The County Ground - Old Photos

[Arriba]

Cold tea and crap pies are very much a current thing.

[le god cuervo]

I found some more old County Ground pictures recently and thought I would post them up, as the ground redevelopment seems to be one of the hot topics at the moment...

Aerial view from the early 1920s
The football and cricket grounds can bee seen towards the back of the photo. The cricket pavilion is visible towards the top left. The North Stand was the only covered area of terracing. Anyone know what those buildings/sheds were at the top of the picture?




Aerial view from 1938
This is after the Town End had been built, and another small stand on the South side.




It's quite poor that not much has been done to either stand behind the goal for nearly 70/80-odd years (with the exception of adding seats) - does anyone know if the terracing has ever been re-laid, or does this date back to the original build?

That 1938 photo is actually cropped from a larger photo that shows the whole of Old Town and the surrounding area...



...including the old town railway line and station arching across the bottom of the image. Think there were a few people on here discussing the old railways a while back? You can also kind of see the line that went out through Stratton and off to Highworth in the top right of the picture. I think the small white building at the top of the picture (with chimney) is the Arkells brewery? This is probably for another thread though!


Last one is an image of the back of the old Shrivenham Road stand, taken in 1972 during construction of the Magic Roundabout...

[RobertT]

Stratton Bank was re-laid in the early 90's with new barriers.  From memory the barriers were not up to scratch and had safety concerns following Hillsborough.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

I found some more old County Ground pictures recently and thought I would post them up, as the ground redevelopment seems to be one of the hot topics at the moment...

Aerial view from the early 1920s
The football and cricket grounds can bee seen towards the back of the photo. The cricket pavilion is visible towards the top left. The North Stand was the only covered area of terracing. Anyone know what those buildings/sheds were at the top of the picture?

That must be the old Wills factory.

[@mwooly63]

That must be the old Wills factory.

looks like it

Tescos now

[Mother Brown]

You sure about the date of the last pic ?
Looks earlier than 72,thought the now Arkells stand was built by then?

[@mwooly63]

You sure about the date of the last pic ?
Looks earlier than 72,thought the now Arkells stand was built by then?

North stand went up in 71 iirc

[Reg Smeeton]

That must be the old Wills factory.

No it's not, that's off to the left...the top of the pic is a bunch of railway sheds....as I pointed out quite recently, there used to be railway sidings up to the back of the Bank...although the pic is a bit indistinct there, so difficult to see, you can make out 2 sidings merging one curving out from the sheds and one going straight on. 

Shrivenham Road didn't exist it was called Stratton Road...and you can see it snaking off, towards Stratton, which was a quite separate place at the time.

Good views of the Empire Theatre and Holy Rood church...and the chapel foot of Vic Hill now a nursery...in fact  completely ace photos...cheers lGC

[le god cuervo]

You sure about the date of the last pic ?
Looks earlier than 72,thought the now Arkells stand was built by then?

Yes you are correct. The website I found it on has it labelled as construction of the magic roundabout, but I think they must just have been making the original roundabout bigger, as can be seen in this photo (which IS from 1972)...



...maybe that first picture was from around the time Queens Drive was built? Or something to do with the canal which went down Fleming Way? Anyone know?

[Reg Smeeton]

An interesting one....I'd have that pic down as probably around 65...the tennis courts are still there...that is around the time of Fleming Way, so possibly to do with that.

[le god cuervo]

There are a lot of good photos in this flickr collection as well if people are interested. Mainly 80s/90s pics...


The County Ground, Swindon, 1990 by cartercollectables.co.uk, on Flickr


The County Ground, Swindon, 1990 by cartercollectables.co.uk, on Flickr


The County Ground, Swindon, 1990 by cartercollectables.co.uk, on Flickr

More here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cartercollectables/sets/72157632625864702/with/8418917994/

[@mwooly63]

Some great pics on that flickr link
Thanx for that

Remember the Arkells in different colours and no enclosures

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

The picture of the Shrivvy Road Stand brings back a lot of memories. I used to stand at the back, round about the half way line.

[@mwooly63]

The picture of the Shrivvy Road Stand brings back a lot of memories. I used to stand at the back, round about the half way line.

Same as close to the away supporters fence

Either that or the bank - weather dependant

[Bogus Dave]

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:What was the thinking behind stopping the arkells so abruptly? And the mish-mash of seat colours?