OVER the past few weeks in Yester Years we have been bringing you memories of the former greyhound and speedway track in Warrington.

Many of you have been in touch to talk about the ground which was on the site of the current car park for Bank Quay Station.

And now it emerges another sport was played on the land – remarkably baseball.

The land had previously been a home for Warrington Cricket Club in its early history.

The greyhound track was also used by an American baseball team who used to play in the Manchester league during 1935 to 1937 before the Second World War.

They were known as the Warrington Greys and a player with the name Brown was one of their stand-out stars.

The finals of local sports days were also held at the ground as well as at the nearby Wilderspool Stadium.

Dog racing would take place on Wednesdays and Saturdays while it is thought baseball games would be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

One of the racers when it was a speedway track was called Squid Barton.

Meanwhile the we have also been looking back into the archives of the Warrington Guardian to look in more detail about why the stadium closed.

Sports reporter at the time Jack Steele wrote about the closure of the greyhound stadium in May 1956.

Mr Steele reported how the closure, timed around the 25th anniversary of the dog track, was the ‘best kept sports secret in years’.

In what was described as a ‘lock, stock and barrel affair’ the fixtures of the track were sold to other stadia across the country.

The stadium itself was to be kept in place.

Mr Steele explained how the shutters were put up on the site without any prior warning and that the closure was a mystery.

He added: “What will happen to the site?

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

You suspect that a car park for a nearby railway station was not top of his list of uses he was expecting.

Although he did suspect that Thames Board Mills, which was close to the land and was where Centre Park is now based, would be interested in buying the land for a planned expansion.

Although that never happened.

n Send us your memories of the stadium to us here at YesterYears via newsdesk@guardiangrp.co.uk.