The photograph above shows Danny Wilmoth of Springburn Harriers winning the half mile handicap at Shawfield Stadium, home of Clyde FC, in Glasgow.   Note that although the runners are on a grass surface, there is another track on the outside and that track has floodlights placed at intervals round it.   Shawfield was built in 1898 and Wikipedia has this to say about the venue:

“Shawfield Stadium is a venue in the Shawfield district of the town of Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located close to the boundary with Glasgow.   Originally a football ground, Shawfield was home to Clyde FC from 1898 to 1986. Greyhound racing was introduced in 1932, and the stadium hosted the Scottish Greyhound Derby from 1970 to 1985 and from 1989 to 2019. The Glasgow Tigers speedway team was also based there, from 1988 to 1995 ,and 1997 to 1998, with the Scottish Monarchs also racing there in 1996. Other sports including boxing and athletics were also staged at Shawfield.”

The Scottish Greyhound Racing Club bought Shawfield, which had been losing money before the War, in 1935.    Despite several attempts to increase income, the track suffered a huge fire in 1975 and was put on the market in 1983 and it was proposed to sell it to Asda but permission was not granted.  In 1986 Clyde were given orders to leave and also in 1986, planning permission to build houses was refused.    There were lots of attempts by various bodies to use or dispose of it.   The last remaining track in Scotland all hopes of the stadium re-opening disappeared when the owner died in 2022.   

Athletics meetings at Shawfield were well supported by athletes – see

Clyde FC Sports 1911 – 1918   which deal with a period when it was a professional meeting; and 

the short account of team races at the stadium at  Inter Clubs at the Games: Shawfield and Brockville .     

Unfortunately the economics of running the stadium meant the end of the athletics there and it was shut in October 1986.   Look at it in the pictures below:

There is a lot of talk just now of the fate of Grangemouth Stadium – the only stadium in the country currently capable of hosting a full programme of events.   Let’s hope that it doesn’t end like Shawfield.   Another of Danny’s pictures below of what it had been in 1955

 

 

 

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