Lost Football League Grounds - The Goldstone Ground, Brighton

Despite its obvious importance to our transport system the M4 is for me no more than a connection between my home in Wales and the Recreation Ground, Aldershot. And few would argue with the observation that it is a route unlikely to feature in Britains’s Best Drives.

The gridlock that engulfs Newport, replaced by the barren landscape that surrounds Swindon, always enough to dull the brain into submission for the final leg of my journey.

Junction 11 can never come soon enough; the wind turbine standing oddly alongside the Madejski Stadium never fails to wake me up……’almost there’.

Just time for a cursory look left culminating in the perennial thought, ‘it seems that every club in the land wants to build a new stadium…..the Madejski at Reading no different to the Liberty in Swansea. The Stadium of Light so similar to the City of Manchester Stadium (Etihad).

But Elm Park, the Vetch Field, Roker Park and Maine Road; now they were proper grounds. And the ramshackled collection of stands at Layer Road, Colchester were simply splendid….the club’s evolution chronologically captured by the sporadic addition of a new stand.

Today, football has been drawn into a world surrounded by concrete and cladding, where plastic seats are resplendent in club colours, fizzy cold beer is served in plastic containers or plastic bottles and floodlights stretch out along the leading edge of the stand giving a faultless impression of pigeons settling down for the night. Oh, but of course I forgot the ‘corporate dining’, the executive lounges, the restaurants……

As I turn off towards Hartley Wintney the memory of Archibald Leitch always burns forever bright in my mind….and when he died in 1939 his legacy included Anfield, Ayresome Park, Celtic Park, Roker Park…..
But so sadly the time is fast approaching when all that I will have left are the images of so many great grounds…..and for the youngsters of today? No more than a plastic cup and a plastic seat in a tin-clad stadium…..nice view? Probably, but a lifetime of attachment? Somehow I doubt it.

Since the Football League was established in 1888 more than 200 grounds have played host to League matches. And with only 92 clubs forming the top four divisions there are plenty of ‘lost grounds’.

Now I must admit to having an eclectic list of favourites – Highbury, of course….the beautiful pitch and Archibald Leitch East Stand; Boothferry Park – how grand to have a railway station alongside ( well a ‘halt’) and such towering floodlight columns (six!); Burnden Park – the history somehow more powerful than the decay and neglect.

Hayling Island is my earliest holiday memory. Dad had gone to King Alfred College, Winchester after the War and then two years later took up his first teaching position at Frimley. So as my brother and I grew up in Cove during the 1950’s I guess the Island was the easiest place to get to….especially when the family transport was a BSA Bantam.

I seem to recall we reached Hayling Island by way of a bus or was it a coach. And I can just remember getting off the bus at the Havant side of the ‘bridge’ to avoid the toll charge. A bit like a prisoner exchange at Checkpoint Charlie, we trudged across to the other side and to the awaiting bus.

After a ‘second promotion’, that took Dad from Frimley to France Hill we had enough money to buy a car, a Standard 8. Holidays would surely become more exotic now.

And we weren’t disappointed.

For weeks Dad disappeared every night after work…..and then all was revealed. One of our uncles had acquired some camouflage paint from the REME or the RAE and Dad hand-painted our new car ….a sort of grey-green.
The school holidays came around and our first long distance holiday dawned, St Mary’s Bay Holiday Camp, Brixham. I’m sure it was a great place…well it must have been because we returned the following year….and the following….and yes, the following year too. Then thankfully Dad got a Headship, became too busy to take us on holiday, and we were free to play Cricket all summer and get ready for the football season.

I have been back a few times to Brixham but still can’t find the building that housed the Fish and Chip shop, on the western side of the harbour.

And it is only now, after so many years, that I find it odd that we never went to Brighton, not even for the day…

The Goldstone Ground was first used as a sporting arena in 1900 and a year later Hove FC moved in – immediately building a small stand. Then in 1904 Hove were taken over by Brighton and Hove Albion.
The Albion joined the Football League in 1920 as a founder member of Division Three and they played at the Goldstone until 1997 when they were forced to move out. A couple of seasons ground sharing with Gillingham was followed by a return to town in 1999 and the Withdean Athletics Stadium……
The Goldstone has gone now and the site used for a retail development.

Brighton and Hove Albion have moved into a new tin-clad home, the American Express Community Stadium …..It looks very nice and everyone is happy.

Season ticket sales are reported to be massive and the Seagulls are flying again…..