Most football fans are supporters of keeping the traditions in the game that give it such a rich and varied history. It’s a matter of regret, therefore, that our own current sponsors and, it’s rumoured, future ground sponsors are involved in a process which could see the end of a part of football history.

The Wrexham Supporters Trust have been in contact with UTS to see if Saddlers fans can help their campaign to save the historical Turf pub (which adjoins the
Racecourse ground) from possible demolition.

The Racecourse ground is the oldest international football stadium still in use (Wales v Scotland March 1877 and Wales v New Zealand May 2007) and this, therefore, makes the Turf pub the oldest surviving building in the WORLD to have been used for international football , as the changing rooms were in the pub and continued to be used by Wrexham AFC until the 1950’s. Sadly the building is not the most architecturally significant building and as such it has failed to be granted listed status by the powers that be.

They fear, as concerned Wrexham FC fans and residents of the town, that the
developer who is looking to build on the land to the rear of the Kop End (which is land which our club is selling to clear the £3m debt incurred to allow the club out of admin last year) is being greedy and is trying to convince the Wolverhampton and Dudley Brewery (that’s Banks’s, of course) to sell the Turf and adjacent car park to them so they can build a row of retail units (you could say the the icing on their cake). The brewery, in private, are stating to the Trust that they wish to retain the Turf as a community pub and, hopefully, this will be the final outcome. In the meantime they are bringing this all to the public’s attention so hopefully keeping the brewery on side and it is for this reason they will to asking for signatures on a petition outside Bescot before the game on Saturday.

They have attached links to the relevant web-sites and would be greatly indebted for any help people can offer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turf_Hotel

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savetheturf/index.html