One of the benefits of writing an article for a magazine is that occasionally someone responds to the essay with a new piece of information, which adds more to the understanding of the subject. One such event occurred following my essay about the Gascoigne connection to Haigh Park racecourse. Naturally before submitting the article I had endeavoured to locate its precise location. However the period in question was before the formalisation of national surveying, the first Ordnance Survey maps commencing from around 1842. The Six-inch to the mile OS maps of England and Wales are available on-line and a treat to navigate, exploring how the landscape was over a century ago is a pastime in itself.
Haigh Park was clearly shown on the maps from the period of 1842 onwards, but the racecourse itself had been abandoned as a consequence of the construction of the Aire & Calder Canal. Therefore the actual course remained unknown, well to me at least! Step forward Antony Ramm of Leeds Libraries, who read the article and recalled that a map of the course was retained in the library archives. Fortuitously he contacted the publishers and here we can present for you a copy of the map drawn by Chas. Fowler of Leeds almost from the time of the commencement of the course in August 1823. It is an elegant piece of cartography and does great service to the art of map making. But not only does it layout precisely how the course was presented in the vicinity it showed in isometric, the very grandstand used by the visitors to cheer on their selected horse and rider on the racing days!
The grandstand was situated at the end of the carriage road, and next to Stourton Farm, overlooking the start and finish line of the course. Despite the later canal slicing off what was the eastern end of the circuit to run alongside the River Aire, the buildings remained for many years and the plan layout was still evident as late as the 1920’s. Despite being only a stone’s throw from the industrial Leeds, later Yorkshire, Copper works, eventually disappearing under the waters of the settlement ponds from the chemical production work of tube making.
Returning to the original purpose of the piece to highlight the Gascoigne family’s horse racing traditions, it should be noted that at Lotherton Hall amongst the collection of silverware trophies of races won, there is the Haigh Park Race Cup from 1826. The receipt of the cup and the race or races to which it applies is somewhat confusing, according to the author of a book on “British Silver at Temple Newsam and Lotherton Hall” by James Lomax, the trophy was awarded following a win at Haigh Park on Wednesday 8th June 1826. Unfortunately my research indicates there was no race on that date, which in any event was a Thursday, and that the race referred to was on the Wednesday the 8th June from 1825. The account from the book also states Gascoigne’s horse was second the day following in the “Gold Tureen” race at Haigh Park, whereas contemporary newspapers have his horse as the winner of the race but that it was on the 28th June 1826. So history is being revised here!
Newspaper accounts of the time make it clear that the Gascoigne mare, the 4 year old “Elizabeth” won the “Haigh Park Cup” event on Wednesday 8th June 1825, and a year later took the honours in the “Gold Tureen” race on Wednesday 28th June 1826, by this time noted as a five year old.
It is worth reiterating the transcript of a newspaper article from the period referring to Haigh Park Races the day of the event in June 1825. “…In the early part of the week, this town bore evident marks of the ingress of strangers, and has since presented a scene of bustle and activity. The morning of yesterday being remarkably fine, the road between Leeds and the racecourse began to be thronged at an early hour; and near the time of starting, the whole line was literally crowded with pedestrians, resembling a moving panorama. Almost all the coaches, chaises, curricles, tandems, gigs, faxed carts, and common stagers, that were available for the purpose, were in requisition on the occasion, and were loaded with visitors of both sexes, besides an immense number of gentlemen on horseback… it is calculated that there were from 20,000 to 30,000 persons present.”
So there you have it a map of the course and a correction to the perceived attribution of the winning of the Haigh Park Cup from 1826. Conclusion; never believe a thing you hear or read, do your own research, and ask for verification, on that score we might ask who calculated the enormous number of race-goers on that day! I should also add here that in my last article I mentioned Thomas Oliver Gascoigne, as he was noted in some events, but his father Richard Oliver Gascoigne was certainly the person who the 1825-6 races are attributed to. Also as a result of the map discovery the period of the course can more accurately be described as 1823 – 1833.