Lost football grounds...

[Supermitch]

...I know what you are getting at Admin, but it isn't The Valley, even though their terracing was huge they didn't have a stand at the lower level. This picture is from the 1930's by the way, the league team are still in existence but play in a different stadium...

Is it The Nest, former home  of Norwich City?

[LBNo11]

...I know what you are getting at Admin, but it isn't The Valley, even though their terracing was huge they didn't have a stand at the lower level. This picture is from the 1930's by the way, the league team are still in existence but play in a different stadium...

Is it The Nest, former home  of Norwich City?

...well done SuperMitch, I will have to award you something, I know, I'll ask David Lloyd to allow you to sell the next edition of TOOFIF at the ground..!

[HillingdonFFC]

...I know what you are getting at Admin, but it isn't The Valley, even though their terracing was huge they didn't have a stand at the lower level. This picture is from the 1930's by the way, the league team are still in existence but play in a different stadium...

Is it The Nest, former home  of Norwich City?

...I know what you are getting at Admin, but it isn't The Valley, even though their terracing was huge they didn't have a stand at the lower level. This picture is from the 1930's by the way, the league team are still in existence but play in a different stadium...

Is it The Nest, former home  of Norwich City?

Yep its the Nest, mustve been an amazing place

[Supermitch]

...I know what you are getting at Admin, but it isn't The Valley, even though their terracing was huge they didn't have a stand at the lower level. This picture is from the 1930's by the way, the league team are still in existence but play in a different stadium...

Is it The Nest, former home  of Norwich City?

...well done SuperMitch, I will have to award you something, I know, I'll ask David Lloyd to allow you to sell the next edition of TOOFIF at the ground..!

Thanks :005:

Football grounds are as you know a bit of a hobby of mine, along with other sports stadia.  I was on a tour on Monday of Wrigley Field, home of Chicago Cubs.  Fantastic old ball park, second oldest with lots of character in the same way as Craven Cottage.  Like Fulham the Cubs have not won too much on the pitch.

[cmg]

...I know what you are getting at Admin, but it isn't The Valley, even though their terracing was huge they didn't have a stand at the lower level. This picture is from the 1930's by the way, the league team are still in existence but play in a different stadium...

Is it The Nest, former home  of Norwich City?

...I know what you are getting at Admin, but it isn't The Valley, even though their terracing was huge they didn't have a stand at the lower level. This picture is from the 1930's by the way, the league team are still in existence but play in a different stadium...

Is it The Nest, former home  of Norwich City?

Yep its the Nest, mustve been an amazing place

Fantastic looking place. Incredible what people would put up with in terms of comfort and safety. I'm not quite old enough to have known the Nest, but when I first went to Selhurst Park the Whitehorse Lane terrace only had concrete steppings half way up, the rest was just a grassy/muddy/cinder bank. Don't think modern H&S would be impressed.

The old Crystal Palace Sports ground, venue of early Cup Finals and 110,000  crowds, is worth looking at. The National Sports Centre is there now, but the old ground survived, derelict until the Sports Centre was built in the 60s. One wonders how many of the crowd could actually see anything.

[DiegoFulham]

I played for Kingstonian (briefly) and I understand that is now a housing estate

What you on about housing estate? Kingstoniain/AFC Wimbledon are stilling playing at kingsmedow?

[Two Ton Ted]

Kingstonian played at Richmond Road, behind the Shell Garage, until 1989.

[LBNo11]

I played for Kingstonian (briefly) and I understand that is now a housing estate

What you on about housing estate? Kingstoniain/AFC Wimbledon are stilling playing at kingsmedow?

...he is referring to when Kingstonian used to have a ramshackle ground on the Richmond Road up until (1989), I used to go there now and again in the '70's and there was a big bloke who used to shout at the top of his voice "Come On You 'K's" you could hear him all around the ground - hmm, might explain something..!

[LBNo11]

BY MARK - JUNE, 13TH 2011
After a depressing few days, let's try and lighten the mood a little as Mark Murphy brings us his memories of the former home of Kingstonian FC at Richmond Road.

I only saw the death throes of Isthmian League Kingstonian's Richmond Road ground. But it still had 'something.' And (sorry if this is "too much information") most of my dreams involving Kingstonian games are still at Richmond Road, despite it hosting its last fixtures in January 1988. Richmond Road had housed Kingstonian (Ks) since the club took on the name – and the mantle of "town club" – in 1919. Before the "great" war, there was a "Kingston-on-Thames FC" there. This club emerged from the primordial swamp of clubs which characterised organised football's development in the town at the turn of the last century. And in 1907... it split again.

