Fullerton Park speedway track

[Trojan]

The Parksider wrote: Leeds Hippo wrote: Thanks Parksider - what amazes me is how keen people were (pre TV and radio I suppose) on sports - any sports - the early maps are littered with cricket pitches for instance - seemed to be a much more of a "working mans" sport than it is today. Again it's curious how speedway seemed to be so short lived - maybe the war changed a lot. The idea was that people were just keen to get out there and enjoy entertainment and past times together after the austerity and restrictions of the war.The large amount of sports pitches and grounds came from legislation in victorian times that cut short saturday working and enabled the working man to play soccer, rugby and cricket (formerly a preserve of the toffs) in the afternoon which they took to readily, and which the church heavily encouraged - thus "Leeds St. Johns" were born as were Bramley RFC started by the local vicar. They didn't want the working class in the pub.Sadly today too many people are couch potatoes watching too much X factor guff..... The classic football team started by a church is of course Wakefield Trinity. As a teenager I played for Ossett Trinity - on a field next to Holy Trinity, Ossett.