Charles Welsh owned the Royal Hotel in Crewe, he was a sports lover and the President of the Athletic Club. In 1877 he built a recreation ground at his hotel, near the railway station, which provided a home for cricket, football, athletic sports and bicycle racing in Crewe. The four acre ground had an oval track, measuring four laps to the mile and a 100ft grandstand. Crewe Cricket Club negotiated terms to use the recreation ground, Crewe AAC made the ground their home and Crewe Alexandra Football Club was formed in 1877 as a division of the athletics club.
The first Amateur Athletic Festival was held at the ground on June 23rd 1877, it was organised by Thomas Abraham, a major organisational driving force at the ground. The event attracted some of the best bicycle riders in the country, there was a one mile bicycle handicap with 46 riders in six heats, which was won by WE Lea of Runcorn. His prize was an Excelsior bicycle worth £12 10s, which was donated by Bayliss and Thomas of Coventry. The main event was an eight miles professional bicycle handicap race, which included the World Champion John Keen of London and the top 6 day riders George Edlin of Leicester, Walter Phillips of Wolverhampton, S Rawson of Derby and J Leeming of Blackpool. The riders arranged their own handicapping, which resulted in a win for Edlin, who had 5½ minutes over Keen, who was on scratch. The event resulted in a profit of £75 and the Festival went on to become a major sporting event in the North of England.
Crewe Bicycle Club# was formed in 1878 and in its first year, formed an alliance with Alexandra Cricket Club, which enabled the Crewe BC members to use and race on the recreation ground track. The majority of the Crewe BC racing members joined with the Alexandria and the club became known as the Alexandra Bicycle Club. The Crewe BC gradually faded, whilst the Alexandra Bicycle Club became the premier local club.
The 3rd Amateur Festival was held on July 5th 1879 by the Crewe AAC, the event was preceded by a procession of 130 cyclists through the town to the cycle track. Bicycle racing was held and there was a one mile novices race and one and two miles open handicap races. After the event, there was a meeting at the Royal Hotel by member clubs of the Northern Counties Athletic Association, which had been formed in Southport three weeks earlier.
Later in the year, on September 13th 1879 the Alexandra BC held a sports meeting which was well attended and included the usual bicycle races and, unusually, a one mile boneshaker race which attracted ten competitors.
First class cricket was played at the ground and the Australian touring team played a match on July 29th-31st 1880 at Crewe.
In January 1885, the Athletic Club invited tenders for a new cycle track and the new cinder path was opened at a meeting on July 4th 1885. Around 10,000 people were at the meeting and there were a large number of competitors, thirty eight in the half mile bicycle handicap race and thirty four in the mile. The top bicycle race was a one mile scratch, first prize was a Royal Mail bicycle, valued at £20, donated by Blackhurst bicycle agents of Crewe. A five miles Alexandra BC Challenge Cup handicap race was held on 25th September 1886 with sixteen riders.
At the Annual Festival sports on 6th July 1889, crack rider Herbert Synyer of the Nottingham Boulevard CC competed and won the one mile scratch race for ten guineas. The festival was the leading sports meeting in the area and attracted 6,000 spectators.
Crewe Cycling Club* was formed in 1891 and they held their first annual athletics sports meeting at the recreation ground on August 27th 1892, this meeting included a three miles inter-club race which had thirty competitors from Crewe, Betchton, Bignal and Northwich clubs. Their annual meetings were very popular, usually attracting over two thousand spectators and the meetings were held through the 1890s. Occasionally Crewe CC could not book the track for a weekend meeting, so they were forced to hold their annual sports meetings mid-week.
The main sporting events at the ground through the 1890s were the Athletics Club annual festival and the Cycling Club annual meeting. The festival attracted athletes from all round the North and Midlands, whist the cycling club sports was more of a local affair.
The recreation ground was eventually needed by the railway company to expand their operations in Crewe and in 1898 a new ground was built at Earle Street, which resulted in all the athletics and cycling track racing moving there. The old recreation ground did not wholly disappear, it just reduced in size and the football pitch remained in use. The recreation ground now forms part of Gresty Road stadium, which is the current home of Crewe Alexandra FC.
^ The name Alexandra became popular when the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, married Princess Alexandra in 1863. Several sports clubs incorporated the name Alexandra into their title.
# Crewe Bicycle Club was one of a small number of early cycling clubs in Crewe, other clubs were Crewe Swan BC (1877), Crewe Wanderers BC (1879) and Crewe Boiler BC (1906).
* Crewe Cycling Club had its headquarters in the Oak Farm and Cyclists' Hotel on Oak Street, from 1891. The club captain was George Hullett, who was also the hotel proprietor, he was an agent for Granville Cycles and taught ladies and gentlemen to ride at his Cycling School using a grand hall. Crewe CC were very active and started racing on the road in 1891, with a 50 miles club handicap race.
