Walthamstow Greyhound Stadium

WALTHAMSTOW GREYHOUND STADIUM 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.
The first greyhound meeting took place at the Chingford Road venue, in Walthamstow, North-East London, on 15 April 1931 on a track constructed by William Chandler. His family owned the track throughout its existence. The track was situated at 0° 0' W 51° 36' N. The track witnessed some of the most prestigious races on the calendar, including the Stow Marathon over 820 metres, the Grand Prix over 640 metres, and the Carling Test over 640 metres. Initially it was an independent flapping track, but on 13th January 1938 it applied to race under NGRC rules.

The Arc was first run at the track in 1987 and had an unbroken spell until it transferred to Swindon in 2009. It was contested over 475 metres or 519 yards, with the inaugural race being won by Funny Oyster. (A full list of previous winners is shown below) It finally closed its gates on 16th August 2008.

Track Records, as of 1947, are shown below together with an indication of how fast the time is in comparison to other tracks, both for currently open and defunct tracks, in the UK. Ratings are between 0 and 100, where 100 is an extremely fast time and reflects the speed of the track, tightness of the circuit and quality of greyhound visiting the tracks. I am grateful to Tony Nash for providing the data. SPRINTS (up to 385m) STANDARD (386-549m) DISTANCE (550-699m) EXTENDED (700-999m) Walthamstow Track Records at a snapshot in time:- STANDARD 500 yards Shaggys Lass 28.55 secs Rating 10 13th December 1945 STANDARD 525 yards Ballynennan Moon 29.79 secs Rating 15 21st November 1942 EXTENDED 700 yards Stylish Nancy 40.92 secs Rating 8 29th November 1945 Track Records as of 1989 STANDARD 475 metres Fore Top 28.55 secs Rating 35 DISTANCE 640 metres Waltham Abbey 39.18 secs Rating 38 Track Records as of March 1996 SPRINT 235 metres Farncombe Black 14.16 secs Rating 33 25th August 1988 STANDARD 475 metres Star of Tyrone 28.49 secs Rating 37 19th March 1995 DISTANCE 640 metres Suncrest Sail 39.23 secs Rating 37 19th March 1995 EXTENDED 880 metres Decoy Lynx 55.65 secs Rating 24 8th October 1994 MARATHON 1045 metres Smart Decision 68.00 secs Rating 59 12th August 1995
The photos of Waltham Abbey greyhound kennels shown below are courtesy of Pam Crymble, granddaughter of Alfred Henry Moss who started A.H.Moss Parkview Nurseries in 1904. Angela Parton sent the pictures on behalf of Pam and comments that they were due to be burnt when the Moss Nursery closed at Feltham.

This section gives a comprehensive picture of the badges produced by the track throughout the ages, but only provides the briefest of glimpses of its history. For those wishing to undertake further research we can recommend a visit to http://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwgreyhoundd-21 where further reading can be undertaken.
Does anyone recognise this badge and have a view on the date it was issued?





If you have rare Walthamstow badges and artefacts for sale then email johnwslusar@gmail.com

ARC WINNERS (Run over 475 metres or 519 yards)
1987	Funny Oyster
1988	Foretop
1989	Kilcannon Bullet
1990	Brownies Outlook
1991	Fires of War
1992	Murlens Abbey
1993	Bonney Steven
1994	Westmead Chick
1995	Westmead Merlin
1996	Coom Cruiser
1997	Blue Murlen
1998	Ceekay
1999	El Hombre
2000	Fat Boy Slim
2001	Scotts Kelly
2002	Vancouver Jet
2003	Hopeful Moment
2004	Airtech Rapid
2005	Fire Height Dan
2006	Milldean Billy
2007	Too Risky
2008	Centaur Decree