BURNLEY GREYHOUND STADIUM

This site is not an official website for the track shown here and is neither approved or endorsed by the stadium. I am indebted to Richard English for helping to construct this page. 

In the early 1930s a licensed greyhound track existed in the Lancashire town of Burnley. The track was ideally situated in the Towneley Holmes area of Burnley and was owned by the Associated Greyhound Racecourses Ltd under the Directorship of Admiral Sir Sydney R Freemantle. The track had a circumference of 486 yards and raced on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. A Metro-Vickers Electric hare was used, with sprints being run over 300 yards, standard races over 500 and 525 yards, and distance races over 700 yards.
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The track had a Members Club for which half of the grandstand was converted for their use. Membership cost 10 shillings per year for Gentlemen and 5 shillings for Ladies. The track closed for the final time in 1935.
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Track Records, as of 1931, are shown below together with an indication of how fast the time is in comparison to other tracks, both for currently open and defunct tracks, in the UK. Ratings are between 0 and 100, where 100 is an extremely fast time and reflects the speed of the track, tightness of the circuit and quality of greyhound visiting the tracks.
SPRINT (up to 385m) STANDARD (386-549m) DISTANCE (550-699m) EXTENDED (700-999m)
Burnley Track Records at a snapshot in time:-
SPRINT 300 yards Nasute 17.59 secs Rating 2 26th September 1931
STANDARD 500 yards Bellona 29.67 secs Rating 3 13th May 1931
STANDARD 525 yards Bellona 31.38 secs Rating 1 6th June 1931
DISTANCE 700 yards Fortune Finder 43.08 secs Rating 1 1st August 1931

I am grateful to Jon Seddon for the following link to a map showing the whereabouts of the old track
http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?txtXCoord=385215&txtYCoord=431714
This section gives a comprehensive picture of the badges produced by the track throughout the ages, but only provides the briefest of glimpses of its history. For those wishing to undertake further research we can recommend a visit to

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwgreyhoundd-21 where further reading can be undertaken.

If you have rare Burnley racecards, badges, results, information, favourite stories or artefacts then email johnslusar@fsmail.net