Brighton Racecourse is on the up again after years of decline. The Argus will be sponsoring a race at the course on Friday, and here in the first of two features, ADAM TRIMINGHAM looks at its history.

HUGE crowds used to go to Brighton Racecourse in its greatest days just before and after the last war.

Trams used to groan going up the steep hill at Elm Grove at the rate of one a minute on summer days in the Thirties.

It is hard to imagine now when the course seldom, if ever, attracts a capacity crowd.

But the downland course was one of the main features then, and there are hopes that it could be again following the introduction of new management last year.

This course is one of the oldest places of Brighton and was established in 1783 on Whitehawk Down, land to be known for ever after as the Race Hill.

The Duke of Cumberland, the Marquess of Queensberry and the Earl of Egremont, all local notables, were among the organisers.

The next year the course was given a fillip when George, Prince of Wales, paid it a visit and became a regular follower of racing.

This helped make the course fashionable and by the end of the 1780s, stands had been established there.

Later, Thomas Kemp, founder of Kemp Town, bequeathed the land on which the racecourse stood to the town.

The opening of the railway to London in the 1840s marked a big change in Brighton as a resort, opening it up for the first time to mass tourism.

This also made a difference to the racecourse and there were worres that rough elements from the capital were being attracted to the races for days out.

In 1850, trustees were formed to run the course and they introduced strict rules to control the riff raff.

They also made a series of improvements, including the building of a new stand.

The trustees made so much money out of racing in the latter half of the last century that they were able to buy the land now known as Queen's Park for the town, while a wealthy bookmaker financed the purchase of Preston Park.

They also came to an arrangement with Brighton Council which meant that for a century, it owned and ran the course.

In the Twenties, undesirable elements once again gave the course an unsavoury reputation and this continued until the Second World War.

There were often fights, some including attacks by razor-wielding gangsters, in full view of ordinary spectators.

Much of the trouble was caused by gangs from London clashing with each other and the local underworld in protection rackets.

Graham Greene immortalised this seedy side of life in his pre-war novel Brighton Rock, which was made into a film in 1948.

But the council was not pleased at the publicity from the film and ordered the crew off the course.

Big improvements were made to the course during its palmy days, including the building of more stands and the subway that led to the burgeoning Whitehawk estate.

The course closed during the war but crowds as big as ever started flocking there when racing was resumed in 1945.

The present grandstand, which dominates views of the course, was built in 1965 but by this time the course had started a long decline.

People began to find other things to do with their time and a few days racing at Brighton did not compare with the attractions of a bargain break in Benidorm.

But the council made strenuous efforts to improve the course. It tried valiantly without success to increase the number of meetings from 17 a year and to allow Saturday racing.

It also arranged many off-course activities until by the Seventies, only a small amount of income came from actual racing.

Course chairman for much of this time was local farmer Frank Masefield-Baker.

With others, he successfully fought off a plan to build houses on the course in 1963 to cope with the desperate shortage in Brighton.

Councillors remained committed to the course when Labour took over Brighton Council in 1986 after 130 years of Tory rule.

But they realised that with Government restrictions on borrowing it would never be possible to get enough investment for the course.

Last year, the council decided to hand over management to the well-established company Northern Racing.

They were influenced by this company's excellent track record in turning round similarly down-at-heel courses in Newcastle and Uttoxeter.

Already Northern has made a difference with improvements to the ground and it is prepared to put about £5 million into Brighton over the next few years.

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