Acregate Race Track

[noel]

Does anyone recall the Greyhound race track at Acregate Lane, possibly have any old photos of it or know when it was razed to make way for housing ? I used to see the results in the LEP back in the fifties and sixties but then it disappeared. I didn't even know where Acregate was until recently taking a short cut coming home from the North End.

[Derek H]

I remember the greyhound track very well.I lived in a street off Acregate Lane the track kennels were at the end of my street.The meetings used to be Thursdays and Saturdays.When the meetings were on I could see the races out of my bedroom window.All the surrounding
roads were choc a bloc with cars parked.The entrance to the track was in Grimsargh St and you had to walk across the car park to get to the turnstiles,there was also an entrance/exit in Harling road off Newhall Lane although this was nearly always used as an exit after the meetings.The track was demolished in the mid eighties to
make way for housing and a further entrance to the site at the side of the chip shop in Acregate Lane was opened and called Canterbury road.As a matter of interest there were American forces stationed
there during the war,I'm sure David Hughlock will chip in with his recollections also,I'm afraid I've only memories and no photographs.

[noel]

Thanks Derek, memories are very welcome. I'm struggling to find any photographs on the WWW and Preston's Historical Society web site is nowhere near as extensive as Peter Houghton's superb Leyland site.

[Spitfire]

Noel, I remember the track as well, having installed a PA system there. Again - no photos I`m afraid. The track was one of a pair, the other being in Blackpool (not far from the football ground).

This thread has just jogged my memory. I remember watching them on one occasion, testing the `hare` that the dogs chased. The cable passed through a bath of caustic soda. I can`t for the life of me remember why it did that. Do any members have any ideas?

[David]

I certainly remember the old dog track. Many's the time as a kid the Callon kids would go on Waverley Park and climb the dog track fence to watch the races. During the was and just after, it was a mecca for the U.S. forces stationed around Lancashire. After getting married Doris and I would sometimes go to the track on a Saturday night. I've done a search on Google, nothing comes up, I'm amazed.

[noel]

I didn't want to start a separate thread but how Callon has changed David, mass brawl last night between large groups of Asians and whites, off Fishwick Parade near Dundonald St. one Asian stabbed to death, several others with knife wounds this at a time of a knife amnesty! I hope this isn't thestart of racial tensions in Preston.

[David]

http://www.prestontoday.net/ViewArticle2...ID=1645742

Nothing stays the same Noel. It's amazing the change we have seen on our many visits back to Preston. It's when you are away from the city for some time that you realy notice the changes. Kind of like meeting an old friend that you haven't seen for a year or two, you notice the aging process !
Certainly when I lived on the Callon, Crowle Street, just a few blocks east of where yesterday's fighting took place, there wasn't any trouble. Our families were just hard working people, eeking out an existance after the war years and trying to survive on 'rations'.
I've always thought that the 'races' weren't meant to be mixed. Mother Nature didn't seperate the continents for nothing, same with the animals of the earth, lions on one continent, tigers on another []
I'm with you on your hopes that this isn't the beginning of 'real' racial fighting.

[DavidBatty]

I used to live just off Ribbleton Lane, near to Blackpool Road so I used to see the greyhound track on my to and from school but I have no idea what happened to it, has it gone !!!

I do remember a scrap yard nearby, they were on the opposite side of the road to a bakery, opposite Ansdell Street. I used to go in the scrap yard as a 9 or 10 year old and was allowed to sit in the crane while the operator picked up scrap metal with a magnet. The crane machinery was only two or three feet away from me and I was fascinated watching it. The crane looked like an old wooden shed with a jib and four outriggers coming out of it.

There were no health and safety do-gooders in those days, if I wanted to sit in a crane with a strange man then that was ok