Select Page

Wickford Road, Rayleigh, Essex

The area around Rayleigh in Essex had seen Greyhound Racing at two venues before the more established Rayleigh Stadium had been built in 1947.

Although these two tracks lasted for a brief spell only, the first encounter is described in this chapter and was known as O’Tooles Meadow. No doubt going off the venue’s title, the track may have been just a staked-out circuit on farmland.

It was situated at the rear of The Woodcutters Public House in Leigh-on-Sea adjacent to Wickford Road or Down Hall Road. It is known that it staged its first meeting during August 1932 and would continue to operate during the following year.

It is also known that the venue was used to stage Dirt Track Speedway. No other information is available, but it is thought the site returned to its original status of being just grazing land.

This advert dated August 19th 1932.
This is dated August 26th 1932.