Earliest meeting: Tuesday 26th November 1844
Final meeting: Tuesday 26th November 1844
Grimsthorpe Castle is a country house in Lincolnshire, located about 4 miles north west of the market town of Bourne. Surrounding the house are glorious gardens, a lake and a woodland area landscaped by Capability Brown, and the house has been in the de Eresby family since 1516. Grimsthorpe once held its own race meeting on Tuesday 26th November 1844 over a beautiful line of country starting at Grimsthorpe and heading a mile and a half to Harthorpe before returning to the start to complete a 3 mile course. The umpires for the £100 a side Match were Lord Willoughby and Lord Carrington, and the two contestants were a mare owned by Mr Charlton, the Honourable Mr Willoughby and Dr Parsons, and a colt owned by Mr C Christian. The mare was ridden by Scott, while the colt was ridden by Christian who was the son of the famous jockey Dick Christian. Although the first Grand National is reported to have taken place in 1839 when won by Lottery, three years earlier a similar race was staged in Liverpool when the runner up was Polyanthus, ridden by Dick Christian. In the Grimsthorpe race both horses refused at the first fence, but Scott’s mare reacted first and after scrambling across the fence went on to canter to an easy victory. There are no further records of racing in the town. |
| This racecourse is covered in Volume 1 of Racecourses Here Today and Gone Tomorrow. Ordering details shown below. |
| Local Patrons |
Lord Willoughby, Lord Carrington, Mr R N Munton, Mr B B Ferraby (Stewards) |
| Principal Races |
Grimsthorpe £100 Match |
Tuesday 26th November 1844
Grimsthorpe Match over 3 miles
1. Unnamed mare owned by Charlton, Willoughby and Dr Parsons
2. Unnamed colt owned by Mr C Christian |
| The final meeting took place on Tuesday 26th November 1844. |
| Course today |
A 3 mile course from Grimsthorpe to Harthorpe and back. |
| If you have photos, postcards, racecards. badges, newspaper cuttings or book references about the old course, or can provide a photo of how the ground on which the old racecourse stood looks today, then email johnwslusar@gmail.com |
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:-
London Illustrated News
Racing Illustrated 1895-1899
The Sporting & Dramatic Illustrated
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 |
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ISBN 978-0-9957632-0-3
652 pages
774 former courses |
ISBN 978-0-9957632-1-0
352 pages
400 former courses |
ISBN 978-0-9957632-2-7
180 pages
140 former courses |
ISBN 978-0-9957632-3-4
264 pages
235 former courses |
| Copies of the above books are only available by emailing johnwslusar@gmail.com stating your requirements, method of payment (cheque payable to W.Slusar) or Bank transfer, and the address where the book(s) should be sent. |
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