The Memorial Stadium, also commonly known by its previous name of the Memorial Ground, is a sports ground in
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, England, and is the home of
Bristol Rovers F.C.
Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system.
They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been ...
It opened in 1921 dedicated to the memory of local
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
players killed during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, and was the home of
Bristol Bears
Bristol Bears (officially Bristol Rugby Club or Bristol Rugby) are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 18 ...
rugby club until they moved to
Ashton Gate in 2014.
History
![Memorial Stadium (Bristol)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Memorial_Stadium_%28Bristol%29.jpg)
The site was created on an area of land called Buffalo Bill's Field, after
Colonel William "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Wild West Show was held there between 28 September and 3 October 1891. Two years later in September 1893 Clifton RFC played on the site for the first time.
During the First World War the site was converted into allotments, but after the war Buffalo Bill's Field was bought by Sir Francis Nicholas Cowlin (then the Sheriff of Bristol) and given to
Bristol Rugby Club. It was opened as the Memorial Ground on 24 September that year by G. B. Britton, the
Lord Mayor of Bristol
The position of Lord Mayor of Bristol was conferred on the city in June 1899 (effective 15 November 1899) as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours and was confirmed by letters patent dated 1 April 1974. Prior to November 1899 the position of M ...
.
Situated on Filton Avenue in
Horfield
Horfield is a suburb of the city of Bristol, in southwest England. It lies on Bristol's northern edge, its border with Filton marking part of the boundary between Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Bishopston lies directly to the south. Monk ...
, Bristol, it has developed significantly over the years. A massive crowd turned out to watch the first Bristol game to be held there against
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
, but did so from wooden terraces and stands. With the advent of leagues in the late 1980s, Bristol looked to develop the ground, replacing the old Shed on the north side with the Centenary Stand to mark the club's 100th anniversary in 1988. The West Stand, an original feature of the ground, was demolished in 1995 having been condemned, and replaced.
In 1996,
Bristol Rovers
Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system.
They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...
moved in as tenants of Bristol Rugby Club, and then entered into joint ownership through the Memorial Stadium Company. After just two years, in 1998, the rugby club was relegated from the Premiership (causing them severe financial difficulties) and under the terms of the agreement Bristol Rovers were able to buy Bristol Rugby's share of the stadium for a 'nominal fee', a clause designed to protect either party should one or the other fall into financial difficulties. The rugby club became tenants in their original home.
By 2005, the Memorial Stadium was hosting Bristol Rugby Club back in the
Guinness Premiership
Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...
, with Bristol Rovers continuing to compete in the lower levels of 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 ...
. A roof was added to the Clubhouse Terrace (paid for by Bristol Rovers supporters' efforts) and temporary stands at the south and south-west of the ground have brought capacity up to 11,916. Bristol Rugby were again relegated out of the Premiership in 2009.
In February 2013, after months of speculation, Bristol Rugby announced that they would move and share a ground with
Bristol City
Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...
at the redeveloped
Ashton Gate Stadium. The rugby club played their final game at the Mem on 4 June 2014, a
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
play-off final second leg against
London Welsh
London Welsh Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain) was a rugby union club formed in 1885. Based in Old Deer Park, Richmond-upon-Thames, London Welsh RFC played in the English Premiership in the 2012–13 and 2014–15 seasons, ...
. There was no fairytale ending for Bristol though as London Welsh won the game 21–20 to condemn the side to a sixth straight season outside the
Premiership.
The ground has remained a focal point for the wider Bristol community, and a minute's silence is held annually at the closest game to
Remembrance Sunday
Remembrance Sunday is held in the United Kingdom as a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It is held on the second Sunday in Nov ...
, while on 11 November a service of remembrance is held at the Memorial Gates with players and officials from both Bristol Rovers and Bristol Rugby attending the service each year. On Christmas Eve 2015, the memorial gates were vandalized by supporters of
Bristol City
Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...
.
Other uses
The stadium is also used for the rugby varsity between the city's two universities,
University of the West of England
The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England.
The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...
and
University of Bristol
, mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'')
, established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter
, type ...
. In 2013, the stadium hosted the
Rugby League World Cup
The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament contested by the top national men's representative teams. The tournament is administered by the International Rugby League and was first held in France in 1954, which was ...
Group D match between the
Cook Islands
)
, image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg
, capital = Avarua
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Avarua
, official_languages =
, lan ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
attracting a crowd of 7,247.
Gloucester Rugby
Gloucester Rugby are a professional rugby union club based in the West Country city of Gloucester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby, as well as in the European Rugby Champions Cup.
