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Old Show Ground
The Old Show Ground was a football stadium in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, that was the original home of Scunthorpe United from 1899 until 1988, when they moved to Glanford Park – the first newly constructed Football League stadium since Southend United's Roots Hall 33 years earlier.
Evidence shows that the site, situated in the centre of Scunthorpe at the junction of Doncaster Road and Henderson Avenue, was hosting events, including the annual Scunthorpe show, as far back as 1867. When first taking over the site in 1899, Scunthorpe paid an annual £10 rent. The site was also initially known simply as "the Showground", but it is unclear when the prefix "Old" was added.
Scunthorpe's merger with local side North Lindsey United saw the club renamed Scunthorpe & Lindsey United in 1910, with the new club's admission to the Midland League two years later ensuring that the Old Showground hosted semi-professional football for the first time. There were two separate efforts to have the ground demolished in World War I, to be replaced with houses or allotments; but these efforts were successfully fought off by the football club and local benefactors.
When competitive football resumed at the end of the war, Scunthorpe & Lindsey United bought the ground from its owners for £2,980 in December 1919; down from the original £7,000 price they were quoted three months earlier.
Following a fire four years earlier, which burned the entire West Stand, including the changing rooms and team kit, debts of £760 from two new stands at the Old Showground proved potentially fatal. The efforts to sell the ground and the club's resignation from the Midland League were only withdrawn at the 11th hour in November 1924, after all players agreed to take a pay cut and the Barnsley Brewing Company agreed to take over a £400 mortgage owed on the ground.
With competitive football suspended following the outbreak of World War II and large gatherings banned in coastal communities, the Old Showground hosted arch-rivals Grimsby Town in lieu of their own Blundell Park being unavailable. Highlights included 15,000 spectators attending Grimsby's 1942 Football League War Cup semi-final against Sunderland. The Old Showground then hosted Football League football for the first time after Scunthorpe & Lindsey United's successful election to the Football League in 1950, with a 0–0 draw against Shrewsbury in the Third Division North.
Scunthorpe's record attendance of 23,935 was set at the Old Show Ground on 30 January 1954 for an FA Cup fourth round tie against Portsmouth. The club's highest-ever attendance for a league fixture, 19,076 against Grimsby, was set two years later.
In March 1958, just before the club's Third Division North title win, the stadium's East Stand was destroyed by fire, with manager Ron Suart only finding out after a group of local children burst into his office to break the news. The stand was rebuilt in just five months.
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Old Show Ground
The Old Show Ground was a football stadium in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, that was the original home of Scunthorpe United from 1899 until 1988, when they moved to Glanford Park – the first newly constructed Football League stadium since Southend United's Roots Hall 33 years earlier.
Evidence shows that the site, situated in the centre of Scunthorpe at the junction of Doncaster Road and Henderson Avenue, was hosting events, including the annual Scunthorpe show, as far back as 1867. When first taking over the site in 1899, Scunthorpe paid an annual £10 rent. The site was also initially known simply as "the Showground", but it is unclear when the prefix "Old" was added.
Scunthorpe's merger with local side North Lindsey United saw the club renamed Scunthorpe & Lindsey United in 1910, with the new club's admission to the Midland League two years later ensuring that the Old Showground hosted semi-professional football for the first time. There were two separate efforts to have the ground demolished in World War I, to be replaced with houses or allotments; but these efforts were successfully fought off by the football club and local benefactors.
When competitive football resumed at the end of the war, Scunthorpe & Lindsey United bought the ground from its owners for £2,980 in December 1919; down from the original £7,000 price they were quoted three months earlier.
Following a fire four years earlier, which burned the entire West Stand, including the changing rooms and team kit, debts of £760 from two new stands at the Old Showground proved potentially fatal. The efforts to sell the ground and the club's resignation from the Midland League were only withdrawn at the 11th hour in November 1924, after all players agreed to take a pay cut and the Barnsley Brewing Company agreed to take over a £400 mortgage owed on the ground.
With competitive football suspended following the outbreak of World War II and large gatherings banned in coastal communities, the Old Showground hosted arch-rivals Grimsby Town in lieu of their own Blundell Park being unavailable. Highlights included 15,000 spectators attending Grimsby's 1942 Football League War Cup semi-final against Sunderland. The Old Showground then hosted Football League football for the first time after Scunthorpe & Lindsey United's successful election to the Football League in 1950, with a 0–0 draw against Shrewsbury in the Third Division North.
Scunthorpe's record attendance of 23,935 was set at the Old Show Ground on 30 January 1954 for an FA Cup fourth round tie against Portsmouth. The club's highest-ever attendance for a league fixture, 19,076 against Grimsby, was set two years later.
In March 1958, just before the club's Third Division North title win, the stadium's East Stand was destroyed by fire, with manager Ron Suart only finding out after a group of local children burst into his office to break the news. The stand was rebuilt in just five months.