I have just added this to the map of places to fly your drone at Drone Scene:
Land owner permission not required.
The Scott House Reservoir was built in 1879 to hold water from nearby pumping stations but was abandoned in 1925 due to subsidence from local mining. The circuit was built inside the dis-used reservoir in 1952 utilizing the site of a former reservoir, before opening for the first time in 1954 but closed down a year later. The defunct Hednesford circuit was aquired by Bill Morris who ran a handful of practice meetings' in 1962. The circuit was fully re-opened in April 1963 and from that point onwards the promotion of Stock Car and Hot Rod racing has been uninterrupted at the popular Staffordshire speed-bowl for over half a century. The shale oval was eventually resurfaced with asphalt in 1966, enabling lap times to fall drastically and track records to tumble. It is said that four times World Hot Rod champion Carl Boardley got the quarter mile down to almost 12 seconds in unofficial practice, making Hednesford Europe's fastest quarter-mile oval.
The circuit has been featured on BBC's Top Gear programme in the past, in a feature on banger racing. In addition, a number of satellite TV channels feature both banger and stock car races from the circuit and the 100th edition of Tiswas was broadcast live from Hednesford Raceway back in the Seventies.
It was the first time I had visited the site for the best part of 40 years and I recalled having had some great times working at the race track in the early 80s as a member of the track crew.
PARKING & TOAL
Coming off the A460 from Rugeley I followed the signs for Beaudesert Golf Course at the traffic lights and headed up the hill on Rawnsley Rd. Ignoring the turn off left for the Golf Course I carried on until I reached House No 179 (or thereabouts) on the righthand side of the road. There is a gap between the houses with a trail that leads steeply up to the Raceway. I parked in the gap but you can park on the side of the road further up where there aren't any double yellow lines.
My TOAL was right outside the Raceway Gates so would be amazed if I was impinging on the SSSi (I doubt the local inhabitants, 4 legged or 2, would be worried about a small drone when they have to contend with armageddon every other weekend)!
The flight was not in a FRZ and Cannock Council do not have a bylaw or policy against drones. There is an SSSi but see my comment above!
The originator declared that this location was not inside a Flight Restriction Zone at the time of being flown on 20/04/2023. It remains the responsibility of any pilot to check for any changes before flying at the same location.
