Place Name
Epsom Racecourse in Surrey traces its origins back to at least the English Civil War, when in May 1648, the Earl of Clarendon in his History of the Rebellion relates, “a meeting of the royalists was held on Banstead Downs, under the pretence of a horse race, and six hundred horses were collected and marched to Reigate.” Epsom’s website concludes: “This suggests that for such an under-cover rendezvous to take place, racing at Epsom must have been a regular and well attended occasion.” Under the Commonwealth racing was banned but returned while King Charles II was on the throne. This is one of a cluster of roads that were built by the council to form the 548 property Racecourse estate which was laid out in the 1930s on what had been agricultural land belonging to Hacton Farm. The Second World War interrupted building, which was continued with the return of peace in the 1940s.
