Inside abandoned race track named after writer and left to rot with weeds growing in grandstand and start lines in tact
A FORMER race track named after William Shakespeare is looking worse for wear after being left abandoned.
The Shakespeare County Raceway was built on the old runway of RAF Long Marston in Stratford-upon-Avon.
The airfield had been built in 1940 before ceasing its operations in 1954.
Then in 1973, Long Marston held its first ever drag race before the event became a permanent fixture at the venue from 1980.
It is considered to be Britain’s second dragstrip, after the Santa Pod Raceway which also claims the title of Europe’s first dragstrip.
However, it was not only racing that took place at the race track, with weekend music events a common theme.
Indeed, 1987 saw the first ever edition of the Hells Angels Bulldog Bash, which grew to an incredible size of a reported 50,000 people in 2007.
In 1990 the track was renamed as Avon Park Raceway, before being renamed again in 2008 as the Shakespeare County Raceway in honour of English writer William Shakespeare.
Racing and events continued there all the way until 2017.
However, that year saw the site sold off to property developers before the decision was confirmed in 2018.
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Local newspaper the Stratford Herald reported a local council document had detailed plans for £100m of funding from development company Cala.
These plans allegedly featured the building of an initial 400 homes with a further 3,100 to follow later on.
However, as it stands, the track has been left derelict and remains frozen in time.
Nature has overtaken the buildings on the site, with weeds and vegetation encroaching on the desolate old strip.
Not much of it remains intact, with the exception of the start-finish line which pays homage to the history of the site.
The Shakespeare racecourse is not the only venue of its kind in the UK, with the Brooklands Motor Course in Surrey that hosted the first ever British Grand Prix being left abandoned since World War Two.
Overseas, there is the French Reims-Gueux circuit and Circuit de Charade, the £540million Hanoi motor race circuit in Vietnam and the Flemington Speedway in New Jersey, USA.