Racecourse

[Mr Wonderful]

Originally Posted by Leighton Red

Absolutely love reading your posts on our heritage eastsussex - absolutely magnificent! Club historian role owner without a shadow!!

I’m still waiting for ES to appear on Mastermind!

[TheRealWelshWayne]

After reading the Wrexham.com article about LDP2 and its lack of support from councillors and the establishing inspectorate, is it a good idea to lobby about getting the racecourse included again?

I don't think it was included in ldp2.

[Quay Red]

Originally Posted by TheRealWelshWayne

After reading the Wrexham.com article about LDP2 and its lack of support from councillors and the establishing inspectorate, is it a good idea to lobby about getting the racecourse included again?

I don't think it was included in ldp2.

Good idea.
The original petition did make some headway but the council still didn't designate the course as a protected site as far as I'm aware.

[Mr Wonderful]

Once again the club is the only thing that puts this town on the map. The council owes the club big time for its ‘soft power’ projection across many media outlets.
The only reason people have heard of this place is from the football & not anything culturally the council have ever achieved.

[Colonel D]

There was 'The Roughest Pubs in UK 'programme on tv !

[eastsussex]

Originally Posted by Leighton Red

Absolutely love reading your posts on our heritage eastsussex - absolutely magnificent! Club historian role owner without a shadow!!

Thanks Leighton Red; much appreciated.
We are fortunate as a club that we have always had such passionate fans who have researched the history of the club to keep the heritage of the club alive- Gareth Davies and Peter Jones as well as WasanActonlad, Inside Left, Rhosymedre Red, Cymru Am Byth WXM and Rob from RP to name but a few. For me, it must be said that Pete Jones is Wrexham through and through and has dedicated most of his life to research the history of the club.
Nowadays, things are a lot easier and we can all search online, whereas those in the past, such as Pete and Gareth would have to physically research and locate the history in archives etc.
I am just happy to add a more anthropological viewpoint to the history of the club as well as the stadium and the land on which it was built.
For years I have believed that the history and heritage of the club and The Racecourse is the clubs main asset, which could bring us to the attention of a much wider audience. Hopefully, with R&R now at the helm, we will see that come to fruition.
Onwards and Upwards.

[Inside Left]

And to add to that was there ever a tithe payable on the Turf to its gardens ? Smiles !

[eastsussex]

Originally Posted by Inside Left

And to add to that was there ever a tithe payable on the Turf to its gardens ? Smiles !

Not that I am aware of Inside Left.

The tithe register of the 1830’s shows that there was no tithe due (see attached).
At this time, The Racecourse was owned by the Wynn family, and The Racecourse as well as ‘a garden' (number 700 on the tithe map) and a number of fields were leased to the landlord of The Turf- John Tench.
But the situation is complex and the garden identified on the map is not what would come to be known as The Turf Tavern Garden. The Turf Garden, which is not identified on the map was a strip of land that occupied the current Turf Car Park, and this was the section of land on which the bowling green was later built. This was also the location where one of two timber grandstands were built at either side of the tavern and removed at the end of each meeting, prior to a stone stand being built in 1854
The garden (no 700 on the map) was a quarter- of- a- circle- shaped plot of land that bounded the original ditch of Wat’s Dyke. This ditch became known as Crispin Lane in the late 17th Century, although the garden itself was split in two when Crispin Lane was diverted closer to The Racecourse in the 1870's. That garden now sits under Crispin Lane and the footpath next to the railway.
The Racecourse had been built on the land of Plas Coch, which had been bought by Sir John Wynn at the end of the 17th Century and inherited by the wife of William Williams when Sir John Wynn died. The Williams family then also adopted the name of Wynn.
In 1795, the land where The Turf now stands was distinct from the rest of The Racecourse and was bounded in a rectangular shaped field, as shown on a previously posted map. At the same time, the House known as The Crispin, which was owned by The Ambrose Lewis family, had a lot of land, including where the railway station now stands and much of the land that makes up the very bottom end of The Racecourse.
The Crispin and its estate was bought by Thomas Durrack at the beginning of the 19th Century, and he then sold different plots of land at the bottom end of The Racecourse (the land behind the present kop) around 1810. A ships captain from Liverpool bought ‘at least’ a holding in The Crispin with a business partner at that time, but Durrack sold The Crispin and all of its estate in the 1820’s.
By the 1850’s The Crispin and Crispin Croft (a field at the side of The Racecourse- where the club shop car park is now located) was in the hands of Mary Hughes, and I believe that it may have been her son or a relative who lived at a house and owned the culdesac of houses known as Crispin Cottages- off Crispin Lane. He also built a couple of workshops on The Racecourse side of Crispin Lane- where The headquarters of the Fusiller Volunteers briefly stood, but he sold the workshops in the late 19th Century, and Benjamin Piercy- the railway engineer and industrialist bought some of this land, which now sits behind the kop and borders Mold Road. As far as I am aware, the quarter circular shaped plot of land identified as a garden (700 on the tithe map of the 1830’s) was originally owned by the Ambrose Lewis family throughout the 18th Century, but was possibly sold to the Wynn family around 1810, or possibly at the later sale around 1820.
Most of the old Stansty tithe rights were bought by the Foulkes family in the 19th Century.
If you can find earlier tithe records for The Turf, it could be a great help in determining the precise date of its construction

[jonesfach]

Originally Posted by eastsussex

Thanks Leighton Red; much appreciated.
We are fortunate as a club that we have always had such passionate fans who have researched the history of the club to keep the heritage of the club alive- Gareth Davies and Peter Jones as well as WasanActonlad, Inside Left, Rhosymedre Red, Cymru Am Byth WXM and Rob from RP to name but a few. For me, it must be said that Pete Jones is Wrexham through and through and has dedicated most of his life to research the history of the club.
Nowadays, things are a lot easier and we can all search online, whereas those in the past, such as Pete and Gareth would have to physically research and locate the history in archives etc.
I am just happy to add a more anthropological viewpoint to the history of the club as well as the stadium and the land on which it was built.
For years I have believed that the history and heritage of the club and The Racecourse is the clubs main asset, which could bring us to the attention of a much wider audience. Hopefully, with R&R now at the helm, we will see that come to fruition.
Onwards and Upwards.

I think you are far too modest ES. The work you have done is top drawer.
Well done and I have no doubt some well known people have read your history thread.