Quote:
Originally Posted by eastsussexred
Attached are photos of The Turf Tavern, as it was in 1976.
Briefly known as The Grandstand at the end of the 1840’s, the tavern was first recorded on a town map in 1819, and in the same year, the name of the tavern was also recorded in the parish register when Margaret- the wife of the landlord- Joseph Ffoulkes, gave birth to a son.
The original date of construction of the tavern is not yet known, although it is known that in the early 19th Century the tavern and the fields that adjoined it were leased to successive landlords by Sir Watkin Williams Wynn. The current Turf Hotel was built as an extension onto the old tavern in the late 1840’s/early to mid 1850’s, but the name ‘Turf Tavern’ was still being used as late as the 1860’s.
Newspaper reports of the time show that the upper floor of the tavern was frequently used for functions, including the end of season dinner for The Denbighshire County Cricket Club, during which, Edward Manners announced his intention to buy a football, on 8th October 1864, and thus gave rise to Wrexham Football and Athletics Club. The following year, Thomas Hanmer, the landlord of the tavern and founding member and player of the football club, also presented the club with a new silver trophy ‘The Thomas Hanmer Cup’ which was to be presented to the winner of athletics events at the club’s annual athletics day. The trophy was eventually retained by another of our early players- Thomas Buchanan Taylor after winning the event for three years running. All of the early Turf’s landlords were members of the football club and quite a few have played for the club, over the years.
The Turf Tavern originally had its own stables, and gardens, which stretched from the current Turf Hotel, down to the junction at Crispin Lane, and temporary grandstands were built and dismantled each year at either side of the tavern for the annual October race meetings, until a new permanent grandstand was built on Mold Road in the late 1840’s/early 1850’s. At the same time, it appears that the current Turf Hotel was also built on the town side of the existing tavern, and a section of the original building was converted into offices for race officials, The upper floor was also used as changing rooms for football players in both club and international matches (above the old club shop) and as far as I know these rooms are now the oldest changing rooms at any football stadium in the world, although I believe that all original fixtures and fittings have long since been removed. As far as I can ascertain, this section of the original Turf Tavern is also the oldest public house at any football stadium in the world.
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Confirmation that the first permanent MRS was built and opened in 1854 with additional works carrying forward into 1855.
The additional works included the erection of a new betting ring, and a weighing room and offices for race officials in The Turf Tavern. The Tavern had briefly been renamed as The Grandstand from the end of the 1840's through to 1851. This might have been done to promote a fund which had been started by race officials, to rise money for the construction of the new permanent stand. The stand was completed, just as the the church had raised its efforts to have the annual races stopped, with local clergy writing in local newspapers in 1855 and petitioning the council, who in-turn sent a request to Sir W.W. Wynn to have the races stopped. W.W.Wynn pulled the plug in 1857, although a much smaller meeting also took place in 1858, before officials decided to abandon the idea in 1859. The races gradually re-appeared in a new format, initially with donkey and Pony racing added to the The Autumn Athletic Sports meetings, at the end of the 1860's, but the races were finally revived in 1873