Manchester Racecourse
Kersal Moor Racecourse
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| Location | Kersal Moor, Castle Irwell and New Barnes |
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| Coordinates | 53°29′58″N 2°16′31″W / 53.4994°N 2.2752°W |
| Owned by | Defunct |
| Date opened | Various |
| Date closed | November 1963 |
| Course type |
Flat National Hunt |
| Notable races |
November Handicap Lancashire Oaks Lancashire Plate |
Manchester Racecourse was a venue for horse racing located at a number of sites around the Manchester area including; Kersal Moor, New Barnes, Weaste and Castle Irwell, Pendleton, then in Lancashire. The final home of the course, Castle Irwell, was closed in 1963. Despite its name, the course was never actually located within the boundaries of the ancient township of Manchester or the subsequent city of Manchester.
The earliest known horse races in the Manchester area were run at Barlow Moor, first recorded in 1647, and again from 1697-1701 and the earliest record of horse-racing on Kersal Moor is from a notice in the London Gazette of 2–5 May 1687. There were a number of other short-lived courses or one-off steeplechases at, for example, Heaton Park (1827–38), Eccles (1839), Harpurhey (1845) and Stretford (on the site of the Old Trafford Cricket Ground, 1841 and 1852-4). But from 1687-1847 Kersal Moor was the main racing venue for Manchester.
In 1687 the following notice appeared in the London Gazette on 2–5 May:
On Carsall Moore near Manchester in Lancashire on the 18th instant, a 20£. plate will be run for to carry ten stone, and ride three heats, four miles each heat. And the next day another plate of 40£. will be run for at the same moore, riding the same heats and carrying the same weight. The horses marks are to be given in four days before to Mr. William Swarbrick at the Kings Arms in Manchester.
The course at Kersal Moor was undulating and about a mile in circumference round three low hills. John Byrom (1692–1763), the owner of Kersal Cell, was greatly opposed to the racing and wrote a pamphlet against it, but racing continued for another fifteen years until, probably through Dr Byrom's influence, it was stopped in 1746, the year of the Jacobite rising. After this there is known to have been at least one race in 1750; regular fixtures recommenced in 1759, and were then held every year. A grandstand was built by subscription in 1777, followed by a ladies' stand equipped for refreshments, in 1780. In 1840 the course was described as having a grandstand and a number of other buildings and a "fine run in". By this time two meetings were held annually — the long-standing Whit races, which attracted over 100,000 spectators, and another meeting in August. The Kersal Moor course closed permanently in 1847 when the Manchester Racecourse Committee's lease ran out and was not renewed.
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