The Purpose of this blog post is to give further detail into the process of rebuilding the two stands to scale. The Lincolnshire archives contained two separate maps of the original Grandstand trio; one was dated 1906, the other 1946, the trio being the Tattershall’s stand, the Grandstand and the Silver Ring stand. By collaborating what was shown on these two maps I was able to sketch out the two stands at a scale of 20 ft = 1 inch.
The Silver Ring stand (which is the bottom sketch on the image below) was the largest of the three stands, with a width of 170 ft. The size of the entire pavilion meant that foundations would have covered the ground beneath what is now flat grass land. At points along our reconstruction we felt these foundations as the twine was supported at corner sections with foot-long tent pegs.
The actual “Grandstand” (the top sketch on the image) was far smaller than both the Silver Ring and Tattershall stands, this was because it did not include in it’s architecture any form of pavilion styles steps. This building was used for those who wished to pay to sit in a private viewing box. The other stands would have been open for any to stand on throughout the day. When we reconstructed this particular stand, we could not support some corner sections with pegs as a concrete car park now sits upon the old foundations. Therefore we were forced to use chalk to complete the parameter of the Grandstand.
It was at this particular visit to the archives that I also discovered the track was “three hundred acres, first used as a racecourse in 1771” (( Williamson, James (1890) A Guide Through Lincoln, Lincoln Printers: Lincoln. p.23)). Which meant that racing events still occurred at this course prior to the construction of the three stands in 1856. After further investigation we found that a single stand, also named “The Grandstand” was constructed on the site before the trio. This stand was much smaller than any of the three built afterwards and stood significantly further away from the track. This perhaps was the reason behind it’s deconstruction. It was both too far away to be beneficial to race-goers and to small in size to accommodate the crowds.