Name The OLD Ground: No.3

[Scotimp]

Here's a tough one:

 

[Merthyr Imp]

The Feethams, Darlington?

 

[89spartans_12/03/77]

Old show ground?

 

[60sIMP]

Bradford PA?

 

[sedgleyimp]

Layer Road Colchester?

 

[Chesterimp]

Fellows Park, Walsall?

 

[Eweimps]

Isn’t that Blundell Park?

 

[impsimps]

Barnet, Underhill.

 

[Scotimp]

Some great answers so far - one of you has it right.

I took that photo in the early 1980s just after the ground in question was demolished -

- so which is it?

 

[Impecunious]

Has to be 60sIMP surely.

 

[clanford]

If it’s early 80s then has to be Park Avenue. What a great ground that was. Wish I’d seen it in the flesh.

 

[Eweimps]

Date sounds about right for Spartans’ guess. Scunny

 

[clanfordimp]

I'll go with Chester, Fellows Park, Walsall

 

[stokeimp]

Stamford?

 

[Davidimp]

Got to be Bradford park avenue, wasn't it a cricket ground like bramall Lane?

 

[S6Ian]

When Imps played at Guiseley the first time, I went via Park Avenue and it is incredible at how much of it remains. Terracing at one end complete with bricked up turnstile doors with even a sign showing 5/ entrance. I was back up there about 2 years ago and went back , part of the playing surface is covered over with cricket nets but it is amazing how much is still there.

 

[Scotimp]

60sIMP got it very early on, possibly because he is a 60sIMP: it is Park Avenue, home of Bradford Park Avenue.

They failed to be re-elected in 1970 after four successive bids for re-election, losing their place to Cambridge United. They soldiered on for three more seasons in the NPL before spending their final dying season sharing at Valley Parade. They folded in 1974 with debts of £57,652 - in today's money, that equates to £605,000, a terminal amount for a struggling Northern Premier League club with a crumbling former ground.

And that is the problem: the ground was already deteriorating rapidly by the time they lost their League place in 1970.

When I took that photo in the early 1980s (I think it was 1983), the stands had recently been demolished - you can clearly see some of the rubble to the left of the picture. Somewhat strangely, all the terraces were left in place, perhaps hoping for a revival of the club and a return to its spiritual home? The club did reform in 1974 and actually spent one season in the 1980s playing in the eerie surrounds of the old terraces before folding again. I haven't been near the place in more than three decades, but the ground was rendered unsuitable for further development when the area to the right of the photograph was redeveloped in the late 1980s, meaning that it is highly unlikely the site can ever be used for first class football again.

The current club - the third incarnation - dates from 1988.

Well done, everyone.

 

[Chesterimp]

If this suggestion is right, I should be hanging my head in shame at taking so long as that would be my local church in the background (the far one) -

Sealand Road, Chester?

 

[Chesterimp]

Thank heavens for that!!

 

[Scotimp]

When Imps played at Guiseley the first time, I went via Park Avenue and it is incredible at how much of it remains. Terracing at one end complete with bricked up turnstile doors with even a sign showing 5/ entrance. I was back up there about 2 years ago and went back , part of the playing surface is covered over with cricket nets but it is amazing how much is still there.

Thanks for the update - as I say, it is many years since I was there.

Amazing that so much of it has survived, almost half a century after it was abandoned.