The Old Recreation Ground was a football stadium located in

Hanley Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been the ...

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

, England, and home to Port Vale F.C. from 1913 to 1950. It was the sixth ground the club used.

Structure and facilities

The stadium was in rather bad condition, especially following years of neglect during World War II. The dressing rooms were bare, there were no toilet facilities throughout the entire ground, and

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s were kept by '' The Sentinel'' and a number of supporters so as to relay the scoreline to different parts of the city.

History

Port Vale F.C. opened the ground in 1913, and six years later were admitted into the English Football League. The visit of Potteries derby rivals Stoke on 6 March 1920 saw a crowd of 22,697 turn up to see an away victory. Other big matches for Port Vale went more favourably in later years though, as they drew 2–2 with

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in the FA Cup on 29 January 1927 and beat

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2–0 on 13 January 1936, again in the FA Cup. Port Vale were forced to sell the land to the city council, under the chairmanship of Tom W.Flint after suffering a financial crisis, they received £13,500. This came after the club's president Major William Huntbach died in 1943, leaving £3,000 of loans to be repaid to his estate. The council initially refused to allow the club to play at their ground, but eventually relented for rent of £400 a year. In 1950, the city council decided to construct a shopping centre on the site forcing the club to move to their current home of Vale Park. Ironically the club raised £50,000 to construct the new stadium, leading some to question why the directors did not simply attempt to raise a relatively much smaller sum of £3,000 in order to pay off the Huntbach family.''What If There Had Been No Port in the Vale?: Startling Port Vale Stories!'' (Witan Books, 2011, ) The final match at the Old Recreation Ground was described as an "uninspiring finale" as Vale lost 1–0 to Aldershot in front of a crowd of 9,645 on 22 April 1950.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Recreation Ground, The 1913 establishments in England Defunct football venues in England Demolished buildings and structures in England Port Vale F.C. Sports venues in Stoke-on-Trent Sports venues completed in 1913 Sports venues demolished in 1950 English Football League venues Demolished sports venues in the United Kingdom