Bristol

Eastville Stadium, Stapleton Rd, Eastville Bristol. Home to the Bulldogs 1977-1978. The stadium has recently been bulldozed and replaced by Ikea!

from left to right Nigel Boocock, Phil Herne, Steve Gresham, Phil Crump (on bike), Tormod Langli, Tom Leadbitter, Edgar Stangeland

Nothing sadder a track but no action. Bristol may be back though, they have an active campaign at the time of writing this.

Phil Crump

Nigel Boocock

Little Boy Blue. Nigel Boocock came, with his trademark blue leathers to Bristol after a long association with Coventry

Tormod Langli

Heres the `78 bulldogs team, L to R Nigel Boocock,Steve Gresham, Derek Hole (kneeling), Bruce Cribb, Pat Tapson (team manager), Phil Crump (on bike), Neil Farnish (kneeling), Tormod Langli, Henny Kroeze, Tony Garrard, Soren Sjosten.

Left Steve Gresham Right Tom Leadbitter

BRISTOL PICTURE named by Terry Stone: BRIAN WOODWORD . PHIL CRUMP . SOREN SJOSTEN GEORGE HUNTER.

Bruce Cribb

Bruce Cribb with his ice bike

Bristol Speedway under demolition

Bristol Eastville Now

Photos by Chris Wallett:

Paid a visit to the more recent Bristol Speedway as well. I did go to Eastville once to see the Bulldogs ride Birmingham Brummies in a British League match. It was most memorable for the fact that before the meeting the Bulldogs most famous fan was introduced to the crowd. The fan in question was Louise Brown who was the worlds first test tube baby.
Her parents were Bristol speedway fans and brought her along as just a small baby. It shows you how long ago this was as I believe Louise is now in her 30's. The other memory I have is the huge crowd. It was so sad they could not make a go of the track and team as support was definitely not an issue.
On your site the last picture posted shows the stadium being demolished. I tried to get as close to that picture as I could as the background shows a Tesco supermarket which you can see is the building with the white steel frame over the roof. This is still there as you can see from my pics but where the track and stadium was is as you say now a large Ikea. You can still picture the track from the surrounding buildings but the area is very different know. Sadly no sign of the stadium and even Bristol Rovers FC whose stadium it was originally have moved to a new ground just down the road.
Still there seems to be some hope that speedway may still return to the Bristol area.
Chris Wallett

Visit Bristol's comeback petition Bring Back Bristol Speedway Petition

Comeback Site Bristol Website