Burnden Park
Encyclopedia
Burnden Park was the home of English
FA Premier League
football club Bolton Wanderers
who played home games here between 1895 and 1997. As well as hosting an FA Cup Final
replay it was the scene of one of the greatest disasters in English football and the subject of an L. S. Lowry
painting before it was demolished in 1999.
area of Bolton
- approximately one mile from the town centre
- the ground served as the home of the town's football team for 102 years. It also hosted the replay of the 1901 FA Cup Final
, in which Tottenham Hotspur
beat Sheffield United
3-1.
In its heyday, Burnden Park could hold crowds of up to 70,000, but this figure was dramatically reduced during the final 20 years of its life, mainly because of new legislation which saw virtually all English stadia reduce their capacities for safety reasons. A section of the embankment was sold off in 1986 to make way for a new Normid superstore (which had closed by the end of the 1990s). At this time, Bolton were in a dire position financially and were struggling in the Football League Third Division
, so there was a low demand for tickets and the loss of part of the ground gave the Bolton directors good value for money.
The club's directors had decided by 1992 that it would be difficult to convert Burnden Park into an all-seater stadium for a club of Bolton's ambition. They were members of the new Division Two (which was known as the Third Division until the creation of the Premier League) but the club had ambitions to reach the top flight.
The last ever Wanderers game played at the historic ground was against Charlton Athletic
in April 1997. Bolton, who were already Division One champions, defeated Charlton 4-1 after being 1-0 down at half time. Whites' legend John McGinlay
scored the final goal shortly before Bolton received their trophy and the crowd united in singing Auld Lang Syne
.
It was decided to build a new multi-million pound 25,000-seater stadium (later raised to 28,000) - the Reebok Stadium
- at the Middlebrook
development and the move went ahead in 1997, despite the sadness of many fans.
quarter final second leg tie between Bolton and Stoke City.
The disaster led to the Moelwyn Hughes
's official report, which recommended limitations on crowd sizes.
, starring Alan Bates
and June Ritchie
. Part of the Arthur Askey
film "The Love Match" was also filmed at Burnden Park in the early 1950s. A painting of Burnden Park in 1953 by L.S. Lowry, "Going To The Match" was bought for £1.9m by the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) in 1999.
As one of the main routes into town, the site needed to be redeveloped after demolition took place in 1999.
There is now an Asda
superstore on the site, which opened in 2005 after taking over the Big W
. The Asda store identifies itself with Burnden Park by having a number of extremely large photographs of the former stadium and players, placed high above the checkouts. Also on the site are a Co-op
travel agents, a Subway restaurant
, a Carphone Warehouse
and a Johnson's Cleaners adjacent to Manchester Road. A new JJB fitness centre/sports store has also moved here (roughly where the Burnden Stand was), to make a significant, out of town development. There is one empty unit situated between Asda
and JJB which was for conversion into three shops and was due to open November 2007 - January 2008, a Poundstretcher
, a Pets Galore and an unknown food shop similar to Home Bargains
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
FA Premier League
FA Premier League
The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier...
football club Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers F.C.
Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....
who played home games here between 1895 and 1997. As well as hosting an FA Cup Final
FA Cup Final
The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. With an official attendance of 89,826 at the 2007 FA Cup Final, it is the fourth best attended domestic club championship event in the world and the second most...
replay it was the scene of one of the greatest disasters in English football and the subject of an L. S. Lowry
L. S. Lowry
Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist born in Barrett Street, Stretford, Lancashire. Many of his drawings and paintings depict nearby Salford and surrounding areas, including Pendlebury, where he lived and worked for over 40 years at 117 Station Road , opposite St...
painting before it was demolished in 1999.
Location
Situated on Manchester Road in the BurndenBurnden
Burnden is a district in the town of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. It is located about southeast of Bolton town centre and the same distance north of Great Lever....
area of Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
- approximately one mile from the town centre
Town centre
The town centre is the term used to refer to the commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town.Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train or bus stations...
- the ground served as the home of the town's football team for 102 years. It also hosted the replay of the 1901 FA Cup Final
1901 FA Cup Final
The 1901 FA Cup Final was played at Crystal Palace between Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield United–and the first FA Cup Final to be filmed by Pathé News.-Match details:-Replay:-Match Rules:*90 minutes....
, in which Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....
beat Sheffield United
Sheffield United F.C.
Sheffield United Football Club is a professional English football club based in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire.They were the first sporting team to use the name 'United' and are nicknamed 'The Blades', thanks to Sheffield's worldwide reputation for steel production...
3-1.
History
Bolton Wanderers was formed in 1874 as Christ Church FC, with the vicar as club president. After disagreements about the use of church premises, the club broke away and became Bolton Wanderers in 1877 meeting at the Gladstone Hotel. At this time Bolton played at Pike’s Lane but needed a purpose built ground to play home matches. As a result Bolton Wanderers Football and Athletic Club, one of the 12 founder members of the Football League, became a Limited Company in 1894 and shares were raised to build a ground. Land at Burnden was leased at £130 per annum and £4,000 raised to build the stadium. Burnden Park was completed in August 1895. The opening match was a benefit match against Preston and the first League match was against Everton in front of a 15,000 crowd.In its heyday, Burnden Park could hold crowds of up to 70,000, but this figure was dramatically reduced during the final 20 years of its life, mainly because of new legislation which saw virtually all English stadia reduce their capacities for safety reasons. A section of the embankment was sold off in 1986 to make way for a new Normid superstore (which had closed by the end of the 1990s). At this time, Bolton were in a dire position financially and were struggling in the Football League Third Division
Football League Third Division
The Football League Third Division was the 3 tier of English Football from 1920 until 1992 when after the formation of the Football Association Premier League saw the league renamed The Football League Division Two...
