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 the scans of badges on this page.

Arguably the most successful period of racing in the town took place at Deer Park, in the Fazeley region. It is believed that the inaugural meeting was held on 30th April 1947 and racing continued until 1950. At that same track in the 1960s there was a further short period of greyhound racing. The programme shown below is a rare programme from that era. Today the ground on which the former track once stood is now covered by a housing estate.

It is always good to hear of characters who enjoyed their greyhound racing and I am very grateful to Ray Owen for sharing his father’s reminiscences about Tamworth Greyhound Stadium. His Dad, Edwin Owen, died in 2006 but recalls buying flowers from a house on the A5 near the Waterways Office.   On one visit my Dad entered into a conversation with the flower man about how he used to cycle all the way from Birmingham to visit the stadium in Fazeley and to have a bet on the ‘Dogs’. He was a keen betting man on both horses and dogs and to some extent this was his enjoyment, although it got him into trouble on many occasions. 
 
While talking to the gent selling the flowers at his house, my Dad discovered that the gent used to be a cashier at the betting kiosk at the stadium, and so the conversation went on for many minutes.  Edwin Owen was 90 when he died and he had many happy memories of his evenings at Tamworth Stadium. It is amazing, looking back, that Edwin Owen lived at Upper Tower St, Newtown Birmingham, although he moved to north Birmingham in 1935, but would think nothing of cycling to Fazeley and back for his beloved dogs.

Whilst it is widely believed that greyhound racing started at the Fazeley track in Tamworth in 1946, Peter Carlino wrote the following about his father, suggesting that the track had opened during the War.
“My Father was Raffaele Carlino, (2nd October 1915 to 24th July 1998) he was at Rugeley POW camp from May 1943, and he returned to Italy no later than August 1946. (I was born April 1947). My elder brother clearly remembers Dad talking about the dog races that he and 3 friends used to attend at the Tamworth Fazeley track during the war. They were often stopped by the local police but never got in to serious trouble.  Some years later, when we had all moved back to England, Tony (elder brother) used to help at the council as an interpreter for Italians in form filling etc. Tony was asked by a policeman (a sergeant I think), on hearing the name Carlino, if his father was Raffaele and on confirming this they arranged to meet up with dad. A couple of weeks later Tony went with dad to meet the Policeman, there were many tears and hugging, they knew each other from their previous roles. The policeman confirmed the stories about the dog track visit. Also I have located another resident from those days. His name is Charles Hall, he was around 10 years old at the time he met my dad. Dad, with 3 friends, used to visit his parents some Sundays for lunch. His mother was of Italian decent and was able to act as interpreter as well as adjusting clothes for them. Charles, or Chuck as he is now known since moving to Winnipeg Canada, is also sure about the dog track, his comments to me being “I think that the Tamworth information is wrong with the statement about dog racing, as it was going on during the war at a place called Fazeley. I can remember when the older boys in Kings Bromley used to go and your Dad and Pietro and Frank used to go, your Dad did not borrow a bike as he made himself one with spare parts that he got from anybody who had any to spare and I gave him a front wheel off my old bike as my bike got the rear part run over by a farm tractor and the only part left that was any good was the front wheel. There were a lot of weird stories about riding back at night as you could not have lights on your bike because of the black out, and I think that a good few times some of the boys would go into the ditch because they could not see properly and sometimes they would be three on one bike because the others had been smashed up. I have a good memory of the old days and I know we had a lot of fun even though there was a terrible war on. Your Dad and the other POWs were not supposed to leave the Village but in a group no one seemed to bother.”

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

If you have rare Tamworth badges and artefacts for sale then email johnslusar@fsmail.net