The club was formed i ...
played two pre-season friendlies at the stadium whilst their home ground,
Kingsholm Stadium
Kingsholm Stadium is a rugby union stadium located in the Kingsholm area of Gloucester, England, and is the home stadium of Gloucester Rugby. The stadium has a capacity of 16,115. It is sometimes nicknamed 'Castle Grim', after the estate where ...
, was being used for the
2015 Rugby World Cup
The 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was onl ...
.
In 2017 there was a crowd recording for the
Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations Limited (also known as Aardman Studios, simply Aardman or Aardman Animation and stylised as AARDMAN as of 2022) is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. It is known for films made using stop-motion and clay an ...
film
Early Man at the Memorial Stadium. The stadium features in the music videos for
Kano's This Is England and
Idles' Great.
Stadium future
The Memorial Stadium Company proposed a wide-ranging £35 million refurbishment of the Memorial Stadium, bringing it up to an 18,500 all-seater capacity. On 17 January 2007, Bristol City Council granted permission for the stadium redevelopment.
The new stadium would have included a 97-room hotel, 99 student flats, a restaurant, a
convenience store
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
, offices and a public gym.
On 17 August 2007, it was announced that the stadium's redevelopment had been delayed and would commence in May 2008 and finish in December 2009. During this time period of reconstruction, Bristol Rovers would have ground-shared with
Cheltenham Town
Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...
at
Whaddon Road
Whaddon Road, known as the Completely-Suzuki Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Cheltenham, England. It is the home ground of Cheltenham Town F.C. It has a total capacity of 7,066, with a mixture of seating and terracing. T ...
while Bristol Rugby would have played across the
Severn Bridge
The Severn Bridge ( cy, Pont Hafren) is a motorway suspension bridge that spans the River Severn between South Gloucestershire in England and Monmouthshire in South East Wales. It is the original Severn road crossing between England and Wale ...
, sharing the
Rodney Parade
Rodney Parade is a stadium in the city of Newport, South Wales, owned and operated by the Welsh Rugby Union. It is located on the east bank of the River Usk in Newport city centre. The ground is on Rodney Road, a short walk from the city's cen ...
ground in Newport. The
Section 106 legal agreement, which was the main cause for the delay in the redevelopment, was finally signed on 4 January 2008, but more delays were encountered when on 30 May 2008 Rovers admitted that their preferred student accommodation providers had pulled out of the project, leaving the club to find an alternative company. This caused the redevelopment to be put back another year, to 2009. More delays, mostly attributed to the ongoing financial crisis, meant that by mid-2011 the stadium redevelopment had yet to begin.
In June 2011, Bristol Rovers announced its intentions to relocate the club to the newly proposed
UWE Stadium
UWE Stadium was a proposed 21,700 all-seater stadium to be built in Cheswick, South Gloucestershire, as a new home for Bristol Rovers. The stadium was to replace their current home, the Memorial Stadium. Sainsbury's agreed to buy the Memorial ...
instead of redeveloping the Memorial Stadium. In order to fund the new stadium, the Memorial Stadium was to be sold to supermarket chain
Sainsbury's
J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales.
Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...
with Rovers paying a
peppercorn rent
In legal parlance, a peppercorn is a metaphor for a very small cash payment or other nominal consideration, used to satisfy the requirements for the creation of a legal contract. It is featured in ''Chappell & Co Ltd v Nestle Co Ltd'' (960AC 87) ...
with work to redevelop the site not beginning until Rovers completed their move to the new stadium. Planning permission was granted for the UWE Stadium site in July 2012 and the Sainsbury's plans for the Memorial Stadium in January 2013. Work was expected to begin on the UWE Stadium shortly after but multiple delays caused by legal challenges held the project up. In 2014, Sainsbury's pulled out of the project and were subsequently taken to court by Rovers. Sainsbury's won the court case and appeal that followed leaving the entire project again in doubt.
In August 2017 following the takeover of the club by the Al-Qadi family, and extensive negotiations with the UWE, the club announced that it was no longer looking to build a new stadium in collaboration with the UWE but would once again explore redeveloping the Memorial Stadium instead.
Before the 2019/20
League One
The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...
campaign, Rovers redeveloped the bar under the Poplar Insulation stand and subsequently reopened it as a "club superstore". The new club bar was opened in the place of the former club shop.
Average attendances
References
External links
Bristol Roversnbsp;— Official website
The Memorial Ground, Flickr GroupPhotographic record of the Memorial Stadium
* Bristol Football Club (RFU), Dave Fox and Mark Hoskins, 2 vols., Tempus Publishing
* Bristol Rovers: The Definitive History 1883–2003, Stephen Byrne and Mike Jay, Tempus Publishing
{{2013 RLWC Venues
Football venues in Bristol
Rugby union stadiums in England
Bristol Rovers F.C.
Bristol Bears
Rugby League World Cup stadiums
Sports venues completed in 1921
English Football League venues