The Northolme (known as the Gainsborough Martin & Co. Arena for sponsorship purposes) 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 ...

ground in

Gainsborough Gainsborough or Gainsboro may refer to: Places * Gainsborough, Ipswich, Suffolk, England ** Gainsborough Ward, Ipswich * Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, a town in England ** Gainsborough (UK Parliament constituency) * Gainsborough, New South Wales, ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

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 ...

. It is the home ground of

Gainsborough Trinity Gainsborough Trinity Football Club is a football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. Established in 1873, the club became members of the Football League in 1893 and remained members of the Second Division until 1912, making Gainsbo ...

, it has a capacity of 4,304, of which 504 is seated.

History

The Northolme was opened in the 1850s, and was originally used as a

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 ...

ground. Gainsborough Trinity moved to the ground in 1884, at which time the only spectator facility was a small covered stand in the south-west corner of the ground. Players used the nearby Sun Inn for changing rooms, with the pub building a special extension for use by the football club.Paul Smith & Shirley Smith (2005) ''The Ultimate Directory of English & Scottish Football League Grounds Second Edition 1888–2005'', Yore Publications, p92, A 200-seat grandstand was later added along the southern touchline, along with a covered terrace on the northern side of the pitch. Trinity 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 1896, and the first League match at the ground was played on 12 September 1896, with 2,000 spectators watching a 1–1 draw with

Manchester City 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 Salford to the west. The tw ...

. The ground was still used for cricket, and Trinity occasionally had to play matches at the Bowling Green Ground in the north-west of the town and

Sincil Bank Sincil Bank Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as LNER Stadium, is a football stadium in Lincoln, England which has been the home of Lincoln City since 1895. Previously, Lincoln City had played at the nearby John O'Gaunts ground since th ...

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

. The record attendance for a Football League match at the Northolme was set on 29 April 1911, when 5,600 saw Trinity beat

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

3–1. Gainsborough were voted out of the Football League at the end of the 1911–12 season, and returned to the

Midland League The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid. History Th ...

. The ground's record attendance of 9,760 was set for a Midland League match against local rivals Scunthorpe United in the 1940s. During the same decade the stand on the southern touchline burnt down and a new grandstand was built on the northern touchline. In 1988

Worksop Town Worksop Town Football Club is an English football club based in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. As of the 2021–22 season the team plays in the . They are nicknamed ''The Tigers'' and play their home games at Sandy Lane in Worksop. History First clu ...

lost their Central Avenue ground, and were forced to groundshare at the Northolme until 1992. A similar request was rejected in 2008. For the beginning of the 2020–21 season, rivals

Boston United Boston United Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The club participates in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. The club is known ...

were granted permission to use the Northolme as their home ground temporarily whilst finishing touches were applied to their new stadium.

References

External links

Football venues in England Sports venues in Lincolnshire Worksop Town F.C. Cricket grounds in Lincolnshire Defunct cricket grounds in England Gainsborough Trinity F.C. English Football League venues Gainsborough, Lincolnshire Boston United F.C. {{England-sports-venue-stub