|
|
The 2009/10 season saw the 80th anniversary of Margate's first game at Hartsdown Park. After a somewhat nomadic existence in the early years which took in grounds at Garlinge, Clare House School, Margate College, Northdown Corner and on two sites on what was to be Dreamland Amusement Park.
The move to Hartsdown was just one part of a major change for the club at the time, not least the fact that they reformed this season after the original club had folded.
The ground was provided by the Margate Corporation Council and four and a half acres of the park, was leased at a rent of £200 per annum, initially for three years and included a stand with seating for 500 people, although this was not finished until the December, with Hartsdown House used as the changing rooms.
The first match at the ground was a friendly against Folkestone on Saturday 31st August 1929. Hartsdown Park & House were officially opened on Thursday 5th September,and the first competitive match was against Dover, in the Kent League, on Saturday 14th September with Margate winning 6-1.
The next major developments at Hartsdown came in 1934 and coincided with the Nursery arrangement with Arsenal. The pitch width was reduced to match that of Highbury's, new toilets and dressing rooms were built behind the main stand and a new North Stand was built opposite.
The next progress came some time later, in 1956, when new covered terracing was built at the end furthest from Hartsdown Road. Although it was initially called the Cornhill Stand it eventually became known as the Coffin End. Several explanations have been given for this naming over the years. Not far from the ground uses to be a house which came to a point at the junction of Tivoli Road and Hartsdown Road which was given the name Coffin Corner, although this is actually nearer to the Hartsdown Road Terrace and some people have argued that that is actually the Coffin End. Another theory is that the the reason the Cornhill Stand was at the bottom of the infamous slope it is where the final nail was put in the coffin of visiting clubs defending that end, as the were not used to playing out of the gradient. The least interesting, but most likely story is that someone simply painted the words 'The Coffin' on the back wall of the terrace and the name stuck.
Floodlights were first erected in September 1959 and the first game played under the floodlights was against Yiewsley on 23rd September 1959, while West Ham visited Hartsdown to mark the official switching on of the lights.
The lights would only last until 1964 when a new set were installed and the old ones moved first to Kingsmead Stadium in Canterbury and then to the Belmont Ground in Whitstable. 1959/60 also saw further concrete terracing and the walls around Hartsdown Park were constructed.
During 1961/62, a tunnel was constructed leading from the changing rooms under the main staind and out onto the pitch, allowing more seats to be put in the stand.
The clubhouse at the Hartsdown Road end was built during the 1966/67 season and that was the last major development at the ground until it was extended into the Hartsdown Road terrace in 1985, although in 1969 the original fixture board facing Hartsdowndown Road was erected on the clubchouse roof.
In May 1989 the club's board submitted plans to Thanet District Council in the hope of doubling the size of the Hartsdown stadium complex but this was just to be the first of many rejected attempts to improve the ground. The North Stand, which had already been firstly reduced to standing only following the removal of the seats was condemned and demolished, reducing the stadium to just three sides, bar a small open terrace towards the Hartsdown Road end.
Another set of floodlights arrived in 1992 when Dartford going out of business meant that the club was able to aquire the pylons from Watling Street.
After another set of redevelopment plans were rejected and with Margate pushing for promotion to the Conference, in 2001 the decision was taken to do upgrade the exisiting stadium to bring it up to Conference standard. A new terrace was constructed on the site of the old North Stand, new seats were installed into the 70 year-old main stand, segregation fences were installed and the famous slope of the Hartsdown pitch was levelled. The old board room also had decking placed in front of it to turn it into a sponsors area.
Hartsdown Park only got to see one full season of Conference Conference regulations meant all grounds had to be up to Football League. With more plans affot to completely redevolp the stadium, Margate shared Dover Athletic's Crabble Stadium durin the 2002/03 season. However, poor drainage at Crabble saw a surprise breif reprieve for the, as yet, untouched Hartsdown and a handful of games were played there over the Christmas period. Just before this happened Thanet District Council finally approved the club's plans to re-develop Hartsdown, in partnership with a company called Stadia Management, so it was felt that this brief return may be a fitting finale before returning to a brand new Hartsdown Park in the near future.
In June 2003 demolition work finally began on the old ground and within a few weeks all that was left was the Hartsdown Road End encompassing the clubs offices. It was intended that the new stadium would be ready for the start of the 2003/04 campaign but delays in construction meant that Margate would start the season at Crabble.
In October 2003 Stadia Management pulled out and the Conference board announced that Margate would be fined £5,000 for every match that had to be rearranged at Crabble after March 31st.
After a further season on the road, this time at Ashford Town Homelands Stadium, Margate finally returned home in time for the 2005/06 season, albeit at a site a shadow of it's former self.
The Hartsdown Road end remained unchanged but the Coffin End was now just a flat length of concrete, the site of the old main stand was now home to portakabin changing rooms and two 100 seat temporary stands were placed on the old North Stand site.
This was only intended to be a temporary design, just to get the side home and in December 2007 the first stage of developing a complex at the site was finalised when ten next-generation five-a-side pitches were opened behind the temprorary seats.
The next stage of the development was to build a medical centre as part redeveloped Tivoli Park (South) side of the ground. However, despite support from many quarters it was decided that the viability was not proved and the Council turned it down.
At a supporters meeting in June 2008 Chief Executive Keith Piper announced that he was looking into the development of the north stand to include proper changing rooms, a sports bar and other facilities. |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
