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line drawing from a handbill showing the club, reserved and public enclosures
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Portsmouth Racecourse 1928-39
In Brief
Portsmouth Racecourse was built at Wymering, north of Portsmouth, between the sea and
the cliff at the chalk pit at Portsdown Hill.
It was second in the UK
only to Northolt Park as a pony racing centre. Opened in 1928, it had regular pony races as well as
motor cycle races, which were run on a track running parallel to the pony course. Racing continued
up to the outbreak of the Second World War after which, in an echo of the fate of Northolt Park,
the site was used to build
the Paulsgrove Housing Estate.
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In Detail
The Original Course
Portsmouth had a fine racecourse at Farlington before the First World War, but it was
taken over by the War Office, became one of the UK's largest ammunition dumps,
and was generally wrecked, before being
finally sold to the Portsmouth Council in 1929.
The Owner
A local businessman, Mr George Cooper, built a completely new course in the late Twenties.
Known variously as Portsmouth Racecourse, Portsmouth Park and Wymering Park, it was located at
the Porchester end of the Western Road, not far from Cooper's Paulsgrove House at Cosham.
The New Course
The course, which was an oval of just seven and a half furlongs, enjoyed a fine position,
between the sea and
the nearby cliff at the chalk pit, which was a feature of the course. It was re-turved using
over 40,000 square
yards of turves cut from an area below the pit. A few weeks of torrential rain before
the opening race helped to establish it and to make the course second to none in the country.
The Opening
The new course opened on Friday 10 August 1928.
Admission charges in 1929 were 5/9 for the club enclosure, 2/4 for the reserved
enclosure and 1/3 for the public enclosure, with club badges
costing £1 for gentlemen and 12/6 for ladies.
Facilities
The facilities were good, though not as elegant as those at Northolt. There was
grandstand accommodation for 8,000 racegoers, bars, restaurants, modern toilets, and
a Tote.
Members were
pampered in the luxurious Members' Clubhouse which had a restaurant, bar, lounge
and, unusually, a verandah from which to view the races. There were also 10 saddling boxes and
52 stables.
Getting There
The course was well served by public transport and the growing number of private
motorists could park in one of the
more than 2,000 spaces in the large car park which adjoined the course.
A railway ran along the rear of the stands and Paulsgrove Halt
was built, from which people could walk straight on to the course.
There were also cheap tickets from Southern Railway stations to Cosham.
There were special buses from Theatre Royal Portsmouth at
frequent intervals and Portsmouth to Fareham buses passed the course every 10 minutes.
The Racing Calendar
Pony races at Portsmouth were run much less
frequently than at Northolt, but there was also the new sport of motorcycle racing
to attract spectators between pony race meetings.
In 1931 there was racing at Northolt Park on 31 days, while in the same year ponies
raced at Portsmouth on only 12 days.
The End
Racing ended at the outbreak of war, after which the Paulsgrove Housing Estate was built on the site.
The only remaining trace now is Racecourse Lane at Paulsgrove.
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