Old Road Ground, also known as the Clacton Greyhound Stadium, was a cricket, football, and

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around an oval track. The sport originates from Hare coursing, coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of th ...

stadium in

Clacton-on-Sea Clacton-on-Sea, often simply called Clacton, is a seaside town and seaside resort, resort in the county of Essex, on the east coast of England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District, wi ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

Origins and opening

The Old Road Ground was located south of the

gas works A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...

and water works on Anchor Road and was originally used by Clacton Cricket Club. In 1905, Clacton Town was invited to use the ground and a wooden stand was built. The cricket club later folded and was replaced by Clacton St Paul's between 1918 and 1923.Our grounds
F.C. Clacton The council, which owned the ground, forced it to be rebuilt in 1935 so that a new car park could be put in its place. As a result, the pitch was shifted fifty yards to the west. A new wooden stand was erected for Clacton's first match in the new Eastern Counties League on 31 August 1935, with the original stand in one corner of the ground and an uncommissioned railcar being used as changing rooms. A new 500+ seat concrete stand was built after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, with a covered terrace built in the southeast corner in the 1950s. A further covered terrace had been installed by the time the greyhound racing arrived in 1967. Clacton's record attendance at the ground of 3,505 was set for an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

match against

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

in September 1952.

Greyhound racing

In 1967, the council constructed a greyhound track around the outside of the existing football pitch used by Clacton Town. This action required the stands to be dismantled and the pitch to be shifted once again. The back straight (or far terracing) became inaccessible and a

totalisator A tote board (or totalisator/totalizator) is a numeric or alphanumeric display used to convey information, typically at a race track (to display the odds or payoffs for each horse) or at a telethon (to display the total amount donated to the char ...

office was built on the end of the main stand, another alteration was the permanent addition of a portakabin used as the Greyhound Bar and Café. The changing face of the ground did not please the football supporters and when in 1974 the council gave six months' notice to the club, the outlook was bleak. However, the council subsequently offered a recurring one year licence afterwards. The tourism boom in Clacton-on-Sea had reached its crescendo by 1970 but the greyhound operation continued for over a decade using an 'Outside Sumner' hare and race distances of 240, 450 & 650 yards. On 3 August 1984, the management headed by General Manager Mr. J. Carolan and Racing Manager John Old joined the

National Greyhound Racing Club The National Greyhound Racing Club was an organisation that governed Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom Greyhound racing is a sport in the United Kingdom. The industry uses a parimutuel betting tote system with on-course and off-course be ...

(NGRC) bringing affiliation to a governing body but also increasing costs. The race distances were 213, 404, 570, 760 & 925 metres.

Closure

In 1985, the council announced that they planned to sell the nine-acre site to developers who wished to build a retail park. The last football game took place on 21 February 1987 and the final greyhound meeting occurred one week later on 27 February 1987. The site was demolished the same year and turned into the retail park. The site today is between

Halfords Halfords Group PLC is a UK retailer of motoring and cycling products and services. Through Halfords Autocentre, they provide vehicle servicing, MOT, maintenance and repairs in the United Kingdom. Halfords Group is listed on the London Stock E ...

and

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited, trading as Morrisons, is the List of supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Sco ...

References

{{English greyhound tracks Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom Defunct football venues in England Defunct cricket grounds in England Defunct sports venues in Essex Sports venues demolished in 1987 F.C. Clacton Demolished sports venues in the United Kingdom