Old photos of your ground

[Pliny Harris]

Saw this thread on the League 2 forum and thought it was fit. Nothing more pleasing to my eye than pre-Taylor report football stands etc. Since the non-league still has some wonderful, unique grounds and had even more interesting venues going way back, I thought we could have a go at this topic too. I'll start with the Shay.

History as seen from the NW corner in 1921:

Luton Town FA Cup replay in the snow in the '20s/'30s(?):

The Shay in the 1950s. This must be one of the North Stand when we had Tottenham in the Cup.

The Shay has been used for other sports in the past including golfing, baseball, boxing, speedway, and sadly rugby league to this date. Here it is proving a money spinner as an ice rink in the '50s:

Best reading out this caption in an old BBC RP accent while rubbing your thighs:

A few from Martin Parr's Pinteresque 1975/78 sets. I love how detached from each other everyone appears in these pictures, which is why I find them most representative of what it is to be a Town fan to this day:

Undated but the Skircoat Stand looking tidy:

A more unsightly North Stand as it were:

Looking fiiine (considering how it was back then) in the '90s:

Versus Stevenage in our original Conference days when we were at our lowest in support:

 

[Aberstone]

Three photos, one of our former home Lower Mead in 1983-84. Here is the Elmslie End:

Two of Grosvenor Vale, where we currently play, here in 1972:

 

[Sparrow]

Here's a selection of photos from the excellent Cardinal Tales Twitter account.

Aerial shot. Not sure of date taken.

 

[F Side Rat]

I have a really old picture of the rec but I need to upload it onto web.
Oldest one I have to date from around 1985....but I will be back!!

 

[DarkSithLord]

Great thread.

The above picture is of a crowd scene when we had our record attendance of 5,023 on the 23rd of April 1960 when we defeated Matlock 2-1 in just our second year of existence and it broke the Central Alliance Attendance record at the time.

Will see if I can dig a few more out.

 

[Paddy]

A few photos of our old ground Richmond Road over on this link

http://www.kingstonian.net/other.jsp?richmondRoadPhotos

 

[Luke Imp]

Sincil Bank:

This was before the Co-op Stand:

Old Stacey West Stand (or Clanford End as it was called back then):

This was where the Exec Boxes now are:

 

[ob1]

The old stand at Underhill which was demolished in 1964

 

[ob1]

The old stand being demolished and the new stand being built.

 

[CFC2010]

An aerial shot of the old greyound stadium and Sealand Road. Now an industrial estate.

Our record crowd against Chelsea in 1952.


The final game at Sealand Road


During the exile in Macclesfield

 

[DarkSithLord]

Some interesting photos from the Early Eightes of some some Sothern based clubs here - https://twitter.com/abwhite1952

 

[CrazyImp]

Sincil Bank:

This was before the Co-op Stand:

Old Stacey West Stand (or Clanford End as it was called back then):

This was where the Exec Boxes now are:

Love these. Proper character-filled lower league ground. Would love safe standing in the Stacey West again, chuck the away fans in the Echo in my opinion.

 

[Chris FGR]

The Lawn, circa late 90's/early 00's. The Barnfield terrace appears to be missing, so it was probably being built at the time, which would date it pre 01.



Facing the old Nympsfield Road end, the clubhouse/bar was on the left of this picture..

The Trevor Horsley Stand

The old main stand, sometime pre 96.

 

[les.gtfc]

We have an official Facebook page which publishes old photos of the Grimsby/Cleethorpes area and they have numerous albums with the odd Grimsby Town picture in them, but his one album is dedicated to old Grimsby Town photos. Not all are from Blundell Park though.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.362484610431265.98386.278471468832580&type=3

 

[The_Boss]

Sincil Bank looks like it was a cracking ground in past years.

 

[Habbinalan]

Great thread.

The above picture is of a crowd scene when we had our record attendance of 5,023 on the 23rd of April 1960 when we defeated Matlock 2-1 in just our second year of existence and it broke the Central Alliance Attendance record at the time.

Will see if I can dig a few more out.

Tripped over this mid-test match watching. I hadn't realised you were so young. Yet another team that I've seen which is younger than me - I was there for the 1969 FA Cup 1st round (and subsequent replay at Holker Street) but couldn't get to the second replay at Chesterfield.

A variation:

 

[Chris FGR]

Does anyone remember Dulwich's old Champion Hill stadium? It used to be massive by non-league standards. Can't find many pictures of it online.

 

[Davidimp]

Sincil Bank looks like it was a cracking ground in past years.

It was a fairly rare design back before the re-development post Bradford fire. Not many grounds had a big open terrace with a covered terrace and covered stand behind the goals.
The pictures posted by Luke are as I remember when I first started going in the early 80s.
The noise made by the fans on the sincil bank terrace was known as the mini hampden roar.

 

[Luke Imp]

Taken these from 'Scotimp' on Lincoln Vital from 87/88 season:

Echo Stand, which obviously hasn't changed. It was supposed to be the same size as the now Co-op Stand but we got relegated to the money went into the squad instead.

The stand, which now has the Exec Boxes

Stacey West

Co-op Stand

 

[Pliny Harris]

The stand, which now has the Exec Boxes

Such a strange stand. Really imposing with its huge ad displays above and below. Gives it a certain life and reminds me of the pics I've seen of Chester's Sealand Road terrace, or even the weird terrace/paddock at Boston United's ground.

I like the two main stands at Sincil Bank currently but the modern end stands don't have much going on.

 

[Luke Imp]

The SW was good when it was getting filled by home fans in the FL days but yeah, at the minute, it just houses about 100 away fans.

It's a bit of a weird Stadium really, albeit a good one in the lower leagues.

 

[Si Robin]

This is our ground from 1999

 

[McMark]

The Snow scene is from the 1940s

1970s Speedway

1980s

1970s?

1970s

Barrow Bombers Speedway 1970s

 

[Davidimp]

Our ground is a weird design.
I think a lot of it is due to its location, the sincil drain behind the co-op stand and then the fire and ambulance stations behind the echo stand making quite restricted. Suppose they could have turned around 90 degrees but we're meant to be moving so we will see.
Definitely could have a better job of the south park stand (the stand with exec boxes) and made it a proper away stand and re-done the echo and the exec boxes in there.

 

[CPD_Wrecsam]

The Racecourse 1948

Tech End/Border Stand and Yale Stand 1950

Mold Road Stand & Tech End 1960

Early 70s and the Yale stand had just been built. Capacity was 36,000!

Kop End and 'pigeon loft' 1970s.

Stadium mid 70s.

Mold Road Stand & Paddock 1979

Kop End and Yale Stand 1992

A more recent picture

 

[Pliny Harris]

Mold Road Stand & Paddock 1979

My god that's fit.

 

[HertsWolf]

Some fantastic photos there.

 

[CFC2010]

The Racecourse 1948
A more recent picture

Must admit, even as a Chester fan, the racecourse is a cracking ground. Could imagine for most clubs its a cracking away day with the location of the station and town center.

 

[CPD_Wrecsam]

Must admit, even as a Chester fan, the racecourse is a cracking ground. Could imagine for most clubs its a cracking away day with the location of the station and town center.

It should be, but we had the 5th lowest number of visiting supporters in the league last season, even with your 1,200 which bumped it up significantly - it would've been fourth lowest without your figure. We had an average of 165 away fans, you had 225 and there's only 11 miles distance between us...