Coins, Paper Money, Tokens and Historical Medals

STAFFORDSHIRE, Walsall, Walsall Grand Stand, a white metal Subscribers Ticket, 1809, grandstand in left foreground, townscape at right, rev. erected by subscription mdcccix, 42mm, 25.75g (W 1565; D & W –). Fine, very rare £100-150

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Racing Tickets and Passes, the Property of a North Country Collector.

View
Collection

Provenance: W.J. Noble Collection, Part II, Noble Numismatics Pty Auction 61B (Melbourne), 3-4 August 1999, lot 1086 [from Spink 1975].

Racing is believed to have started at Walsall in September 1755 on the Long Meadow, owned by Lord Bradford. The races continued to be popular throughout the 19th century and between 1802 and 1876 there were only six years when meetings were not held; twice due to outbreaks of cholera and the remaining occasions due to lack of funds. Such was the growing popularity that in 1809, Aris' Birmingham Gazette announced that ‘an elegant new Grand Stand has been erected, at great Expense, for the Accommodation of the Nobility and Gentry attending the Races.’ The grandstand was built on land leased from Lord Bradford and cost £1,300, the money raised by subscription in shares of £25 each. Although small by the standards of the day, it was an elegant structure, made of brick with a timber frontage, and designed by a Sutton Coldfield architect, Mr B. Wyatt. The last races were held in August 1876 and the land sold to the Midland Railway in 1877; the grandstand was sold to the railway in June 1879