Greenfield Stadium, also known as Greenfield Athletic Ground, Greenfield Autodrome and the Yorkshire Trotting and Athletic Grounds was a sports venue in

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The venue was the first and former home ground of

Bradford Northern The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, and compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league. The club have won the League Championship six times, the Challenge Cup f ...

Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

Football Club, before later becoming a

greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a dog breed, breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Some are kept as show dogs or pets. Greyhounds are defined as a tall, muscular, smooth-c ...

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

and

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida. *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta. *Indianapolis Motor Spe ...

track. It was situated adjacent to School Street, off Cutler Heights Lane in

Dudley Hill Dudley Hill is a village in the borough of City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England and is in Tong ward. History There are a few mentions of the name Dudley Hill prior to the Industrial Revolution. Religious history John Wesley (1703– ...

and in 1907, consisted of a six

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

field enclosed by a pear-shaped athletic and

trotting The trot is a two-beat diagonal horse gait where the diagonal pairs of legs move forward at the same time with a moment of suspension between each beat. It has a wide variation in possible speeds, but averages about . A very slow trot is som ...

track.

Sports

Rugby League

In 1907, the newly formed Bradford Northern rented the ground for £8 from Whitaker's Brewery, who also agreed to sponsor the club. It became Northern's first permanent home and the club set up its

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

at the adjacent Greenfield Hotel. Bradford's first match there was against

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

on 7 September 1907 and was watched by around 7,000 spectators. The club gained a significant scalp later that year when they beat the

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

touring side. Northern spent a total of £302 on a

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators, typically at sports stadiums and including both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium i ...

, fencing and the pitch even though they only spent one

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

at Greenfield. They vacated the ground after a vote at their AGM in June 1908, whence they moved to Birch Lane and then onto their current home

Odsal Stadium Odsal Stadium (known as Bartercard Odsal Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is a multi-purpose stadium, multipurpose stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The stadium is currently the home of Bradford Bulls rugby league football club and ...

. With Northern's departure, the ground reverted to sole usage as a running and trotting track and by the 1920s was known as the Yorkshire Trotting and Athletic Grounds.

Greyhound Racing

Origins and Opening

In 1926 work began on the venue to convert it into a greyhound racing stadium, one of the first in the UK and it opened on 8 October 1927. The track was affiliated to the

National Greyhound Racing Club The National Greyhound Racing Club was an organisation that governed Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom Greyhound racing is a sport in the United Kingdom. The industry uses a parimutuel betting tote system with on-course and off-course be ...

. By now the facilities were much more developed than they had been in early days. There was a main stand made up of covered terracing on the School Street side, opposite the

starting gate A starting gate, also called a starting barrier or starting stalls, is a machine used to ensure a fair start to in horse racing and dog racing. History Throughout the history of horse racing, there have been proposals as to how better to star ...

. There was also covered terracing along the back straight on the Cutler Heights side. At one end was a huge

tote board 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 char ...

but no terracing and at the other end, a concourse with

betting Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three ele ...

and a clubhouse overlooking the dog track.

History

During the first month of racing the city of Bradford suffered severe gales and on the 29 October 1927 the football team lost the roof of their enclosure and the greyhound track lost the roof from both stands. The stadium traded as Greenfield Greyhound Racing Association overseen by general manager J.C.Ridley. the two major stakeholders were the Electric Hare Company, Liverpool and the

Greyhound Racing Association The Greyhound Racing Association was a UK-based private company founded in 1925 and existed until 2019. It was involved in the management of sports venues, notably greyhound racing stadia. The GRA was responsible for introducing Greyhound racing ...

. In 1932 trainer Jimmy Rimmer set a record of 504 winners in one year whilst attached to the track, Rimmer was famous as being the slipper at the

Waterloo Cup The Waterloo Cup was a hare coursing event organised by the National Coursing Club. The three-day event was run annually at Great Altcar in Lancashire, England, from 1836 to 2005 and it used to attract tens of thousands of spectators to watch and ...

for many years. One year later in 1934 Greenfield was represented by a greyhound called Deemsters Mike in the

English Greyhound Derby The English Greyhound Derby is the most prestigious race on the British Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom, greyhound racing calendar, with a history stretching back to 1927. It was first held at White City Stadium, but moved to Wimbledon ...

final. The brindle dog trained by Fred Livesly also went on to win the Northern Flat. The track was described as a well laid out course with a good run-in to the finish and suitable for all types of runners. There was an 'Outside Sumner' hare and race distances of 310, 500, 650 and 700 yards on a circuit with a 420-yard circumference. The stadium entrances sat alongside the Greenfield Hotel and the popular club stand, on the opposite side of the track was the stadium club stand where the finishing line was located. Behind this stand fifty race day kennels and a paddock provided the hounds housing. Even further behind these were the residential kennels. Between the first and second bends a third stand called the Padden Connel club brought the total spectator capacity to 7,000 patrons. In 1952 the track reached the final of the national track championship sponsored by the

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national "Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top" Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling ...

only to lose out to

Eastville Stadium Eastville Stadium, also known as Bristol Stadium and Bristol Stadium – Eastville, was a stadium in Eastville, a northern suburb of the English city of Bristol. Constructed in 1897, it was the home of Bristol Rovers F.C., the Bristol Bulld ...

19–11.

Speedway

In 1961, a speedway track was laid inside the dog track, and the city's

team, Bradford Panthers, relocated to Greenfield from

. The first meeting was opened by famous speedway promoter

Johnnie Hoskins Jack Stark Hoskins MBE (16 April 1892 Waitara, New Zealand – 5 April 1987 Kent, England) was the most significant promoter of speedway and stock car racing in the United Kingdom. He is considered by some to have invented motorcycle speedway. ...

. Success was short-lived, and the last meeting at Greenfield Stadium was a double-header against Sheffield and Leicester on Tuesday 9 October 1962. The Panthers folded soon after.

Closure

The stadium was closed for business in March 1969 and sold for industrial warehousing. The last sporting event was a greyhound meeting on 5 March, attended by 4,790.

Track records

References

Bibliography

* * {{Motorcycle speedway tracks Greenfield Athletic Ground Defunct rugby league venues in England Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom Defunct speedway venues in England Sports venues in Bradford Sports venues completed in 1907 1907 establishments in England 1969 disestablishments in England