pitch was shifted fifty yards to the west. A new wooden stand was erected for Clacton's first match in the new

Eastern Counties League The Eastern Counties Football League, currently known as the Thurlow Nunn League for sponsorship purposes, is an English football league at levels 9 and 10 of the English football league system. It currently contains clubs from Norfolk, Suff ...

on 31 August 1935, with the original stand in one corner of the ground and an uncommissioned railcar being used as changing rooms. A new 500+ seat concrete stand was built after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, with a covered terrace built in the southeast corner in the 1950s. A further covered terrace had been installed by the time the greyhound racing arrived in 1967. Clacton's record attendance at the ground of 3,505 was set for an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

match against

Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romfo ...

in September 1952.

Greyhound Racing

In 1967, the council constructed a greyhound track around the outside of the existing football pitch used by Clacton Town. This action required the stands to be dismantled and the pitch to be shifted once again. The back straight (or far terracing) became inaccessible and a

totalisator A tote board (or totalisator/totalizator) is a numeric or alphanumeric display used to convey information, typically at a race track (to display the odds or payoffs for each horse) or at a telethon (to display the total amount donated to the chari ...

office was built on the end of the main stand, another alteration was the permanent addition of a portakabin used as the Greyhound Bar and Café. The changing face of the ground did not please the football supporters and when in 1974 the council gave six months' notice to the club, the outlook was bleak. However, the council subsequently offered a recurring one year licence afterwards. The tourism boom in Clacton-on-Sea had reached its crescendo by 1970 but the greyhound operation continued for over a decade using an 'Outside Sumner' hare and race distances of 240, 450 & 650 yards. On 3 August 1984, the management headed by General Manager Mr. J. Carolan and Racing Manager John Old joined 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 ...

(NGRC) bringing affiliation to a governing body but also increasing costs. The race distances were 213, 404, 570, 760 & 925 metres.

Closure

In 1985, the council announced that they planned to sell the nine-acre site to developers who wished to build a retail park. The last football game took place on 21 February 1987 and the final greyhound meeting occurred one week later on 27 February 1987. The site was demolished the same year and turned into the retail park. The site today is between

Halfords Halfords Group PLC is the UK's largest retailer of motoring and cycling products and services. Through Halfords Autocentre, they provide vehicle servicing, MOT, maintenance and repairs in the United Kingdom. Halfords Group is listed on the Lon ...

and

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqu ...

References

{{English greyhound tracks Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom Defunct football venues in England Defunct cricket grounds in England Defunct sports venues in Essex Sports venues demolished in 1987 F.C. Clacton Demolished sports venues in the United Kingdom