Wakefield District has a nationally renowned racecourse at Pontefract but few people are aware that Wakefield itself once had a course of its own situated, for a while, on the Ings and later on a piece of open land in Outwood.
The earliest reference to a horse race at the Wakefield course was from a newspaper article in 1678. It seems to have been a popular venue throughout the rest of the 17th and the 18th centuries with a large grandstand being built for some of the wealthier spectators.
The Universal British Directory of 1793 had this to say:-
"Here are annual horse-races about the middle of September, which continue three days. The course is two miles, situate on Wakefield Outwood, about two miles from the town, there is an elegant stand for the accommodation of gentlemen, and a great number of booths for the company."
However, the last race on the course was run only a year later, in 1794, when Outwood Moor fell victim to the Wakefield Outwood Enclosure Act which saw the common land divided into fields and sold off to various private individuals.
The stables and grandstand buildings survived. The grandstand being eventually converted into a farmhouse. Henry Clarke, surgeon at the prison, drew a picture of the farmhouse in the late 1800s. The building was demolished in 1924 after being declared unfit for use.