Kingston-on-Thames continued at Richmond Road and the "new" club, Old Kingstonians ("Old" being the 1900s equivalent of "AFC"), played at Norbiton Sports Ground, on which now stands Kingsmeadow Stadium, where Ks now play and to where Wimbledon will bring league football in August. With war dissipating old enmities, "Kingstonian" was formed in 1919 and although the Norbiton Sports Ground was available for £2,225 in April of that year, the £2,225 was not available; a lot of money in those days etc...

Richmond Road, which had done wartime service as allotments, was owned by trustees of the Dysart Estate, representatives of a Scottish earldom which was an extensive local landowner. Ks negotiated tenancy and readied it for the 1919 Athenian League season, drawing their first home game 2-2 against Wimbledon on 13th September. There were early complications as the clearly non-football-loving Dysarts leased the ground to Leyland Motors FC the following season. After much verbal and written argument, a groundshare deal was hammered out. But Ks soon had the financial wherewithal to buy the eight-acre site for £5,000 (a LOT of money in those days etc...) and set up "permanent" home. A £1,100 stand was opened in January 1922 and was extended in 1925 by a lower stand from nearby Surbiton's Horse Show Society.

Most pictures of the ground in the late 20s were instantly recognisable as the ground which existed in the late 80s – except that there were a few (thousand) more people, mostly men in hats, around in the 20s. The piecemeal main stand – part football, part show jumping – was dwarfed by a massive 40-odd step terracing behind one goal, which would be remarkably full on big match days as Ks won two Athenian League titles in the mid-20s and were accepted into the supposedly higher-standard Isthmian League in 1929, winning two Isthmian titles in the mid-30s. But the grass banking behind the other goal was as much of a focal point, not least because it provided a view of two games at once, with Ks "reserve" pitch standing the other side of the mound, giving older supporters two opportunities for the price of one to shout "bloody rubbish, Kingston, I'm never coming again."

The inter-war years were Kingstonian's most successful, until their administration-inducing three-year spell in the Conference a decade ago. And the gradual decline in Ks fortunes after World War II was mirrored by changes to Richmond Road's layout and surroundings. While covered terracing was added opposite the main stand, and floodlights were introduced in the early 60s, the ground was all-too-often a solution to increasing financial problems. It may have been amateur football, watched by thousands of paying customers each season. But to pay what bills there were, Ks had to sell swathes of land in and around the ground. In 1956, fans entering the ground off the actual Richmond Road had to fend for attention with motor vehicles visiting the new petrol station (named 'Kingstonian') built on part of the Richmond Road frontage.

Attempts to sell the reserve pitch in 1957 for flat and maisonette development were foiled by Kingston Council. But both the mound and the reserve pitch it overlooked disappeared under a housing development and a new clubhouse and club car park in 1974, restricting standing room behind the goal from a couple of thousand to a couple of dozen. During those years, overall crowd numbers plummeted equally rapidly. And by 1984, the ground was embarrassingly larger than necessary, as well as a logistical and financial nightmare to maintain. It was a dishevelled, ramshackle Richmond Road into which I walked for the first time on March 23rd 1982 – and, no, I didn't have to look the date up. My first game was a biggie, a League Cup semi-final against a powerful Wycombe Wanderers team. And although the crowd didn't look enormous to me, it was apparently the biggest Richmond Road had seen in "many, many years."

Ks were too embarrassed to print crowd figures, and my first few league games demonstrated why. The Richmond Road terracing was big enough for each of us to have two-and-a-bit rows to ourselves. The personalities in the main stand(s) could be named individually. And the terracing opposite the main stand was almost entirely superfluous. The restricted standing room where the mound used to be was a curious exception. The clubhouse wall was so close to the action that wayward shots (of which there were plenty in the early 80s) would hammer dangerously into the brickwork, with the ball rebounding at indeterminate angles into the back of heads of fans not paying attention.

The distance between wall and pitch was so small that the terracing provided little more than a snug fit for some of our larger fans. And if the more rotund among us wanted to become less rotund, a trip to the clubhouse would do the trick. Its wall may have been right behind us. But a combination of a strategically-placed gate halfway across the terrace and the club's inability to find its key meant that a trip to the clubhouse entrance involved an entire lap of the ground. This rendered the concept of a quick half-time pint (or piss) obsolete for those who liked to stand behind that goal. So there was plenty of Richmond Road which was not missed when the land became the inevitable housing estate of the day. But the move to Kingsmeadow was as messy as the old ground had become.

