Kinning Park was a 19th-century sports ground in

Kinning Park Kinning Park is a southern suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. It was formerly a separate police burgh between 1871 and 1905 before being absorbed by the city. In 1897, it had a population of 14,326.Govan Parish School Board, ''The Members' Year Book ...

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfr ...

, Scotland, primarily used for

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and

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 ...

. It was the home of

Clydesdale Cricket Club Clydesdale Cricket Club is a sporting club situated at Titwood on the periphery of Pollokshields in the south of Glasgow. History The club was founded in Kinning Park in 1848 by Archibald Campbell. It was formed by members of two previous cl ...

from 1849, staging a number of important matches against visiting English teams. It was also the original home of the club's football team,

Clydesdale F.C. Clydesdale F.C. was a nineteenth-century Glasgow-based football club, which was attached to Clydesdale Cricket Club. History The club was formed in 1872, in the wake of the Queen's Park F.C.. In 1873, Clydesdale was one of the teams to fou ...

When both teams relocated to

Titwood Titwood is a cricket ground in the Pollokshields area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the home of the Clydesdale Cricket Club and is one of four international grounds in Scotland approved by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as a home venue f ...

in 1876, Kinning Park was taken over by

Rangers F.C. Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the Govan district of Glasgow which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Although not its official name, it is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers outside Scotland. The fou ...

, who played there until moving to the

first Ibrox Park First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

in 1887. The ground was the venue for the 1881 Scottish Cup Final (and replay) between Queen's Park and

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

History

Cricket

were founded in 1848 by the merger of the Thistle and Wallace-grove clubs. They originally played at

on a field rented from a Mr Tweedie, a "cow feeder", close to the present site of Shields Road subway station, which had previously been used by Wallace-grove. They played their first home game on 16 September 1848 against Greenock, but after one more game were asked to leave by Mr Tweedie due to the damage to his grass. For the 1849 season, Clydesdale moved to a new ground about 500 yards to the west on the corner of Lambhill Street and West Scotland Street, rented from a Mr Meiklewham. The first match there was on 30 June 1849 against Barrhead. From 1851 onwards, Kinning Park hosted a number of prestigious "international" matches against visiting select teams. The first, on 18–20 September 1851, is recorded by CricketArchive as being between Glasgow and an

All England Eleven In English cricket since the first half of the 18th century, various ''ad hoc'' teams have been formed for short-term purposes which have been called England (or sometimes "All-England"; i.e., in the sense of "the rest of England") to play against, ...

, although some contemporary newspapers billed "the great cricket match in Glasgow" as being "Scotland versus England"; the ''

Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

'' previewed the fixture by describing it as "an interesting match, which is exciting such an intense curiosity all over Scotland". The twenty-two-man Glasgow team, which was effectively a Clydesdale side augmented by guest English professionals, gained a draw against an All England team that included Alfred Mynn,

Fuller Pilch Fuller Pilch (17 March 1804 – 1 May 1870) was an English first-class cricketer, active from 1820 to 1854. He was a right-handed batsman who bowled at a slow pace with a roundarm action. Pilch played in a total of 229 first-class matches for a ...

and

John Wisden John Wisden (5 September 1826 – 5 April 1884) was an English cricketer who played 187 first-class cricket matches for three English county cricket teams, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex. His father, William, was a builder. He attended Brighton's ...

. Kinning Park continued to host similar prestigious matches, pitting teams variously billed as Clydesdale, Glasgow or Scotland against an All England Eleven or United England Eleven until 1864, while there were also matches against a United Ireland Eleven in 1860 and the

United South of England Eleven The United South of England Eleven (USEE) was an itinerant cricket team founded in November 1864 by Edgar Willsher, as secretary, and John Lillywhite, as treasurer. The USEE had no home venue as its prime purpose, like all similarly named teams of ...

in 1866. In the early 1860s, Kinning Park was still the rural locality it had been when Clydesdale arrived. At this time, there were two more cricket fields to the east of the Clydesdale ground, used by minor local clubs including Alma, St Clair and Russley, while nearby to the north was an

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

ground. By the following decade the area had transformed into a rapidly growing industrial suburb, to the extent that it gained independent

burgh A burgh is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland and Northern England, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burg ...

status in 1871. With increasing demand for land development, Clydesdale were informed in 1874 by landowner

Sir William Stirling-Maxwell Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet MP KT, of Pollok FRSE DCL LLD (8 March 181815 January 1878), was a Scottish historical writer, art historian and politician. Until 1865 he was known as William Stirling, and several of his books we ...

of the Pollok Estate that they would have to vacate the ground to make way for the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

's Kinning Park Goods Yard, with a choice of alternative grounds elsewhere on the estate. The final cricket match at Kinning Park was in September 1875, when Clydesdale members played the last of their annual "North v South" (of the

River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

) matches. For the 1876 season, they relocated to their new ground at

in nearby

Pollokshields Pollokshields ( gd, Buthan Phollaig, Scots: ''Powkshiels'') is an area in the Southside of Glasgow, Scotland. Its modern boundaries are largely man-made, being formed by the M77 motorway to the west and northwest with the open land of Pollok ...