, so there was a low demand for tickets and the loss of part of the ground gave the Bolton directors good value for money.
The club's directors had decided by 1992 that it would be difficult to convert Burnden Park into an all-seater stadium for a club of Bolton's ambition. They were members of the new Division Two (which was known as the Third Division until the creation of the Premier League) but the club had ambitions to reach the top flight.
The last ever Wanderers game played at the historic ground was against Charlton Athletic
Charlton Athletic F.C.
Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...
in April 1997. Bolton, who were already Division One champions, defeated Charlton 4-1 after being 1-0 down at half time. Whites' legend John McGinlay
John McGinlay
John McGinlay is a Scottish former footballer who is perhaps best known for his spell at Bolton Wanderers in the mid to late 1990s.-Early Career:...
scored the final goal shortly before Bolton received their trophy and the crowd united in singing Auld Lang Syne
Auld Lang Syne
"Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song . It is well known in many countries, especially in the English-speaking world; its traditional use being to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight...
.
It was decided to build a new multi-million pound 25,000-seater stadium (later raised to 28,000) - the Reebok Stadium
Reebok Stadium
The Reebok Stadium is the home stadium of English Premier League football club Bolton Wanderers, and is located on the Middlebrook Retail Park in Horwich, in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. It is commonly known as 'The Reebok'...
- at the Middlebrook
Middlebrook, Greater Manchester
Middlebrook is a locality that spans the boundaries of Horwich and Lostock in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England....
development and the move went ahead in 1997, despite the sadness of many fans.
Burnden Park Disaster
On 9 March 1946, the ground was the scene of, at the time, the worst tragedy in British football history, when 33 Bolton Wanderers fans were crushed to death in an FA CupFA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
quarter final second leg tie between Bolton and Stoke City.
The disaster led to the Moelwyn Hughes
Ronw Moelwyn Hughes
Ronw Moelwyn Hughes , known as Moelwyn Hughes was a Welsh lawyer and a Liberal and Labour politician who was elected to two brief terms as a Member of Parliament ....
's official report, which recommended limitations on crowd sizes.
Outside football
The railway embankment of Burnden Park was seen in the 1962 film A Kind of LovingA Kind of Loving (film)
A Kind of Loving is a 1962 British drama film directed by John Schlesinger, based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Stan Barstow. It stars Alan Bates and June Ritchie as two lovers in 1960s West Yorkshire. The photography was by Denys Coop, and the music by Ron Grainer...
, starring Alan Bates
Alan Bates
Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving...
and June Ritchie
June Ritchie
June Ritchie is a British actress. She is perhaps best known for starring in the role of Ingrid Rothwell opposite Alan Bates in the 1962 film adaptation of A Kind of Loving...
. Part of the Arthur Askey
Arthur Askey
Arthur Bowden Askey CBE was a prominent English comedian.- Life and career :Askey was born at 29 Moses Street, Liverpool, the eldest child and only son of Samuel Askey , secretary of the firm Sugar Products of Liverpool, and his wife, Betsy Bowden , of Knutsford, Cheshire...
film "The Love Match" was also filmed at Burnden Park in the early 1950s. A painting of Burnden Park in 1953 by L.S. Lowry, "Going To The Match" was bought for £1.9m by the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) in 1999.
Redevelopment
For some years, the site suffered. Travellers camped in the car park of the derelict Normid superstore and Burnden Park itself fell into disrepair, with demolition not taking place until two years after the last match had been played.As one of the main routes into town, the site needed to be redeveloped after demolition took place in 1999.
There is now an Asda
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
superstore on the site, which opened in 2005 after taking over the Big W
Big W
Big W is one of the largest chain of discount department stores in Australia, with over 150 stores. It is a division of Woolworths Limited, the second largest retailer in Australia. Its main competitors are Kmart and Target, both owned by Wesfarmers....
. The Asda store identifies itself with Burnden Park by having a number of extremely large photographs of the former stadium and players, placed high above the checkouts. Also on the site are a Co-op
The Co-operative Group
The Co-operative Group Ltd. is a United Kingdom consumer cooperative with a diverse range of business interests. It is co-operatively run and owned by its members. It is the largest organisation of this type in the world, with over 5.5 million members, who all have a say in how the business is...
travel agents, a Subway restaurant
Subway (restaurant)
Subway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor's Associates, Inc. . Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with 35,519 restaurants in 98 countries and territories as of October 25th, 2011...
, a Carphone Warehouse
The Carphone Warehouse
Carphone Warehouse Group PLC , known as The Carphone Warehouse, is Europe's largest independent mobile phone retailer, with over 1,700 stores across Europe. It is based in the United Kingdom and is a 50% subsidiary of Best Buy...
and a Johnson's Cleaners adjacent to Manchester Road. A new JJB fitness centre/sports store has also moved here (roughly where the Burnden Stand was), to make a significant, out of town development. There is one empty unit situated between Asda
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
and JJB which was for conversion into three shops and was due to open November 2007 - January 2008, a Poundstretcher
Poundstretcher
Poundstretcher is a chain of discount stores operating in the United Kingdom. It is based in Deighton, England, near Huddersfield on the A62.-History:...
, a Pets Galore and an unknown food shop similar to Home Bargains
Home Bargains
Home Bargains is a chain of discount stores, offering home bargains, operating throughout the United Kingdom, founded by Tom Morris in Liverpool, England approximately 30 years ago...
.