User:U003F/Inglis: Tranmere Rovers

Previous Grounds
Tranmere's roots go back to a club called Belmont FC, formed in 1881 by the members of two Birkenhead cricket clubs. The name Tranmere Rovers was adopted in 1882. Their first home was Steele's Field, from where they moved in 1883 to a ground in South Road, Devonshire Park, not a hundred yards from the present ground but no built over with houses. Rovers played on Ravenshaw Field, also close, from 1886-96, when they opened a new ground called Prenton Park. This ground was on the site of a school which now stands on Prenton Park road, opposite the main entrance to the present ground, also called Prenton Park.

Prenton Park
When Rovers finally settled at Prenton Park (the second), Prenton had lost some of its identity as a village in Birkenhead. The area derived its strength from the nearby docks and shipyards of Cammell Lairds, and Goodison Park and Anfield where then just too far away to draw away all the local support. Nevertheless, Prenton Park has been developed on a shoestring since the first game there in March 1912. The club joined the League in 1921 and brought over an old wooden stand from the nearby Oval sports ground (referred to below). Known as the Weekend Stand, it was basically a showground building with a few seats and no dressing rooms. Opposite this stand, on Borough Road, was a cover similar to the existing one.

During the War, Birkenhead suffered consistently from bombing raids because of the important shipping areas, and the Prenton Park car park was used as a base for sending up black smoke screens to confuse German aircraft. There were huge tank traps in Borough Road and the cover on this side was destroyed during a raid.

After the war Rovers struck a bargain with the local council. In return for giving up 6 feet of land behind the Borough Road Side, which the authorities wanted for bus-loading bays and pavement widening, Rovers would have the tank traps lifted over the Kop End in order to find a base on which to raise the banking. Since each one weighed 10 hundred-weight, they needed the council's help.

The cover on Borough Road was replaced, and in 1956 the Cowshed on Prenton Road West built. Floodlights were first switched on at Prenton Park in September 1958 before a game v. Rochdale. The supporters' association raised the £15,000 cost of the new lights.

On promotion to Division Three, Rovers began building a new Main Stand in place of the old wooden structure. The Sports Minister and ex-football referee, Denis Howell, opened it in December 1968. Although the club had insufficient capital to build dressing rooms under the stand for a while, it was still at the time one of the best new stands outside the First Division, and had cost only £80,000.

In February 1972, Prenton Park's highest crowd, 24,424, attended an FA Cup tie v. Stoke City, a match which also brought Rovers record receipts of nearly £9000.

Developments since then have centred largely beyond the stands. With aid from the Sports Council, Tranmere built a sports centre at the back of the Kop, including squash courts and one of the first indoor crown bowling greens in the world. But the club's own costs escalated during construction, they were unable to run it properly, and so in November 1981 the centre was sold to private interests.

Rovers also had their own social club, now sold, and have since parted company with three-quarters of their large car park behind the Main Stand. This used to be the site of a brick works but is now covered by the Mersey Clipper public house, built in 1984, and a small all-weather sports are built by Tranmere in conjunction with the council.

At one stage, just before the club came perilously close to extinction in December 1982, finances were so limited that the club could only afford a part-time groundsman assisted by a youth on a YOP scheme. Since then the situation has improved somewhat and the pitch is now under full-time care. To save wear and tear of the pitch, the club trains at the Oval, in Bebington. (Just south of Prenton Park, the Oval, part of a large sports complex now owned by Wirral Council, was built in 1888 for the workers at the Port Sunlight Soap Works. The Lever family once offered to buy up Rovers, move the whole club to the Oval and change its name to Port Sunlight.) The Oval retains a splendid grandstand which was used on location in the film Chariots of Fire.

In 1983 Rovers were one of the first clubs to apply, unsuccessfully, for permission to install an artificial pitch, but by the time such pitches were more widely accepted in 1986 the situation at Prenton Park had changed considerable.

Designation under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act in 1985 had cut the capacity from 18000 to 8000. The entire Kop End was closed, mainly because there were insufficient access points, and in the the Main Stand, Tranmere were told they could only use 1000 of the 4000 seats, until more exits were provided. Overall, Rovers had to spend £50000 on safety work just to maintain this level, part of the work being to smooth off the edges of several crush barriers.

No further improvements were carried out because in 1986 Rovers applied for planning permission to build a superstore on the site. If their appeal against a first refusal proved successful, Prenton Park's days would be numbered.

Ground Description
Despite the club's recent financial plight and its long-standing struggle for support on Merseyside, Prenton Park does not externally bear many scars. It stands in a post-war housing area, on ground so flat and in air so fresh that although you cannot see it, you know the sea must be close. In fact it is five miles north and five miles west. A short distance east takes you to the River Mersey.

From Borough Road the back of the stands are entirely green. Even the floodlight pylons are green. A couple of flags fluttering in the wind add some style and already Prenton Park looks orderly and respectable.

The main entrance on Prenton Park West takes you into the car park, behind the large Main Stand frontage. With more money this could have been made quite grand, but it is still impressive for a small club.

The plain roof pitches upwards, and has just two central supports. The seating tier stops at a brick wall which forms the rear of the terracing in front, and although slightly drab is compensated by the liberal use of blue paint all over the stand. Underneath it is quite spartan, but dressing rooms must come before refreshment rooms in order of priority. Even so, it was said that Rovers had the best toilets and turnstiles in the Fourth Division, but one of the worst teams. From the back rows of the Main Stand one has a panoramic view of the land between Devonshire Park and the Mersey.

To the left of the stand is the much lower, multi-span cover called the Cowshed, with Prenton Road West behind. Since being reroofed after a gale in the 1970s, and more recently repainted with advertising, this stand looks quite dapper. The terracing underneath is shallow, without barriers, and has at the back a section marked out with a court for training.

Opposite the Main Stand is the Borough Road Side, recently reclad in smart green sheeting. Quite a shallow terrace, its perimeter fence is pressed up against the touchline. Flagpoles along the roof brighten it up considerably.

To the right is the open Kop End, the banking built up on the old tank traps. For some reason the crush barriers here are very low. Behind this bank you can see the Shaftsbury Boy's Club's headquarters and the old social club, and nearer the Main Stand the sports centre.

The Kop End was closed in 1985, a measure which seemed to be just one more nail in the ground's coffin. Having lost the sports centre, most of the car park and now the Kop (unless sufficient funds were miraculously found to refurbish it), Prenton Park appears to be a rapidly diminishing asset, obviously prey to the advances of developers. The ground remains one with a certain tidy character, but with average gates of around 1500 it is possible Rovers would be better off elsewhere. Their best bet, a Scouse with might say, would be a site blocking up the Mersey Tunnel, thereby stopping the weekly exodus towards Stanley Park. And so it goes on; the rich get richer, and the poorer go to the supermarket.