It is 28 years since time was called on Chester's Greyhound Stadium and the land where it once stood is unrecognisable nowadays.

Crowds still head to the Greyhound Retail Park to indulge in a spot of retail therapy, but for many years people flocked to the same location to indulge in a wholly different pastime – greyhound racing.

The Chronicle has received rare footage of the Greyhound Stadium in its heyday, filmed by Cestrian Malcolm Powell during a well-attended meeting, believed to be in 1968

Racing at the track was held twice a week – on a Saturday and Monday – before the track was closed in 1987 to make way for a string of big-name shopping outlets.

Famous footballers of the time such as Alan Ball and Emlyn Hughes were known to pay frequent visits to the the stadium, but it was bulldozed just a few years before the same fate befell the neighbouring football ground belonging to Chester FC in 1990.

It was the end of an era for spectator sport in the Sealand Road area, although greyhound racing did continue at nearby Ellesmere Port for a time while a new home for the football club was opened on Bumpers Lane in 1992.

IN PICTURES: Images of a deserted Greyhound Stadium following its closure in 1987.

Video copyright: R.M. Powell