The Ensbury Park Racecourse and Airfield Bournemouth John Barker BOURNEMOUTH LOCAL STUDIES PUBLICATIONS 12 Glencoe Road Bournemouth BH7 YBE No. 729 The Author John Barker, BA, C.Eng, MIMechE, was born in London and moved to Bournemouth in December 1940 when he was 11 years old. He attended Bournemouth School from January 1941 to December 1945. After service in the Royal Navy he worked for a local timber firm, Sherry & Haycock, and then for Foster Wheeler during the construction of their new Fawley Oil Refinery. In December 1951 he joined the Ministry of Supply at the Military Engineering Experimental Establishment at Christchurch, where he remained until he retired in 1989. His other publications in this series are: "Meyrick Park Halt", "Military Engineering at Christchurch Barracks", "Lady Georgiana Fullerton", and "Christchurch Barracks". Acknowledgements This book is based on some papers found by my wife in a collection of documents outlining the development of various districts of Bournemouth which were given to the Bournemouth Local Studies Group and formed the core of a talk, called "Over the Sticks and Into the Air", given to the Group in May 1993. Much of the information, particularly on land purchases and transfers, was collected and collated by Mr. Michael Stead to whom I am indebted for permission to use it. I am also grateful to Mrs Martin, Mr. Etches' daughter, who has allowed me to reproduce some of her photographs; to Mrs Braithwaite, a long time resident of Hill View Road, for her memories of the area before the race course was built; to Mrs Ann Norbury, the Poole Archivist, for allowing me access to the minutes of the Poole Rural District Council; to the Jockey Club for excerpts from the Racing Calendar; and to the Public Records Office, Kew, for the records of RAF stations. Thanks are due to many others for their memories of the race course and the airfield, and above all to Eileen, my wife, for her help and criticism in shaping this story. ISBN l 873887 0J4 3 © John Barker ii Contents 1. Introduction 2. Mr. F.E. Etches and Wallisdown Flying School 3. Ensbury Farm Estate 4. Bournemouth Airfield, Ensbury Park 5. The Bournemouth Racecourse Syndicate Ltd. 6. 1924 Progress resumed 7. The Inaugural Meeting, April 17th 1925 8. Air Races 9. Greyhound Racing 10. Other Activities 11. The End 12. Where was the Racecourse? 13. Mr. Etches Appendices 1. List of Meetings under National Hunt Club Rules 2. Land deals. 3. Description of Racecourse Buildings. 4. Prospectus 1922. 5. Racing Calendar 1928 - the last race. iii Illustrations Cover: Portman Hunters Steeplechase April 1925 1. F.E. Etches 2. Handley Page at Ensbury Park 3. Civic Party at Inaugural Flight 1919 4. Hangars 1920 5. Aerial view of racecourse looking NW 6. Aerial view of racecourse looking SE 7. Directors and Officials of Racecourse Company 1925 8. Horses arriving at West Station 9. The Grandstand 10. The Race Course 11. Ordnance Survey Map 1925 12. Plan of Racecourse 13. Bournemouth Hunt Club Programme 14. The Paddock 15. Finish 16. Society spectators 17. Course for air races 18. Racecard for Flying Meeting 19. Air Race 1927 20. Examining plane for shot 21. Grass track racing November 1927 22. Competitor for Grass Track Racing, November 1927 23. Greyhound arrive at Bournemouth Central Station, 1928 24. Greyhounds hurdling 25. Street Plan of Leybourne with Racecourse Superimposed iv Sources M. Stead, The Leybourne Estate Miscellaneous unpublished papers Jockey Club, The Racing Calendar 1926-1928 Flight Bournemouth Visitors Directory Bournemouth Times Bournemouth Daily Echo Bournemouth Graphic Poole Rural District Council Minutes Kinson Parish Council Minutes Dawson Leslie, Wings over Dorset Public Records Office: AIR 1 /2112 /207 /51 /3 V Introduction The Poole Selling Hurdle Race which started at 2 o'clock on the afternoon of Friday 17th April 1925 was the inaugural event of the Bournemouth Racecourse. The Racecourse, however. was not in Bournemouth but in the Parish of Kinson and the Rural District of Poole. Situated at Ensbury Park, it is now submerged under the bungalows and houses of the Leybourne Estate. The last horse race took place just three years later, on April 11th 1928. Between those two dates the racecourse saw twenty two days of National Hunt racing, three large aviation meetings, motor cycle grass track racing and some of the first greyhound racing in Bournemouth. The racecourse was built on the site of an airfield used by the Royal Flying Corps. and then the Royal Air Force, to train pilots towards the end of the 1914-18 war. Linking these activities, flying, racing and building, is one man, Mr. F.E. Etches; and this story is as much about him as about the negotiations and problems in establishing the race course and its final days. vi The Ensbury Park Race Course and Airfield Mr. F.E. Etches and Wallisdown Flying School Frederick Etches was a Yorkshireman and professional photographer, with a keen interest in flying, who had once been the manager of Gustav Hamel, one of the pioneers of aviation. He was also, in 1914, the owner of a Monsanto-G aircraft and was associated