Beacon Castle Sports Grounds, Efford Lane, Lipson, Plymouth, Devon.
POSTCODE———————————-PL3 6LQ
LOCATED————————————In the district of Lipson, two miles north east of Plymouth city centre.
ORIGINAL SITE—————————–A grazing meadow known as Castle Field, Hence the name Beacon Castle.
DATE CONSTRUCTED——————–1931
DATE VENUE OPENED——————-October 1931.
Meaning other sports may have taken place prior to the arrival of Greyhound Racing.
FIRST MEETING—————————–October 22nd 1931.
Greyhound Racing only.
LICENSED OR INDEPENDENT———-Independent
All venues covered would have to be licensed with the government, licensed suggested in this section would refer to tracks operating under NGRC Rules.
INSIDE OR OUTSIDE HARE TYPE——Trackless type.
Please note that the Electric Hare suggested is only a guidance and would have been in operation for a certain amount of time at this venue. Although it is not necessarily guaranteed that it was operational all the time, as other types of lure may have been used and updated as time progressed.
DISTANCES———————————–475 yards.
Please note that most racing venues distances had become varied throughout the years, the ones given above were at once point set and offers only a guidance to the track size.
CIRCUMFERENCE—————————Not known.
Please note that alterations at most racing venues throughout its existence would see that the circumference of the track would vary, the one shown above offers only a guidance to the track size.
BIG RACE NAMES—————————Nothing known of.
STADIUM SHARED WITH——————Whippet Racing.
LAST MEETING——————————-Possibly January 24th 1935.
Greyhound Racing only.
STADIUM CLOSURE DATE—————-1935
Meaning other sports may have taken place after Greyhound Racing had ceased.
STADIUM DEMOLITION——————-Late 1930’s.
BUILT ON SITE——————————-Houses on Kirton Place.
In some cases, structure’s that originally covered the venue after the stadium had been demolished, may have been themselves demolished too, so the one described is more likely to be the one which now presently covers the site.
EVIDENCE LEFT TODAY——————-Nothing known of.
FURTHER COMMENTS——————–This Greyhound Company also controlled the earlier Beacon Park track.
The Devon city of Plymouth has become the home to a number of greyhound racing venues during its time, with the majority of them just featuring for a brief spell only, with the Pennycross Stadium certainly becoming its most established. But in this section the track in question developed from another one that closed previous, and became known as the Beacon Castle Sports Ground.
The Beacon Castle venue arrived due to the departure of a greyhound company from the Beacon Park track in July 1931, after a dispute with the rugby club, who happened to own the venue. The dispute had meant that the greyhound company needed to look elsewhere to promote their sport of not only greyhound racing but whippets racing too. They found a new venue in the district of Lipson about two miles northeast of Plymouth city centre, and roughly two miles southwest of the earlier Beacon Park.
It lay to the north of Efford Lane, in a meadow known as Castle Field. The name of the field influenced the name of the new track, hence the Beacon Castle Sports Ground, with its members calling themselves The Beacon Castle Sports Club. All the racing facilities from the Beacon Park track had been transferred to the new site and by October 1931, Beacon Castle was ready to stage its first meeting.
The first meeting came on the 22nd of October 1931, with an eight-race event consisting of both whippets and greyhounds. The whippets competed over the 300-yard trip, while the greyhounds challenged over the 475-yard distance, with both breeds chasing a trackless type of hare system. With the track having trackside lamps, Beacon Castle could now offer three meetings per week, with evening meetings being run on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, with an afternoon event being run on a Saturday. But again, the sports club was short lived due to another dispute with the landowners which lead to its closure, staging its final meeting in January 1935.
Today, the site of the Beacon Castle Sports Club no longer exists, as the land was sold for redevelopment soon after the greyhounds finished. The site was replaced with new houses on Kirton Place, which were constructed during the late 1930’s.
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