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Knowsley Road R.I.P


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I for one won't be sad to the see the old girl leave us, well maybe I will, in fact I'll miss her dearly as she's one of a dying breed of Rugby League stadia in this country. It's grounds like Knowsley Road that define the greatest game with there character and history.

She's got a certain charm about her, even if I've just watched us lose there by our highest ever score (narrowly beating the 58-14 Easter Monday game back in 1999).

Anyhow after having a well informed tour of her earlier today I ended up taking something close to 100 pictures of every nook and cranny, so here from me to you is a few of the pictures I took, because a few forum members on here never leave the couch to attend games like the the majority on here and it's only right we showed them what they are missing.

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**Keep checking this thread as I'll update it with more through the week.

Edited by Tommy The C5t
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What an absolute pile of ###### that ground is!!! You can only get better!!!!!!!!!

Knowsley Road is a traditional rugby league ground and I'm sure when it was in it's prime and of the day it was as good as most. Sure, we've moved on now and demand much more of our stadia but I for one will miss the charm of places like this, Wheldon road and others.

I read a post from someone on here once describing the new places like the KC, DW and the Galpharm as "Soulless places" and, although I love sitting in comfort in these sort of grounds with modern facilities, I knew exactly what he meant.

                                                                     Hull FC....The Sons of God...
                                                                     (Well, we are about to be crucified on Good Friday)
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What an absolute pile of ###### that ground is!!! You can only get better!!!!!!!!!

Are you the same person that wrote the nfollowing on the Scrumdown thread? :huh:

Attended every home, away and Cup match (including Wembley!) in the 80's and 90's and also took my nephews with me. What a brilliant time we had as Wigan fans, experiencing all those different grounds/fans, you will never have the same experience again. :)

Some beautiful, old Stadium, standing areas, very few seating areas, but enormous amounts of atmosphere!!! Our new Stadia will never compete with the old, rickety stadium!!!

:rolleyes:

                                                                     Hull FC....The Sons of God...
                                                                     (Well, we are about to be crucified on Good Friday)
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Great pics Mick, brings a tear to my eye thinking about leaving there. Yes I know the new stadium is needed & will be fantastic but I have been going to KR for 31 years. Memories that will last forever. I am gonna be a mess at the last game :ph34r:

RIP old girl :(

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I'd much rather watch rugby league in a modern stadium.

I believe that the 'soul' of a stadium isn't provided by the bricks and mortar and let's face it corrugated iron, but by the people and the events that take place there.

Thousands of people such as saintsbird provide a ground with its soul, through their memories, passion and emotional attachment and it takes a long time for it to develop.

In decades to come all of these new grounds will develop a 'soul' as things happen and as more people start to call them 'home'.

Edited by l'angelo mysterioso

WELCOME TO THE ROYSTON VASEY SUPER LEAGUE 2015

Keeping it local

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Great pics Mick, brings a tear to my eye thinking about leaving there. Yes I know the new stadium is needed & will be fantastic but I have been going to KR for 31 years. Memories that will last forever. I am gonna be a mess at the last game :ph34r:

RIP old girl :(

I'll put them all in here, but I've lost a lead that connects my phone to the pc, so I'm having to upload them to Facebook then drag them across here which is proving painfully slow.

Here are some from yesterday

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Edited by Tommy The C5t
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I'd much rather watch rugby league in a modern stadium.

I believe that the 'soul' of a stadium isn't provided by the bricks and mortar and let's face it corrugated iron, but by the people and the events that take place there.

Thousands of people such as saintsbird provide a ground with its soul, through their memories, passion and emotional attachment and it takes a long time for it to develop.

In decades to come all of these new grounds will develop a 'soul' as things happen and as more people start to call them 'home'.

