football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
ground in
Armadale, West Lothian
Armadale (, ) is a town within the county of West Lothian in the Central Belt of Scotland. It lies to the west of Bathgate and to the east of Blackridge, West Lothian, Blackridge. Armadale, formerly known as Barbauchlaw, is an ex-mining town wh ...
, Scotland. It is the home ground of Armadale Thistle, and was used by several of the town's previous clubs, including Armadale F.C., who played
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct 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&nbs ...
matches there between 1921 and 1933. The ground also hosted
greyhound racing
Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around an oval track. The sport originates from Hare coursing, coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of th ...
during the 1930s.
History
Around 1880, C Company of the
Royal Scots
The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment), once known as the Royal Regiment of Foot, was the oldest and most senior infantry regiment line infantry, of the line of the British Army, having been raised in 1633 during the reign of Charles I of England ...
Volunteer Battalion moved to Armadale from
Torphichen
Torphichen ( ) is a historic small village located north of Bathgate in West Lothian, Scotland. The village is approximately west of Edinburgh, south-east of Falkirk and south-west of Linlithgow. The village had a population of 570 in the ( 2 ...
, and began training at Volunteer field on North Street. In 1881 Armadale Stars requested to use the site as a football pitch, and were allowed to do so on the condition that they joined the Volunteers. As a result, the club was renamed Armadale Volunteers.Volunteer Park Armadale Thistle There is however no record of the club playing before 1887.
Volunteer field subsequently became Volunteer Park. In 1889 the original Armadale club also adopted the ground, playing there until their disbandment in 1894.
In 1910 a new Armadale F.C. were formed, and took over Volunteer Park. Over the next five years a pavilion with a small stand was built on the eastern side of the pitch and a 200-seat grandstand erected on the western side. Embankments were also built around the pitch.Paul Smith & Shirley Smith (2005) ''The Ultimate Directory of English & Scottish Football League Grounds Second Edition 1888–2005'', Yore Publications, p226 On 19 February 1921 the ground's probable record attendance of 12,600 was set for a
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Albion Rovers. The west stand was demolished and replaced with a new 700-capacity stand in the same year. This later burnt down in the mid-1930s.
Later in 1921 the club were admitted to Division Two of the
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct 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&nbs ...
. The first SFL match was played at Volunteer Park on 20 August, a 3–0 win against St Bernard's. The crowd of 4,000 remained Armadale's highest recorded league attendance. In the 1930s the ground was used for
whippet
The Whippet is a British breed of dog of sighthound type. It closely resembles the Greyhound and the smaller Italian Greyhound, and is intermediate between them in size. In the nineteenth century it was sometimes called "the poor man's raceh ...
racing. By then the Volunteer Park pitch had become known as one of the worst in the SFL. Financial problems led to the club being expelled from the SFL during the 1933–34 season, their last home match in the league being a 5–1 defeat to Raith Rovers on 19 November 1933. The crowd of just 300 (the same as that for the 2–0 defeat to
Alloa Athletic
Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. They compete in as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League.
According to the official club hist ...
on 5 November) was their lowest recorded league attendance.
The club folded in 1935, and a new club, Armadale Thistle, was formed in 1936, taking over Volunteer Park. A covered seated stand was built in 1950, and the club installed floodlights at the ground in 1954; the first
Scottish Junior Football Association
The Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA) is an affiliated national association of the Scottish Football Association and is the governing body for the junior grade of football (soccer), football in Scotland. The term "junior" refers to the ...
match was played under floodlights at Volunteer Park in 1956 when Thistle played Rosewell Rosedale.
The ground has also been used to host several schoolboy internationals.
Greyhound racing
Racing first took place around the Volunteer Park football pitch on 3 October 1936 but only lasted until 16 February 1939. The racing was independent (unlicensed) and the track distances consisted of 225 yards and 380 yards. The greyhound operation moved to
Armadale Stadium
Armadale Stadium is a motorcycle speedway and former greyhound racing stadium situated in the town of Armadale, West Lothian in Scotland. Stock car racing has also been held at the venue.
Speedway
It has been home to the Edinburgh Monarchs s ...
just four days later on 20 February 1939. TD Heffernan was involved in both tracks.