User:U003F/Ashton: Cowshed

It's 100 years since we moved to Prenton Park, as Stuart Ashton casts over an alphabetical history of our home ground - this time with the letter C...

A-Z of Prenton Park
The Cowshed today houses the away fans that come to Prenton Park. However in years gone by this famous stand housed the home supporters.

Some today still wish to see the away fans back in the Kop and home fans back in their traditional home of the Cowshed.

The structure which sits on the corner of Prenton Road West and Borough Road with its rather unusual name was constructed in 1931. The new five span roof was completed at a cost of £1,000 and could now give shelter from what the Birkenhead News described as '...inclement weather...' to 5,000 supporters. But one may ask why was the stand known as the Cowshed? The name came from the new structure itself which although meant to be a spectator's stand would not look out of place in a farm yard. This isn't surprising when you consider the fact that the company employed to build the stand were used to building cow sheds.

The first game played in front of the new stand was against Accrington Stanley on the 26th September 1931. Unlike the Borough Road stand the Cowshed does not have such a colourful history of Nazi bomb attacks and the stand, like most of the ground, came out of the Second World War with little to no damage other than standard wear and tear.

The stand though came up against an old enemy which had hampered stands across the country..the weather. Yes once again one of the stands at Prenton Park found itself going head to head with its natural foe. However, although the weather never took down the Borough Road stand, the Cowshed was not so lucky. In 1972 the roof was blown off the stand and the insurance company would no longer insure the structure, meaning it had to come down.

Construction started on the new stand in 1973 and the first game in front of the new stand was on the 31st October against Wolves which ended in a 1-1 draw. The new stand had a somewhat similar feel to the original from all accounts with the major change being a move from having a five span roof to a three span roof. The stand was still true to its name and continued to look as if cattle could be housed under its roof.

The stand remained untouched for the most part until the major redevelopment of the ground in the 1990s. On the 26th October the new look Cowshed was opened, gone was the three span roof and instead a more common and traditional looking stand put in its place. The stand could now seat 2,500 spectators. The only major change in the stand's history since the ground's development was that it became the home of the away fans. The first game to have away fans under the roof was in 2000 against Bolton on 26th January.