Borough Park is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

stadium in

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The home ground of

Workington A.F.C. Workington Association Football Club is an English football club based in Workington, Cumbria. The club competes in the Northern Premier League Division One North West, the eighth tier of English football. The club plays its home matches at Bo ...

, it has a capacity of 3,101, of which 500 is seated.

History

Borough Park was built with the assistance of the local council, and opened in 1937, with Workington moving from their previous Lonsdale Park ground, which was next to Borough Park. The ground initially consisted of a 1,000 seat main stand on the western touchline, and banking around the remainder of the pitch, but by 1951 the embankments had been converted to terracing, and two more stands erected in the north-west and south-west corners of the ground.Paul Smith & Shirley Smith (2005) ''The Ultimate Directory of English & Scottish Football League Grounds Second Edition 1888–2005'', Yore Publications, p26, Workington were elected to

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

in 1951, and the first League match at Borough Park saw them defeat

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

3–1 in front of 11,000 spectators. The ground underwent further expansion during the 1950s as the main stand was extended and the terracing on the eastern side of the pitch was roofed in 1956. The record attendance of 21,000 was set on 4 January 1958 for an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

match against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. The League record attendance of 18,628 was set for a local derby against

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

on 26 December 1963. Workington were voted out of the League in 1977 and replaced by

Wimbledon F.C. Wimbledon Football Club was an English football club formed in Wimbledon, south-west London, in 1889 and based at Plough Lane from 1912 to 1991. Founded as Wimbledon Old Centrals, the club were a non-League team for most of their history. ...

The main stand was closed and the roof removed in 1988. Borough Park was also the home of the town's

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

club

Workington Town Workington Town R.L.F.C. is a semi-professional rugby league club playing in Workington in west Cumbria. Their stadium is Derwent Park, which they share with Workington Comets, a speedway team. They became Rugby League Champions in 1951 and ...

from when they formed after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1945 until they moved out in 1956 and into their own new ground nearby,

Derwent Park Derwent Park is a Speedway and Rugby League Stadium in Workington, England situated beside the Cumbrian River Derwent. It is used mostly for rugby league matches and is the home stadium of Workington Town who play in League 1 the 3rd tier ...

, where they remain today.

Workington Stadium plans

In February 2019, a plan for a new stadium for Workington was announced. This would have involved the demolition of Borough Park and Derwent Park. In June 2019, it was announced by the new leadership of

Allerdale Borough Council Allerdale is a non-metropolitan district of Cumbria, England, with borough status. Its council is based in Workington and the borough has a population of 93,492 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 96,422 at the 2011 Census. The Bor ...

that the new sports stadium would not be built.

References

Workington Workington A.F.C. Football venues in England Sports venues completed in 1937 Sports venues in Cumbria English Football League venues {{England-sports-venue-stub