A FORMER racetrack named after William Shakespeare is looking worse for wear after being left derelict.
Shakespeare County Raceway was built on the old RAF Long Marston track in Stratford-upon-Avon.
The airport was built in 1940 before ceasing operations in 1954.
Then in 1973 Long Marston held its first ever drag race before the event became a permanent venue from 1980.
It is considered to be Britain’s second dragstrip, after Santa Pod Raceway, which also claims the title of Europe’s first dragstrip.
However, not only racing took place at the autodrome, the common theme was weekend music events.
1987 actually saw the first edition of the Hells Angels Bulldog Bash, which grew to an incredible 50,000 in 2007.
In 1990, the track was renamed Avon Park Raceway before being renamed Shakespeare County Raceway in 2008 in honor of English writer William Shakespeare.
Races and events continued there until 2017.
However, that year the land was sold to developers before the decision was confirmed in 2018.
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Local newspaper the Stratford Herald reported that a local council document detailed plans for £100m of funding from developer Cala.
These plans reportedly included the construction of the first 400 homes, with another 3,100 to follow at a later date.
However, as it is, the track was left abandoned and remains frozen in time.
Nature has overtaken the buildings on the site, weeds and vegetation encroaching on the barren old strip.
Not much of it has been left untouched, with the exception of the start and finish lines, which pay homage to the site’s history.
Shakespeare Racecourse is not the only venue of its kind in the UK. Brooklands Motor Course in Surrey, which hosted the first ever British Grand Prix, has remained derelict since the Second World War.
Overseas are France’s Reims-Gueux and Circuit de Charade, the £540m Hanoi Motor Circuit in Vietnam and Flemington Speedway in New Jersey in the US.