Worcester crowds have always flocked to Pitchcroft, says Mike Pryce

AROUND this time of the year, for many years, thousands of people would flock to the wide open spaces of Worcester’s Pitchcroft on a Saturday night for one of the city’s annual highlights. The Round Table bonfire and fireworks display was a seasonal spectacular and a charity money spinner.

No chance of that now, but it does raise the opportunity to have a look at some of the other events which have taken place on the 100 acres of public land that for centuries has been the city’s playground and at one time was home to the city lifeboat.

Certainly there were fireworks of an altogether different kind in January, 1824 when more than 40,000 spectators gathered there to witness the boxing match for the Championship of England between Herefordshire lad Tom Spring and Jack Langan from Ireland.

In the days preceding Queensbury Rules not much was barred except biting and it lasted two and a half hours, 77 rounds of bare-fist brutality, before Langan could fight no more. However, not all the action was in the ring. An over-excited crowd in the temporary grandstand caused it to collapse, killing one and injuring scores more.

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But perhaps the most macabre spectator sport of them all was the public hangings which took place, accompanied by press reports in Berrow’s Worcester Journal. Two hundred  years ago it carried the story of a condemned man being taken there on an open cart from the County Jail in Castle Street with his open coffin riding beside him.

On the brighter side, Pitchcroft was also the venue for fun fairs and circuses, hot air balloon flights and early flying displays, although one of those in 1919 went badly wrong when a Lieutenant Paull crash landed right in front of the grandstand and was killed.

Particularly popular were the early 1930s visits of Sir Alan Cobham and his Flying Circus, which offered members of the public flights over the city for five shillings a time. Among them was a young Alice Otley pupil named Sheila Hopkins, who as Sheila Scott, went on to become a famous flyer herself.

Of course the sport for which the venue is best known is horse racing. In the 19th century there was a traditional Worcester Race Week with a range of complimentary social events, including plays and performances at the Theatre Royal, balls and dinners in the Guildhall and leading hotels, plus public breakfasts in the open air at places such as the Digley (now Diglis) Bowling Green.

In June 1903 Buffalo Bill Cody even brought his famous Wild West Show to Pitchcroft with riders from across the world – from Mexican Vaqueros to Russian Cossacks,  Bedouin Arabs to metal-clad Russian cavalry. Plus all the cowboys and Indians, stagecoaches and Pony Express riders.

Over the centuries Pitchcroft has seen it all and is maybe not as appreciated as it might be by visitors, especially locals. After all, as you wander round the neat asphalt path that now encircles the lake of grass you are in the same place where Buffalo Bill rode, Jack Langan fought himself to a standstill and fragile flying machines emerged out of the sky many, many years ago. Pause for a moment and you might see their ghosts.