SWANSEA & SOUTH WALES

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Records show that racing took place at Crymlyn Burrows as early as 1790, although no mention is made in the Racing Calendar until 1803. In the main it was a 3 day meeting generally held in July, although records show that it was sometimes scheduled for August. Racing continued at the same venue until 1815, in later years under the hands of James Simpson.

Racing resumed in 1823 but only lasted for that one year.

As glorious and well planned as the meeting was, it was doomed to failure because of the expense of running such a meeting. The final meeting took place in June 1889.

Swansea racecourse.JPG (16751 bytes)

1834

After frequent planning meetings, local tradesmen organised an annual meeting called the Swansea and Neath Race meeting. There was forward thinking involved in the organisation of the meeting with a Selling race introduced in the mid 1830's and later weight for age racing which was unusual at that time. Such was the popularity and profitability of the meeting that a grandstand was built in 1838, and the meeting was to continue until 1847.

It was re-established for a 4 year period from 1855 to 1858.

1886

By 1886 there was a new thirst for racing in the Swansea area and a meeting took place at Clyne Valley in October. The railway helped to swell the crowd to almost 4000 people who enjoyed a five race card. The meeting, successful at first, was to last until 1896.

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Once again the meeting was re-established in 1910 and ran for a more prolonged period until the final meeting held on 15th September 1927.

 Swansea 1887c.JPG (46953 bytes)

Such was the desire for a successful, sustainable meeting in the Swansea area that businessmen planned a super meeting for the Monday and Tuesday of Easter week April 1887. This was a meeting to be held under National Hunt rules and was to be situated at Manselton with races over 2 miles plus. The chief race at the meeting was the Swansea Handicap Chase. The owner of the land was Richard Mansel Mansel, although the chief organiser was a businessman called Arthur Burr. The racecourse was a mile and a half around and was enclosed with 32 turnstiles to welcome paying punters through the gates. It was planned to be a huge meeting with well over 50000 people expected to attend. A brand new grandstand was erected to hold over 2000 people.
For all the hype for the 'super meeting', and the success of the first meeting, the momentum could not be maintained. Whilst a further meeting took place on August Bank holiday 1887, the writing started to appear on the wall by Christmas of that first year. The crowd size was disappointing, the gate take was low and the associated Swansea Race Ball had to be cancelled. Could such a glorious meeting survive?

 

Can anyone provide a map, badge or racecard from the course?

For further reading 'All bets are off' by Robin Campbell ISBN 1 84323 198 0 provides excellent detail and is very well written.

If you can provide further information about this racecourse then email   johnslusar@fsmail.net

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