Maine Road map

[Gary James]

Hi, my names Steve im the illustrator who's work is being linked in this thread.
Many thanks to those that have visited my site to take a look (I noticed a spike in my traffic from this board)

To answer the question re the grounds layout - ive already spoken with Gary James on Twitter, here's what he had to say:

" Very important that layout of Maine Rd. It is accurate for 1934 & shows the corner Platt Lane roof on plan. In 1935 the rest of Platt Lane was roofed, so ground was like that between 1931-35. This is exactly as it was when 84,569 attended record crowd game in March 1934. You've picked the right plan/year. Good luck with it."

Yep, that's what I said. It is spot on for 1934.

When I researched and wrote Farewell To Maine Road (Pubd 2003) I spent quite some time trying to piece together the various ground developments. Prior to that book most articles, books, MCFC official histories etc. claimed that the old Platt Lane Stand was built at some point 'before the second world war'.

Using photos, and then plans from Manchester Town Hall, I uncovered that the main developments in the first 20 years were:

- 1923 Main Stand built and roofed (as photo posted)
- 1931 Platt Lane/Main Stand corner reprofiled to have a higher rake, seating installed on part of the new profiled steps, a higher tunnel wall (anyone who remembers Platt Lane will remember that the corner tunnel and corner terracing were different to the rest of the ground/stand), a new roof, & a ladies toilet (big deal in 1931). Capacity must have been approx 85,000
- 1935 the rest of the Platt Lane Stand was built by extending out the back on wooden frame and then roofing rest of stand. Capacity was increased to about 88,000.

The plan was then to roof the Main Stand/Scoreboard(North) Stand corner in 1939, roof the North Stand c. 1944 and then tackle the Kippax c.1950 (by enlarging it - aim was for Maine Road to hold over 100,000!).

Those plans never happened because of WW2 and when peace resumed chance of improving Maine Road disappeared until the Kippax was extended (slightly) and roofed in 1957.

Capacity had reduced by that point because of legislation following Bolton disaster (another forgotten disaster sadly - so much has been made of football not learning from Hillsborough but football also didn't learn from Burnden Park disaster or Ibrox....).

Hope this helps clarify that the ground plan should show the Main Stand/Platt Lane corner for 1934.

Worth noting that some Manchester A to Z maps/books continued to show the plan for Maine Road like this until fairly late on in the stadium's history.

 

[Gary James]

For anyone wondering, there's a photo of Maine Rd exactly as it looked in 1934 on page 180 of "Manchester The City Years". Here's a photo of that page: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150796330997816.396386.289818652815&type=1#!/photo.php?fbid=10151051272387816&set=a.10150796330997816.396386.289818652815&type=3&theater" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... =3&theater</a>

 

[LongsightM13]

http://miniboro.com/11770.html

Not seen this before, interesting , would make a nice T shirt.

I'd buy that on a T-shirt, no danger