It always fascinates me how some venues endure so long in the memory, even without much tangible motoring legacy, while others are all too soon forgotten. Some entire regions, in fact, have had their huge roles in English motor sport history diminished to the point of non-existence.
For me, prime of these in the UK is Merseyside. The British Grand Prix was held at Aintree racecourse five times, of course, and etched its place in history by hosting some of the most memorably patriotic results, such as Moss winning there in 1955 and then the maestro and Brooks taking the English-built Vanwall to a win there in 1957. Yet the full Grand Prix circuit was only operational for a decade, billowing crowds of 150,000 soon just a memory and remodelling of the race track sadly wiping out much of the old circuit.
But Merseyside was about far more than the Aintree Grands Prix. In the earliest days of the 20th Century, Southport was the venue for street races and speed trials, the 1903 causing a stir when SF Edge entered attractive Napier employee Dorothy Levitt and, ye gads, the filly – not only a woman, but one who worked for a living! – only went and won her class in the Gladiator.
