Brian Buck says: Hi John,
I have found your "defunct speedways"
a fascinating read and a wealth of
information. More power to your elbow!
I notice however, that you have not
included Perry Barr in the Birmingham
(John says: I have included PB now!)
section, perhaps because many people
are confused over the fact that there
were two stadia in Perry Barr -
virtually next door to each other, and
both have at one time been known as
"The Perry Barr Greyhound Stadium."
Birmingham's first speedway meeting
was staged at "Birchfield Harriers
Alexander Sports Stadium" which is the
stadium where the present day
Birmingham team race, in 1928. (A
further complication is that
Birchfield Harriers current home which
is about a mile away, is now called
"The Alexander Stadium." In 1929 the
operation was transferred across the
Walsall Road (A34) to what was then
called "The Perry Barr Greyhound
Stadium." and was also staged on the
opposite side of the City at Hall
Green. Both tracks entered teams in
the Southern League in both 1929 and
1930, Hall Green withdrew after only 7
matches in 1929, and Perry Barr
likewise withdrew in 1930 after
staging only two home and three away
matches. (One of their home matches
was against Hall Green - the only
official "local derby" ever to be
raced by the two clubs.
Hall Green closed for speedway at the
end of the 1938 season, and when the
sport returned to the City in 1946 it
was not at the two greyhound tracks
but at its original home of the
Alexander Sports Ground. The post war
promoter Les Marshall chose this venue
in preference to the two greyhound
stadia even though these both had far
superior facilities, because due to
government restrictions on the use of
floodlighting, he needed a venue at
which he could stage racing on a
Saturday - and both Hall Green and
Perry Barr Greyhound stadia staged dog
racing on that night. Marshall also
changed the pre-war "Bulldogs" team
name to "Brummies" and the colours
from the pre-war Blue and White to the
present day Yellow and Red.
Interestingly though, for the first
nine or ten meetings, the programme
cover continued to be blue and white,
and the team also raced eleven matches
before deciding to adopt the name
"Brummies." (I believe the original
suggested name had been "The
Griffins."
The Alexander Stadium was closed for
speedway in July 1957 and although it
was successfully revived for a series
of nine challenge matches in 1960,
under the direction of Phil Hart and
Doug Ellis, Birchfield Harriers
declined to renew their speedway lease
and their plans to join the Provincial
League were thwarted. After a lengthy
and unsuccessful search for an
alternative site in Birmingham, Joe
Thurley managed to persuade the owners
of Perry Barr Greyhound Stadium to
accomodate speedway there again after
a 41 year absence. This stadium was
owned by the Frazier Family who also
had a large number of shoe shops in
and around Birmingham, but it was
later sold to Ladbroke's the
bookmakers, and it's name was changed
to "The Ladbroke Stadium." Ladbrokes
sold the site for redevelopment at the
end of 1983, and the speedway club
moved the following year to the
ill-fated Bordesley Green Wheels Park.
Meanwhile, Birchfield Harriers had
abandoned their Alexander Stadium
across the Walsall Road, and moved to
the "New Alexander Stadium" a mile
away. The old stadium was left
derelict until a consortium of
bookmakers from the Ladbroke Stadium
obtained a 21 year lease from its new
owners, the City Council with plans to
construct a new dog track. Speedway
promoter Les Powell concluded an
agreement with the consortium to love
the speedway back there, but this plan
was scuppered when the council refused
him planning permission. A year later,
Les made a second planning application
which was this time approved, but by
then, the greyhound consortium had
sold out to a Maurice Buckland, who
rejected all offers to bring speedway
back to the stadium. Eventually, in
2004, Maurice Buckland sold the
operation to The GRA and Tony Mole was
quickly able to reach an agreement to
build a new track and bring back the
Brummies in 2007. By this time, the
stadium had been re-named "The Perry
Barr Greyhound Stadium" so hopefully
(!) I have been able to explain why
there have been two Alexander Stadia,
and two Perry Barr Stadia!!!
I hope all this might be useful to you
for the website. I think I have a
couple of pictures of the Ladbroke
Stadium which I will look out and send
to you if I can find them, and I'll
also put together a bit of information
about a sixth Birmingham venue which
was at Salford Stadium in Aston, which
for a time looked a promising prospect
but which in the end never got past
the opposition which blocked it.