Thorpe Road, Thorpe End, Norwich, Norfolk.
POSTCODE———————————-NR7 0TH
LOCATED————————————About one and a half miles east of Norwich city centre, just off the A1242 Yarmouth Road opposite Broadland District Council.
ORIGINAL SITE—————————–Grazing land known as Carey’s Meadow, opposite Thorpe Lodge.
DATE CONSTRUCTED——————–1933
DATE VENUE OPENED——————-June 1933.
Meaning other sports may have taken place prior to the arrival of Greyhound Racing.
FIRST MEETING—————————–June 17th 1933.
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——Don’t know, but presumably it was a 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———————————–Don’t know.
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—————————Don’t know.
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——————Nothing known of.
LAST MEETING——————————-September 2nd 1939.
Greyhound Racing only.
STADIUM CLOSURE DATE—————-September 1939.
Meaning other sports may have taken place after Greyhound Racing had ceased.
STADIUM DEMOLITION——————-Site abandoned eventually reverting back to grazing land.
BUILT ON SITE——————————-Nothing of interest it has reverted back to grazing meadow.
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——————–Nothing proved, but due to its prone to floodwater during winter months and not having any track lighting, I would expect the venue to operate during the summer months only.
The third of the four greyhound tracks to open in the boundaries of Norwich was the one situated at Thorpe End, found roughly one and a half miles east of Norwich city centre. It developed on farmland known as Carey’s Meadow, situated on the opposite side of a main road to a mansion called Thorpe Lodge.
Opening up as a flapping track, its first meeting came on the 17th of June 1933. The track was very basic with hardly any facilities at all, not even track lights, as building anything permanent had become impossible due to the land becoming regularly flooded, due to its close proximity to the River Yare. But once the floodwater became controlled, the site became used as a skating rink during Winter months acting as extra luxury for locals.
Sadly, the outbreak of the Second World War, contributed to its closure, with the last meeting being staged on the 2nd of September 1939. Today, the site is back to its original feature, that being just a grazing meadow, maybe it just was not suitable for the developers unlike most other greyhound track site’s.
The site of the old Thorpe track lies just South off the A1242 Yarmouth Road, opposite building’s owned by Broadland District Council.
A programme, photograph or even memorabilia for this track is required for this page, if you can help please contact me.
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