Football

was formed around 1872 as an offshoot of the cricket club, and were one of the founder members of the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the Sport governing body, governing body of association football, football in Scot ...

(SFA) in 1873. They reached the final of the inaugural

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1873-74, with Kinning Park staging its first Cup tie in the competition's first round, Clydesdale beating Granville 6–0. Although the cricket field was lost to the railway development in 1875, enough land remained for football to continue at Kinning Park, although Clydesdale would play only one further season there in 1875–76 before joining the cricket club at Titwood. In April 1876, Clydesdale defeated

The Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

of Sheffield 2–0 in a prestige

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

that attracted a large crowd, with around one thousand spectators accommodated in a grandstand on the north side of the ground and six thousand more standing. With many more trying to view the game from outside the ground, a shed roof behind the west goal with two hundred people atop it collapsed, although there were no serious injuries. Two weeks prior to the Wednesday match, Clydesdale had hosted Rangers at Kinning Park, and it was they who became the ground's new tenants later that year. After playing initially on

Glasgow Green Glasgow Green is a park in the east end of Glasgow, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde. Established in the 15th century, it is the oldest park in the city. It connects to the south via the St Andrew's Suspension Bridge. History I ...

, the up-and-coming club then spent the 1875–76 season renting their first enclosed ground at

Burnbank Burnbank is an area in the town of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was formerly a separate mining village before being absorbed into the town. Location and governance Burnbank, previously an independent settlement, then part of Hamil ...

in the

West End of Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated p ...

, but the location proved unpopular with their growing band of supporters. The move to Kinning Park saw Rangers first begin to establish themselves in the south-western fringe of Glasgow where they would make their permanent home. They officially opened their new ground on 2 September 1876 with a 2–1 victory over one of the leading clubs of the era,

Vale of Leven The Vale of Leven (Scottish Gaelic: ''Magh Leamhna'') is an area of West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, in the valley of the River Leven. Historically, it was part of The Lennox, the name of which derives from the Gaelic term ''Leamhnach'', meaning ' ...

. Kinning Park was selected by the SFA as the neutral venue for the 1881 Scottish Cup Final between Queen's Park and

. The match was played on 26 March 1881, with Queen's Park winning 2–1 in front of a "vast crowd" estimated at up to twenty thousand people, then "the largest that has ever been seen at a football match". Dumbarton lodged a protest that this had led to spectators encroaching on the field and interfering with play. This was upheld by the SFA, who ordered that the match should be replayed. With Kinning Park again chosen to host the replay, measures were taken to improve the spectator accommodation, with two temporary stands and new barriers being erected, while Rangers sought to prevent people climbing onto their clubhouse roof — as at the first game — by having it freshly tarred. On this occasion, the gates were locked with approximately ten thousand people inside, while perhaps half as many again watched from outside, including from trucks on the adjacent railway and from the windows of surrounding buildings. Queen's Park won again, this time 3–1. Rangers continued to play at Kinning Park for the next six years, suffering their all-time record defeat there on 6 February 1886, losing 10–2 to Airdrieonians in a friendly match. The club eventually decided to leave due to the limitations of the cramped site and their inability to expand its capacity. During their final season at the ground they reached the semi-finals of the

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 ...

, with the last competitive game at Kinning Park being their 5–1 quarter-final win over Old Westminsters on 19 February 1887, watched by between five and six thousand spectators. The last match of all took place one week later, with a match between the "Moderns" and the "Ancients" — current members against players from the club's early days. For the following season, Rangers moved further out from the city, to the Ibrox area of

Govan Govan ( ; Cumbric?: ''Gwovan'?''; Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of south-west City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south ba ...

, where they opened the

Athletics

The first Rangers Sports, the football club's annual

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

meeting, took place at Kinning Park on 20 August 1881. Clydesdale Harriers, Scotland's first open amateur athletics club, were formed in 1885 and initially used the ground for training and events, as they had a significant membership overlap with Rangers; they would later follow them to Ibrox. A sawmill was built over the site of the ground, followed by a school (Lambhill Primary), and it is now covered by the eastbound carriageway of the M8 motorway.

Notes

References

;Sources {{Football venues in Scotland Defunct cricket grounds in Scotland Defunct football venues in Scotland Sports venues in Glasgow Football venues in Glasgow Demolished buildings and structures in Scotland Demolished sports venues in the United Kingdom Sports venues completed in 1849 Sports venues demolished in 1887 Athletics (track and field) venues in Scotland Rangers F.C. Clydesdale F.C. Kinning Park