Gateshead Greyhound Track

Redheugh Park was a stadium constructed in 1930 by the Gateshead Council for the Gateshead AFC team. The stadium was in the Teams area of Gateshead found on the west side and it was accessed on Ropery Road and Derwentwater Road.

Initially this area was known as Johnsons Clay Hole (a worked out clay pit) and required a considerable amount of work to fill it in to the point where it could be used as a pitch.

Terracing was erected all around the stadium and the main stand had its back to the Redheugh Iron and Steel works. The main stand was purchased from the Carlisle track (presumed to be the one at Harraby) and almost extended the whole length of the pitch.

In 1937 greyhound racing was introduced and the ground underwent renovation including the reduction in size of the playing pitch. The first nights racing took place on 23rd November 1937 organised by the Redheugh Park Greyhound Racing Company. The circumference was 370 yards and the track was to race under NGRC rules as well being independent for some of the time. The shape of the track was described as almost square which inevitably produced very sharp turns with greyhounds chasing an Inside Sumner hare.

A totalisator board was erected on the south end terrace some time later and tote turnover in 1947 was £686,782, a decent amount for a capacity of 12,000. The distances changed to 440 yards and 600 yards and handicaps were very popular. The track raced under the ‘combine’ tag in the mid-fifties which effectively meant that they were allowed to host C-Licence owner-trainer race nights.

The greyhound racing ended on 7th January 1966 which led to Gateshead AFC hitting serious financial problems, speedway was introduced in 1967 but failed to improve matters before they moved out of the run down stadium which eventually suffered a fire in 1971 and was demolished in 1972.

In 1990 the area was leveled and for a garden festival car park before turning into five a side football pitches (1° 37′ 49.588″W 54° 57′ 7.998″N).

More information about this track is available in the downloadable PDF