I think it is the way the old grounds were put together that makes people very nostalgic. They weren't designed by architects etc. A lot of the stands were built when clubs could afford to build them. That makes many of them quirky and unique (e.g. the end stand at the Watersheddings and Willows, Snookers club side at Wilderspool, the changing rooms at the corner of Thrum Hall)

Many fans would pick their spot and happy reside there for many different reasons. I must admit though that I would prefer new stadia to be built on old (e.g. Widnes) than they flattening and moving to a new site - but economics and geographics determine that. The biggest shame was the Wigan saga where, at the time, Whelan wanted to re-develop the old Central Park. How awesome would that have been? I understand that problems at the time prevented this.

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Why is this titled 'Knowsley Road R.I.P'? It wasn't the last game to be played there, they have another home game and could possibly have a game in the playoffs there.

Is there a farewell game planned for after the season? Like they did at the Boulevard when Hull played New Zealand.

dexterue2.png

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Why is this titled 'Knowsley Road R.I.P'? It wasn't the last game to be played there, they have another home game and could possibly have a game in the playoffs there.

Is there a farewell game planned for after the season? Like they did at the Boulevard when Hull played New Zealand.

Well I won't be going to visit her again before she goes in October, so for me it is R.I.P

That reminds me I have over twenty photos that I took from our final league game at the Boulevard, I'll have to scan them and put them up on here.

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I think it is the way the old grounds were put together that makes people very nostalgic. They weren't designed by architects etc. A lot of the stands were built when clubs could afford to build them. That makes many of them quirky and unique (e.g. the end stand at the Watersheddings and Willows, Snookers club side at Wilderspool, the changing rooms at the corner of Thrum Hall)

Many fans would pick their spot and happy reside there for many different reasons. I must admit though that I would prefer new stadia to be built on old (e.g. Widnes) than they flattening and moving to a new site - but economics and geographics determine that. The biggest shame was the Wigan saga where, at the time, Whelan wanted to re-develop the old Central Park. How awesome would that have been? I understand that problems at the time prevented this.

I think that's a very good call.

in many ways the grounds were tangible history lessons however they were and are in some cases death traps.

WELCOME TO THE ROYSTON VASEY SUPER LEAGUE 2015

Keeping it local

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Here's one NE took of the Twickenham stadium...

rugby.jpg

                                                                     Hull FC....The Sons of God...
                                                                     (Well, we are about to be crucified on Good Friday)
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Are you the same person that wrote the nfollowing on the Scrumdown thread? :huh:

:rolleyes:

Brilliant mate, well owned! :D

Here's one NE took of the Twickenham stadium...

rugby.jpg

And again, your in top form!

In all seriousness though, cheer mick - some quality photos, its going to feel so weird walking out of Knowsley Road after the last game - i may even get a bit misty! :huh:

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Brilliant mate, well owned! :D

And again, your in top form!

In all seriousness though, cheer mick - some quality photos, its going to feel so weird walking out of Knowsley Road after the last game - i may even get a bit misty! :huh:

I'm actually optimistic about the atmosphere in the new stadium. I think there has been a noticable decline in the atmosphere at Saints over the last 4 or 5 seasons. I'm not sure of the reason, but we have become alot quieter and our popular side don't seam to have the same imagination and fervour in song creation. It may even be that time where Saints have to bite that bullet and drop one of our favoured chant. "Saints fans don't need a drum"

I'm not sure if as a group of fans we have reached that place that Wigan did at central park, where some fans would leave 10 - 15 minutes early out of habit. Saints fans out of habit have become quiet.

I can remember when SL first started our noise was big enough to rival anyones, our away support still does this nowa days but our home support seams to have lost it's edge.

THe new stadium will mix up the old groupings of fans a new popular side will have to emerge.

My worry about any new stadium is the size, I'm sure the Saints pitch is not as wide as it should be. I think this has lead to Saints having to have a greater attacking edge to break down other sides, as defence on a narrow pitch is much easier than having to cover the wide areas of a full sized pitch. It may also be an explanation of our notorious lack of defence prior to the Hanley era.

