Shielfield 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 that is home to
Berwick Rangers and
Berwick Bandits speedway team. Although Berwick Rangers is a
Scottish Lowland Football League
The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the S ...
club, Shielfield Park is situated in the
English county of
Northumberland.
History
There has been a ground at Shielfield Park, named after land owned by local butcher William Shiel Dods, since 1890.
Berwick Rangers played at a number of other sites in
Berwick, including a ground adjacent to the present site at Shielfield.
Berwick Rangers first entered the
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...
in
1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the United ...
.
After a successful run in the
1953–54 Scottish Cup
The 1953–54 Scottish Cup was the 69th staging of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The Cup was won by Celtic who defeated Aberdeen in the final.
First round
Replays
Second replays
Second round
Repla ...
, a stand was purchased from
Bradford City and the team settled at Shielfield.
The ground was opened with a game against
Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...
.
The record attendance at Shielfield Park is 13,365, for the
Scottish Cup game against
Rangers
A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...
on 28 January 1967, which
Berwick won 1–0 in a famous cup upset.
Due to financial problems,
Berwick Rangers was forced to sell Shielfield Park to the local council in 1985,
who leased it back to the club.
Both stand roofs were dismantled in 1990 as a safety precaution.
Berwick Rangers nearly went out of business in 1992 and the lease was sold to a greyhound company.
The greyhound company initially locked Berwick Rangers out, forcing the club to groundshare with other Second Division clubs.
The company eventually relented and allowed the club back in for part of each week.
The club's supporters eventually bought the lease out in August 1995.
Speedway
Berwick Bandits first used Shielfield Park in 1968, but the speedway team left in 1981.
Arguments with Berwick Rangers forced the Bandits to find a new home, which was Berrington Lough near Ancroft, Northumberland. The club moved back into Berwick in 1996 and have remained there ever since, enjoying much success during this time and good crowd attendances.
Greyhound racing
Gordon Grant secured a lease for greyhound racing in 1991 and after the construction of a track and associated facilities the racing arrived at Shielfield Park on 29 May 1992. The 390m circumference track was described as a good galloping circuit but the venture only lasted four years because the football club fans bought out the lease in 1995.
Structure and facilities
The current capacity of Shielfield Park is ,
of which 1,366 are seated in the Main Stand.
Opposite the Main Stand is a small covered terrace, nicknamed the "Ducket".
Both of the ends are turfed and unused as spectator areas.
Behind the west end curve is a maltings.
References
; Sources
*
{{Scottish greyhound tracks
Berwick Rangers F.C.
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Sports venues in Northumberland
Football venues in England
Speedway venues in England
Scottish Football League venues
Scottish Professional Football League venues
Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom