Hyde Road Stadium

petrusha said:
An east-west orientation is unusual. Most football grounds in the UK are built north to south. I believe that this originally evolved at least in part because players are less hindered by having to squint into the sunlight in afternoon or early evening games that they would be with an east-west orientation.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, when the first major football grounds were being built across the country with a typical design of one side a covered main stand with seats and the three other sides terraced standing accommodation, it also allowed the western stand to be designated the main stand. This meant that the posh people in the seats were less likely to get wind and rain blowing into their faces (as such weather most commonly came from the west) and they wouldn't have the sun in their eyes on a nice afternoon.

As I recall, John Henry Davies, the original rag sugar daddy and a brewery owner, had originally purchased the land where Old Trafford is so that he could relocate one of his breweries there. For some reason he decided against it, and ended up giving it to United instead. It couldn't fit a stadium going north-south so had to use an east-west orientation instead.

I suspect that I picked up at least a large chunk of this information from the excellent 'Manchester - A Football History' by @Gary James. If Gary (or anyone else with knowledge) wants to correct anything I've misremembered, please do.
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His plan was for a bottling plant and for some reason that fell through so he moved Utd there instead and it was a flop for years. Crowds dropped despite them winning the League etc.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
No remnants of the stadium remain at the site - not even a Blue plaque commemorating the spot. However, one piece of the ground survived into the 21st century! Part of the roof at Halifax Town's Shay Stadium, was the original roof at Hyde Road ( picture below from 2006 - the piece of roofing at the far left)
I don't know if that stand / roof has been replaced since.
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It’s still there. It’s on my ‘watch list’ And was due to go a few years back but Calderdale council’s plans stalled.
 
Gary James said:
It’s still there. It’s on my ‘watch list’ And was due to go a few years back but Calderdale council’s plans stalled.
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That stand never gets used, even when the Fax where in the Super 8s playing Super League teams.

Halifax has about 10 good new pubs/bars shot up in the last 5 years, so worth a visit on a Saturday off.
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
I'm well aware that there is currently a thread discussing the housing development on the old site, but this has a somewhat different orientation. Mods, feel free to merge if appropriate.

Since it is now a century this year since we left, it seems worth marking it in some way (if only on here: I don't expect the suits in charge of communications at the Etihad to give much of a toss, frankly).
Firstly, I located it exactly this morning. To my shame, I didn't know exactly where it was, other than that it was, obviously, along the Hyde Road. I see with interest that although our old Maine Road ground and the current one have almost exactly the same orientation — north to south, if you're going by the placing of the goals — the old Hyde Road stadium, as far as I can make out, had a west to east orientation. For reasons that I can't explain, that seems just wrong to me! As I say, no logic to my reaction…
The closest I came to frequenting that area when I lived in Manchester was going to several fine concerts at Belle Vue — Deep Purple and the Stones come to mind. Otherwise never had any real reason to be around there. Never got to see the grease in the hair of the speedway operator, I'm afraid…!
Got a couple of questions. I take it that there is nothing whatsoever, not even so much as a plaque, marking the fact that there was a football stadium there, and for many years at that? I'm always a bit shocked about how places as vital as football stadia — not just important in this local instance to me as a City fan, but important in terms of the actual social history of the country in the late Victorian and Edwardian period, and specifically the industrial working class with its new found leisure on Saturday afternoons — can get not just demolished but then downright airbrushed out of history. When you think of standing on those terraces and how for many of us it was where you used to dream (sometimes when there weren't too many other places to dream in your life), well, it seems like a piece of cultural vandalism to me.
Anyway, other questions. Anyone on here got any memories via either their dad or, more likely, their granddad about Hyde Road?
The other thing I was wondering. I see that there's a CofE primary school very close by — Armitage — if not actually on the site of the old stadium. Anyone on here go to that primary school, by any chance? Or just grow up in the area of Ardwick, West Gorton? I take it that the area must have always been fairly solidly blue, although perhaps less so in the dark years of United's dominance?
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Thanks for posting.

FYI - I had already been in touch with the club about incorporating within the new housing development an appropriate form of recognition of the original ground. City, with others, are looking into how best this can be achieved.
 
FootballSense said:
Thanks for posting.

FYI - I had already been in touch with the club about incorporating within the new housing development an appropriate form of recognition of the original ground. City, with others, are looking into how best this can be achieved.
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I wanted to do a proper archeological dig a few years back and wrote to Time Team, sadly they never replied. I have been helping an artist who is painting the stadium as it was and lots of other things may happen this year too.
 
dario2739 said:
The ground was off Bennett Street in West Gorton/Ardwick - which is still there... where the ground was is now a Shipping container/Cargo company called 'Olympic Freigh'...

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I love that the setts and the tram tracks are still there - guess they will disappear in the new development. (Not that I would still want us driving on setts - combines with rain and tyres they are lethal - but nice to have the odd nod to the past in new developments)
 
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