I'm sure our style will not change over night, but after playing 10 years on a full sized pitch will that take it's toll on the Saints mentality on how to break down a defence. I know last week we struggled to attack from deep but that was more of a 1 off tactic to cover our lack of half backs. I'm talking about a more consistant change i the culture of Saints play. But then maybe I'm adding 1 and 5 and seeing 15.

It's all about da bass

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i'm sure it has great memories for many people, but it's a ######. wilderspool was the same, there's not one game when i think "i wish i was still stood on the crumbling terrace and having to ###### into a gutter in the open air."

foxes or poor people?

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I miss Central Park and Wilderspool and Thrum Hall and the old Naughton Park and The Watersheddings and I will miss Knowlesly Road too. Crappy things can be great in their own way and these new grounds definitely lack the atmosphere of the old places no matter how bad they were.

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KR is a fine example of a typical RL ground of the twentieth century and an example of the type of stadium we used to see in soccer. It is totally unrealistic but in some ways it is a shame that at least one ground of this type could not be preserved as some sort of historic building.

I think it is the way the old grounds were put together that makes people very nostalgic. They weren't designed by architects etc. A lot of the stands were built when clubs could afford to build them. That makes many of them quirky and unique (e.g. the end stand at the Watersheddings and Willows, Snookers club side at Wilderspool, the changing rooms at the corner of Thrum Hall)

Many fans would pick their spot and happy reside there for many different reasons. I must admit though that I would prefer new stadia to be built on old (e.g. Widnes) than they flattening and moving to a new site - but economics and geographics determine that. The biggest shame was the Wigan saga where, at the time, Whelan wanted to re-develop the old Central Park. How awesome would that have been? I understand that problems at the time prevented this.

I agree with your post. Yes, stadiums were a collection of buildings erected as and when clubs could afford them - and need them! You could usually tell which rugby and soccer teams had had periods of success, and the consequent crowds, by the size of the structures contained within the grounds. Perhaps that contributed to the 'soul' of the place - that substantial grandstand reminded your grandfather of the massive popularity of the game in the 40s and the club's success then (as he never used to stop telling you!)

Also, because the ground was usually developed piecemeal, and they were usually developed in highly built-up areas, the individual structures had to fit in with what space was available. So, when Oldham had just a narrow strip of land behind one end of the pitch, but still had substantial crowds to fit in, what do they do? Build a double decker. When Saints build a grandstand but the railway encroaches on the space - erect a structure that ends two thirds of the way down the pitch.

These quirks made the place unique and helped it to feel like 'home'. What matters today, however, is comfort, safety, decent facilities and a good, unobstructed view of the pitch, and is quite often better financially to construct this on a new site where the pitch is plonked in the centre with the stadium built symmetrically around it. No need to adapt the buildings to the differing layouts of the 4 sides and so a standard design can be used.

I agree that rebuilt grounds do tend to preserve their character better and, I think, Spotland is a fine example of this. The redevelopment started with the grandstand, a modest structure because the clubs only had a limited amount of money available and needed to incorporate all the offices, changing/training rooms, restaurants, hospitally boxes etc. (Also it had to be built around the existing pub built in the stadium grounds.) Next came the 'home end' for the soccer club, a larger stand where the home fans could congregate behind the goal, drink in the pub down below, and try and create some atmosphere. The last rebuilding was the northern side of the ground - here came the realisation that, given the limitations of the 'main' stand, this would need to be a more substantial structure to get the capacity up to the 10,000 needed should the clubs achieve success or attract representative games.

Lastly, the most modest part of the ground, the small covered terracing behind one goal, was re-clad, repaired, but left more-or-less untouched - its early sixties design acting as the architectural inspiration behind. So, a piecemeal development, built as the resources became available, but in an already well-defined site layout, became what is now, IMO, an attractive and interesting 'home'.

Add the substantial crowds :rolleyes: and it will have 'atmosphere' and 'soul' :D

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