RUGELEY RACECOURSE |
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Earliest meeting: Wednesday 6th October 1824 |
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This racecourse is covered in Volume 1 of Racecourses Here Today and Gone Tomorrow. Ordering details shown below. | |
Local Patrons | Lord Bagot, Lord Warwick, Sir G Pigot, Captain Lamb |
Principal Races | Beaudesert Stakes, Rugeley Handicap Stakes, Rugeley Hunters Stakes |
EXHIBIT A: The newspaper report of the inaugural 2 day meeting in 1824 is shown courtesy of the Staffordshire Advertiser and British Library Online. Race distances were 'twice round the course' implying it was more likely to be an oval rather than 'circuits' of a figure 8 course. |
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Friday 8th October 1824 | Rugeley Stakes over 2 miles Rugeley Hunters Stakes over 2 miles Rugeley 5 Guineas Sweepstake over a mile and a furlong |
EXHIBIT B: The newspaper extract of the 1826 meeting is shown courtesy of the Derby Mercury of 11/10/1826 and continues to mention distances more akin to an oval course than a figure 8 course. |
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The newspaper report of the 1827 meeting is shown courtesy of the Warwick Advertiser 1/9/1827 |
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Thursday 26th to Friday 27th September 1833 |
Rugeley Sweepstakes over 1 mile and a distance Rugeley Stakes over 2 miles |
EXHIBIT C: I am grateful to Ordnance Survey (© Crown Copyright) for permission to use the 1834 map shown below. It clearly shows an oval course. |
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Wednesday 31st May & Thursday 1st June 1837 |
The Beaudesert Stakes over 2 miles Rugeley Handicap Stakes over 2 miles Rugeley Free Handicap Stakes over a mile |
The final race on the final day, Friday 7th October 1853, before Rugeley races were confined to history, was the Anglesey Stakes, over two and a quarter miles, in which William Palmer, the Rugeley Poisoner, saddled the appropriately named Doubt. |
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The final meeting took place on Friday 7th October 1853. |
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EXHIBIT D: A map, supplied by John Griffiths, showing Rugeley racecourse at the time of military manoeuvres that took place in the area in 1873, confirming it was still an oval course with no signs of a figure of eight. |
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EXHIBIT E: The 1902 map shown below is the first to indicate a figure of 8 course. |
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EXHIBIT F: John Griffiths has supplied a current day map (© 2017 Google) which shows the position of the figure of 8 course. |
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Course today | On the Training Ground on Wolseley Park near Etching Hill. |
I am grateful to Carl Mason for the research work he carried out in February 2018 on Rugeley Races to try to address some of the points made above, in particular on the shape and location of the course. He has agreed to allow his findings to be included on the website and they are shown in full below:- ‘It seems that there is some confusion regarding both the shape of the course and its exact location. I have studied old maps and compared map details, features and topography with the current (2015) OS map and my conclusion is that the old oval course shown on old maps and the evidence for a figure of 8 course relate to 2 different locations, although they are in close proximity. When looking at maps, the oval course is clearly placed slightly above and to the right of Shooting Butts Farm and slightly to the right and below Scarboro Farm, with Etching Hill placed to the top right. I suspect that this course was always oval and was never altered to a figure of 8. Nevertheless it is quite feasible that the location of the oval, being just below the Etching Hill, may have at one time included at its upper end a second oval that "looped around the Hill" making a figure of 8, but this is purely conjecture. Perhaps the original course was around the Hill and not in front of it, and for a time was retained as a figure of 8 after the construction of the new oval course in front of the Hill. Your Exhibits E and F (the figure of 8 course) are clearly placed in an area known as Wolseley Park, This area is to the North and West of Etching Hill, to the left of Round Hill and not far from the Oval course. Current maps show an area within this location named as "Racecourse Plantation" suggesting that there was a racecourse there, (or has it simply been named so, because there was a racecourse nearby)? The question is, given that maps of 1834 and 1873, combined with other evidence, show the old Oval racecourse to have been at Etching Hill, when was the Wolseley Park figure of 8 location in use and indeed what was it used for? Did it Pre-date 1820? Was it used exclusively by the incumbents of Wolseley Hall a short distance to the North? Did it succeed the Etching Hill course? (This seems unlikely, and no records can be found of races pre-1824) Was it ever a "racecourse" or was it a training and exercise location? Or was the area wrongly identified as a racecourse site and incorrectly recorded on some publications? As is often the case, some questions answered invite new questions to be asked, but it seems that there are more questions concerning the Wolseley Park location than there are about the Rugeley Race Course at Etching Hill.’ |
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The photograph of Rugeley Racecourse shown below is courtesy of John Griffiths. 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 |
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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 |
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 |
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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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