Earliest meeting: Wednesday 28th March 1792
Final meeting: Wednesday 22nd March 1848
The Gloucestershire village of Bibury lies on the banks of the River Coln, about 7 miles north east of Cirencester. The area is surrounded by hunting country, the Bibury Club being formed as early as 1676. Races were thought to have taken place on Bibury Common as early as 1681. The first three day meeting to be included in the Racing Calendar was staged on Wednesday 28th March 1792, opening with the 3 mile Hunters Plate which went to Mr Ram’s Candidate, followed by a competitive Sweepstake won by Lord Courtenay’s Daisy Cutter. Racing then ceased until 1800, returning for an unbroken spell of 30 years. The meeting on Thursday 29th June 1824 proved particularly good for Mr Goddard who won the Bibury Stakes over 2 miles with Wiseacre, following up in the Burford Stakes with Presentiment. In 1830 the Club made use of Cheltenham Racecourse before launching a further spell of racing on its own course from 1835. The final meeting took place on Wednesday 22nd March 1848 on the old course when the Bibury Stakes was won by Mr Pearce’s Linkboy.
Lord Courtenay, Lord Sackville, General Grosvenor
Wednesday 28th March 1792
Bibury Sweepstake over 3 miles
1. Daisy Cutter, aged horse owned by Lord Courtenay
2. Chambooe, aged horse owned by Mr Tyndale
3. Linguist, aged horse owned by Mr Talbot
Whilst it was first believed that the new track at Bibury was not used until 1800, a number of pieces of evidence have come to light to suggest that the races were held annually since at least 1798. The Reading Mercury of 3rd June 1799 recorded that Bibury Racecourse, owned by Lord Sherborne, was the location for a 5000 Guineas Match between Hambletonian, ridden by Mr Delme, and Diamond ridden by Lord Sackville. Furthermore, the Sporting Magazine of 1801 states that Mr Weatherby chose not to include earlier results from Bibury in his annual Racing Calendars because he was wary of reporting a private meeting, and recognised Bibury as Lord Sheborne's private meeting. He gained such permission in 1801 and wrote, 'Having the permission of the Club to publish these races for the future, it is our intention to give an account of them for the last three or four years in our next volume': and at the end of the volume for 1802 the races which took place in 1798, 1799 and 1800 are introduced.’ This makes it abundantly clear that the meetings were operational by 1798, and provides the reason why they were not included in the Racing Calendars.
Although it was first thought that the earliest meeting on the new Bibury Course was in 1801, newspaper reports now confirm that a 4-day meeting was held at Bibury in late June 1800 when the Prince of Wales was in attendance every day, accompanied by a significant number of nobility and gentry, and even had a runner on the Saturday. On the opening day of the meeting, Wednesday 25th June 1800, the £50 Hunters race was awarded to Mr Mills and his horse Oboe, there being no other entries. However, there were 3 other races on that first day, with results shown below.
Wednesday 25th June 1800
Bibury 50 Guineas Race
1. MUFTI owned by Lord Millington
2. WEYMOUTH owned by Lord Burford
Bibury 100 Guineas Race
1. DOCTOR O'LIFFEY owned by Sir W Watkins Wynn
2. HEDERA owned by Sir Thomas Mostyn
Welter Stakes
1. JUPITER owned by Mr John G Parkhurst
11 ran
Thursday 26th June 1800
Bibury £50 Plate
1. CHESHIREMAN owned by Colonel Cholmondley
Friday 27th June 1800
Bibury £50 Plate
1. OSSIAN owned by Mr Graham
4 ran
The meeting finished with a flourish on Saturday 28th June 1800 when a programme of no less than 11 races was staged, culminating in a great match between the Prince of Wales and Mr John George Parkhurst, with the result shown below. John George Parkhurst, known as 'Handsome Jack' was a character of late 18th/early19th century who enjoyed horseracing and dog racing, and one of his friends (also a cousin) was the infamous sportsman of the time Colonel Thornton - famous for vast bets on man v horse and women jockeys v male races. Colonel Thornton had a close relationship with Alicia Meynell, recognised by the Jockey Club as the first female rider to compete against male riders. (https://norfolktalesmyths.com/2018/05/22/alicia-what-a-woman/) Parkhurst virtually ruined his wealthy family through his enormous bets - he was married to the widow, Dame Mary Boynton (neé Hebblethwaite) of Burton Agnes Hall, near Beverley in East Yorkshire - his family, who were squires of Epsom are also reputedly associated with the early days of the Epsom Spa and Racecourse. Parkhurst and Thornton were also regularly associated with Newmarket Racecourse, and Cheltenham.