The Richmond Road end had just been sold to property developers when it was announced in February 1984 that club members had voted to sell the rest, valued at "more than £1m," amid forecasts that Ks wouldn't otherwise survive the decade. Yet Ks didn't leave until 1988, by which time property values had consumed the six-figure profits initially envisaged. Kingsmeadow wasn't opened until August 1989 and Ks shared neighbouring Hampton's ground in the interim, with two "home" games in Carshalton, almost far enough away for us to develop an accent. And Kingsmeadow, though relatively impressive, was one of the identikit new stadia of the time – Aylesbury's ground, completed shortly beforehand, pretty much WAS identical. But I missed 'something' about the old place, for all its faults; probably that it was so old yet so recognisable as the ground in grainy 1920s images. It was easy to sense the excitement of former days, even if it was harder to visualise the thousands crammed into the place. And so it is that my dreams involving Kingstonian matches still usually revolve around Richmond Road.

http://twohundredpercent.net/?p=13280

[ffc73]

Kingstonian played at Richmond Road, behind the Shell Garage, until 1989.

That's the place Two Ton Ted.  I played there back in 1981 to 1983 before moving to Hampton in 1983 to 1985 (before they added the & Richmond).  Just googled it and they still play Belvedere (i assume the slope is still there too)

[Scrumpy]

...I doubt there will be anyone old enough to remember this ground, it would be great to offer a prize for who gets this strange ground, but all we can offer is a pat on the back and a round of applause:-

Is it The Dell?

[LBNo11]

...I doubt there will be anyone old enough to remember this ground, it would be great to offer a prize for who gets this strange ground, but all we can offer is a pat on the back and a round of applause:-

Is it The Dell?

...see reply number 40 in this thread Scrumpy - it's Naarch's old ground..!

[Two Ton Ted]

The Nest was actually inside a quarry.

Parts of it still existed on Rosary Road, Norwich, if anyone what's to investigate when we play there next.

[Travers Barney]

I am subscribing to a newsletter from a supporters group of Third Lanark FC who are trying to elevate their club back up the Scottish Non League scene.

I very vaguely remember their results being read out on a Saturday evening (they went out of existence in 1967).

Based in Glasgow they won the Scottish League and Cup during their 90 odd year history and were runners up of the Scottish League cup as recently as 59/60..their ground had a capacity of 50,000.

Remnants of their ground Cathkin Park still exist today...if I was cleverer then I'd post them.

If anyone wants me to forward a copy of the newsletter just PM me with your e-mail and I will forward......now don't all rush at once.

Great thread.

coyw

[LBNo11]

...Barney Travers, here is a thread from nearly three years ago which was all about Third Lanark and their petition, worth another look:-

http://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?topic=6657.0

[Burt]

Something quite haunting about Cathkin Park...sad.

[Holders]

The old Valley with that strange old stand - and Plough Lane was memorable, if a dump.

I've just got back from Scotland and saw quite a few grounds as I drove around - Ayr, Kilmarnock, Dunfermline, Forfar, Raith Rovers (which was in Kirkcaldy, and surprisingly large) but the one that really impressed me was Arbroath. It was right on the seafront, next to the harbour and looked like a dilapidated quainter version of Leatherhead. Would love to see a match there.

[The Wild Goat]

One of the more Bizarre ones was Northamptons where it had 3 sides and the other side if i remeber correctly was part of Northamtonshire Cricket ground

Bramall Lane had a similar set-up on an even bigger scale. Yorkshire CCC played there until 1973.

Another Yorkshire football/cricket ground, and a lovely place, was Bradford Park Avenue. But here the grounds were divided by a double-fronted stand (a bit like the one at Headingly). Cricket is still played there, but Bradford FC are long gone.

Bradford Park Avenue still exist  albeit at a different stadium, they have worked their way up to the Conference North after going bust in 1974 and re-forming as a Sunday league team!

[LBNo11]

...the lovely old Bradford PA ground stand:-

[cmg]

Bradford Park Avenue still exist  albeit at a different stadium, they have worked their way up to the Conference North after going bust in
1974 and re-forming as a Sunday league team!

Best of luck to them. I hope they thrive.

I still remember being stood in the upper deck of the cricket side of their old stand and almost having the pint of Tetley's knocked out of my hand by a six from Freddie Trueman. (Bizarre thing is that Trueman was playing against Yorkshire for Derbyshire in the Sunday League.)

Great picture.