with a "flying circus" based at Hendon in the early 1910s. Mr. Etches became General Manager of the Bournemouth Aviation Company which, in 1915, leased some fields on the southem side of Wallisdown Road opposite Talbot Village and established the Boumemouth Aerodrome and a flying school there. The fields are now the site of Bournemouth University and the extended Talbot Village. The school trained pilots prior to their entry into the Royal Flying Corps and other air forces. Pupils included Belgians and Canadians. One of the early fatalities was Second Lieutenant Edward Rebbeck, son of the Bournemouth estate agent and former mayor of the town. In August 1916 Mr.Etches was responsible for the first plane ever to land in Poole. It was part of a demonstration to raise funds for the Poole Soldiers Home and the Cornelia Hospital. The plane piloted by the Chief Instructor of the School, Mr. S. Summerfield, landed in a field next to Poole Park. The flight from Wallisdown took four and a half minutes, and the descent was described as a “spiral one and the landing was cleverly effected in the face of adverse winds and a terribly rough and hilly ground. Mr. Summerfield later gave a brief demonstration, circling the park and planing, one of his ‘dips’ causing a flutter in not a few breasts". In reply to a question about expenses Mr. Etches said, "What, don't you think we can render a little service for two noble causes in the most important town in the county in which l The Ensbury Park Race Course and Airfield our air school is situated?" However, the airfield was small and when the Ensbury Farm Estate became available the Bournemouth Aviation Company bought it and transferred its activities to Ensbury Park. Ensbury Farm Estate By 1914 the coastal strip of Bournemouth and Poole had been built on and Bournemouth had expanded northwards as far as Winton. Aircraft even then required flat and level fields to operate from, with reasonably clear approaches. The only suitable areas left were on the gravel plateau to the north of the town on the southern edge of the Stour Valley. Much of the Ensbury Farm lay on this plateau some one hundred to one hundred and twenty feet above sea level, bounded on the north west side by the East Howe valley and to the south east by Redhill Common and its valley. To the south it rose steadily until it reached the ridge on which Talbot Village stands. The fields bounding Hill View Road had been leased to Studely College near Warwick as an experimental horticultural growing ground. Mrs Braithwaite, a long time resident of Hillview Road, remembers the fields planted with soft fruits and apple trees. She also remembers fields of rhubarb grown where Hillview School now stands. These were owned then by Dowlands, who had a greengrocers in Wimborne Road opposite the entrance to Pine Road. Ensbury Farm was sold at auction in August 1916 as one lot of approximately eighty eight acres for £8,600. On the 30th December that year it was sold on to the Bournemouth Aviation Co. Ltd. with F.E. Etches and Berrtard Mortimer as principals. In early I917 the flying school transferred to this site. The Royal Flying Corps requisitioned it and on lst April 1918 it became a station of the newly formed Royal Air Force and was named RAF Winton. 2 The Ensbury Park Race Course and Airfield Bournemouth Airfield, Ensbury Park From 1917 to 1919 the Boumemouth Aviation Company continued to train pilots for the RFC and the RAF. At the end of 1918 the Wireless Telephony School moved from Chattis Hill to RAF Winton. Its presence at Bournemouth is recorded for 1st January 1919 only, in the list of RAF units. It was administered by the Air Ministry (Technical Admin.) It is probable that the School was disbanded after the experiments with wireless telephony were seen as unsatisfactory became the School disappears from the records after the January 1919 entry. Early in 1919 the RAF moved to Beaulieu in the New Forest, and returned Ensbury Park to civilian use. The inaugural peacetime flight was by a Handley Page converted bomber piloted by Lt.Colonel Sholto-Douglas. On June 6th 1919 a party of Bournemouth dignitaries which included the Mayor, Alderman Bishop, and the Town Clerk, Mr. H. Ashling, took the train to London and the Handley Page Works at Cricklewood and flew back in a Handley Page plane to Ensbury Park where they were greeted by Mr. Etches, the Mayoress and a large crowd of sightseers. This heralded the start of short flights for pleasure, visits by Alan Cobharn's Flying Circus, and regular flights. However, by 1921 Messrs. Etches and Mortimer were already planning the next venture on the land: a race course. The Bournemouth Racecourse Syndicate Ltd. By 1921The Bournemouth Racecourse Syndicate Ltd. had been formed. Among its directors were F.E. Etches and Bernard Mortimer. Mortimer was a Southampton bookmaker who at one time had an interest in Joe Beckett, the British heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1923. On 13th May 1921 Etches and Mortimer sold options they held on parcels of land at Ensbury to the Syndicate. Ten days later Etches, on behalf 3