Saturday 28th June 1800
1. JUPITER Colt owned by Mr Parkhurst and ridden by Mr Delme
2. PLOUGHATOR owned by HRH Prince of Wales and ridden by Lord Sackville
The remainder of the card was made up of Sweepstakes, Matches and Subscription races between Noblemen and Gentlemen who, more often than not, rode their own horses.
Thursday 29th June 1824
Bibury Stakes over 2 miles
1. Wiseacre owned by Mr Goddard
2. Doctor Eady owned by Mr Pryse
3. Grey Robin owned by Mr Dundas
Burford Stakes over a mile
1. Presentiment owned by Mr Goddard
2. Myra owned by Mr L Charlton
3. Picton owned by Mr Benson
Bibury Produce Stakes over a mile
1. Reality owned by Mr Rawlinson
2. Flaccus owned by General Grosvenor
3. Horoscope owned by Mr Moloney
I am grateful to Ordnance Survey (© Crown Copyright) for permission to use the map shown below.
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I am extremely grateful to Roger Staton for permission to use his summary (below) of Burford Racecourse history and its direct links to Bibury Racecourse and the Bibury Club
Bibury Racecourse (c1799-c1848)
Bibury racecourse operated between c1800 and c1848. Its best years were between 1801 and 1825, when the exclusive Bibury Club held its annual meet there. The course was located about four miles to the east of the village of Bibury, and about five miles west of the Oxfordshire town of Burford. This was the same flat-topped down, near the village of Aldsworth, Gloucestershire, where Burford races had taken place since c1600 or earlier.
The transition from the ‘Burford’ course to the ‘Bibury’ course followed the privatisation of the downland between Burford and Bibury during the Land Enclosures. Local wealthy landowner and horseracing enthusiast the 1st Lord Sherborne emerged as owner of that part of Seven Downs where the Burford course was located.
He immediately had a new figure-of-eight course laid out, and this was in place by 1799. This was the Bibury racecourse. The first race on the new course was in 1801. The old Burford course continued to be used until 1802.
The figure-of-eight layout can be seen clearly in Ordnance Survey maps (First Edition) from the early 1800s.
The name of the location changed over the years. For most of the 18th century it had been known as The Seven Downs. By 1799, after the changes introduced by the Land Enclosures, it was known as East Down, and later as East Leach Down. In some newspaper announcements about races held there in the 1840s, the venue was referred to as Bibury Down, because of the racecourse. The OS grid reference for the course location is SP180094.
A stylish circular grandstand was designed for the Bibury course by Richard Pace & Son of Lechlade, and installed around 1800. The course also had a jockey’s robing and weighing room, and a rubbing room and paddock.
The course was named the Bibury Racecourse because it was the home course of the Bibury Club.
In 1825 the Bibury Club ceased holding its annual events on the course. After that there was occasional racing over the next 20 years, but it seems that horseracing there ceased around 1848.
In the 1920s some evidence of the area’s racing history could still be seen, in the form of the wooden bell post, remains of the jockeys’ robing and weighing room, and the rubbing house.
The location of the long-gone Bibury racecourse is still shown on OS maps. The privately-owned site is protected as a Sheduled Ancient Monument because of the underlying Celtic field system.
© Roger Staton May 2022
The Bibury Club
The Bibury Club started as a group of wealthy landowners who in the 1880s enjoyed taking part in races on the Burford racecourse at Aldsworth and afterwards dining together in Bibury. The venue would often be at Bibury Court (about four miles from the course), courtesy of the owner, former Cirencester MP Estcourt Cresswell.
In 1799, this informal group became a formally-constituted racing club – possibly the first in England. Its patron was HRH The Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent and then King George IV). Membership was by invitation only. There were dinners in London and an annual meet on the new Bibury Racecourse.
These races were for Club members only, and were for ‘gentlemen jockeys’ - in other words, it was the owners who rode in the races, at least in the early years.
The Bibury Club quickly became the most exclusive horseracing club of its day. The first year the Bibury Club races were mentioned in the Racing Calendar was 1801.
The Club’s close links to Bibury Racecourse lasted until 1825 when the 2nd Lord Sherborne gave them notice to end racing on the course. The club had lost some of its glamour when HRH stopped attending races there.
In 1825 the Club moved its annual race events to Cheltenham, then in 1831 to Stockbridge, and in 1898 to Salisbury.
© Roger Staton May 2022
I am grateful to Roger Staton for the photo below which shows the location of the former Bibury course in May 2022.
Much of the information about this course has been found using internet research and is in the public domain. However, useful research sources have been:-
Northern Turf History Volumes 1-4 by J.Fairfax-Blakeborough
The Sporting Magazine
A Long Time Gone by Chris Pitt first published in 1996 ISBN 0 900599 89 8
Racing Calendars which were first published in 1727
