Greetings
Last Saturday Bandits4Eva and myself decided to take a trip to the Berwick Bandits old stadium at Berrington Lough... This was my second attempt to find it, the last being last November when hopelessly unprepared I spent a fruitless afternoon driving down various country lanes while B4E was in the hairdressers... This time armed with an image in my head courtesy of Google Maps and a rough idea where I was going I succeeded.
Here are a selection of photographs.. Apologies for the poor quality due to the 2.0 mega pixel camera on my 4 year old Sony Ericsson mobile phone
Photos from Berrington Lough
Here are directions for those travelling fans visiting Berwick who may want to take a look for themselves
From Berwick:
Take the A1 south
Take the turning signposted B6525 Wooler
You'll pass through the small village of Ancroft after about a mile and a half.
After around another mile there is a narrow unmarked country lane on the right with a small letter box on the corner... Turn up this narrow lane which is approximately 10 feet wide.
Keep on up the lane, passing a driveway with a the stone sign "Berrington Law", until you see a blue gate on your right just before the lane bends sharply to the left. There is a house on the corner of the bend.
The blue gate is the entrance to the stadium and was padlocked shut when we visited.
The land is private, so you'll be entering without permission, but if you feel brave, climb over the gate and walk the 400 or so yards down the rough gravel road that bends to the right half way down... This will bring you to the remains of Berrington Lough Stadium.
There are more photos on the excellent website www.defunctspeedway.co.uk
It's hard to believe that the stadium hosted top flight British Speedway for a season with such riders as Nilsen, Tatum, Ermolenko and Nielsen riding round the tiny track!!
If you visit in the summer months and don't like flying insects then this probably isn't for you!!
Best of luck