02 Apr 2024
New drone footage being premiered at Harpenden Local History Day will reveal the exact location of the town’s former racecourse.
For 67 years between 1848 and 1914, an annual horse racing meeting took place on Harpenden Common on the last Friday (and later the last Saturday) of May, the week before the Epsom Derby.
In its heyday, the Harpenden Races drew up to 20,000 racegoers, outnumbering local residents several fold, and also attracting a fair number of undesirables and petty criminals! Horses were transported by train in special carriages, though the establishment of the Childwickbury stud in 1888 meant there was also excellent local representation.
The Jockey Club oversaw the organisation of the races but following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the popular meeting came to an end and racing never returned to Harpenden Common.
Local residents David Thomas and Peter Wilson, assisted by Dr Alexander Thomas, decided to research this fascinating part of Harpenden’s history, with the resulting film screened at the Local History Day on April 20 at the Eric Morecambe Centre.
David undertook considerable research to establish once and for all the exact outline of the racecourse, and the precise position of landmarks such as the grandstand and finishing post.
Much of the landscape has changed on this stretch of the Common between Walkers Road and Ayres End Lane, and which follows the line of the A1081. Impeded by the growth of trees, the fairways, greens and bunkers of the golf course, not to mention the extensive crop production which took place during World War Two, it took David several
weeks to piece it all together.
Help was on hand with old photographs and notes, many of which had been brilliantly put together by the Local History Society’s Eric Brandreth in the 1980s. The new research
will be archived by the Harpenden & District Local History Society.
Throughout the changeable weather of February and March, and with the permission of Harpenden Common Golf Club and the town council, the drone completed a high-level pass of the two-mile course.
The heavily wooded areas, which didn’t exist 110 years ago were captured in multiple sections, and then later edited together. The final days of filming involved flying the drone at a much lower level to give an idea of what the course would have been like to follow on horseback.
David said: “We have recreated a moment in history, but in doing so, we have become a part of Harpenden’s history ourselves. My thanks to everyone involved, including Max Sullivan and the golfers at the club, many of whom wondered what we were up to looking skyward and shouting at each other through our walkie talkies!”
