Ferndale Road and the County Ground
As seen from Ferndale Road
By Mrs Jeanne Edyvean
I came here at the age of three with my parents in 1920. We lived in Ferndale Road in a house over looking the County Ground. It was used by Exeter Rugby Football Club. I remember being there with my dad sometimes on a Saturday afternoon when mum was out shopping. If we didn't have much to do we'd go upstairs in the front bedroom and look out and we could see the match. I was quite bored and I never really understood the rules. I was about four or five. They were never very well attended, not like the football matches.
Tennis courts in summer
And then it was the tennis courts in summer, marked out on the grass, and one or two big events like the combined schools sports day and the fireworks display. It was quite quiet living there.
Yellow painted milk carts
In those days milk carts came around, little ponies and yellow painted carts; vegetables and fish men. It made things easier. And there were little grocers' shops on the corners all round the area. That was in the early 1920s. There was an old chap called Chudley and his wife and son. They were the vegetable people. It was a family affair. Then there were fish men and fish women. They'd come up the road with their carts, all calling their wares.
Arrival of the Speedway
It was 1929 when the Speedway came. We looked across the road and there was a wall and the ground where people stood. We could see the other half of the track. It was there a few seasons, then it seemed to just die down. We left Ferndale Road in 1932 but I think 1931 might have been the last one. It didn't open again until after the war.
Horrible black dirt
They called it 'dirt track racing' and it was a dirt track, made of powdered black cinders. There was this horrible black dirt. The riders had a kind of scuffle effect as they went round a bend to check their speed. This would raise the dirt, and the wind blew it around all the time when there wasn't any racing taking place. They used to have men out there watering the track in the dry weather, wasting gallons and gallons of water. It wouldn't go down well these days. The dust got onto the white paint on our window sills. You couldn't keep them clean. That was worse than the noise because that went on all the time. You only had the noise when they were having a meeting or a practice.