Friday 31 December 2010

Wisbech Town

This a report on a visit to Fenland Park, home of Wisbech Town from 1947 to 2008. My visit was made for a pre-season friendly against Dunstable Town in August 2007 after I had found out that this was likely to be their last season there. I'd heard so many good things about he ground it was one I was determined to see before it disappeared.

The turnstiles bring into the ground in the corner of one of the ends. I go straight ahead, clockwise, and on this side of the ground there is a decent sized covered seating stand.

After the stand there is two step terrace with a barrier at the back with an overgrown area behind this.

This leads onto the opposite end to where you come in and there is a covered terrace running nearly the whole length of the end.

This then brings you to the real reason why everyone loved this ground, The Fenman Stand.

The "stand" is in fact a large Dutch Barn and the story is that a director bought two of them for his farm but only needed one and so it found it's way to the football ground. It really was a magnificent site and I make no apologies for posting several pictures of it.

As you can see from the next picture, the elevated section at the back of the stand was closed when I visited. You can also see the roof structure really well and the barrel shape of the roof is also visible.

There are two floodlights rising up through the roof, which can be seen more clearly on the next picture.

I know have reached the end where I came in. There is an almost identical covered stand as at the other end. As you look at it from the Fenman Stand there is a Clubhouse in the left hand corner and in the opposite corner there is a Board Room and the Club Shop.

To be honest I didn't really care how good the game was now as I was in hopping heaven with this fantastic ground full of character. However I was also in for a treat in this respect too. Wisbech took the lead against their opponents but were then blown away by the pacy Dunstable team who went on to score five unanswered goals. A really enjoyable game on a fantastic ground.

More pictures of Fenland Park here.


Wisbech Town 1-5 Dunstable Town
Att: 150
Admission: £3

2 comments:

  1. Great pictures of a charismatic ground.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a superb & invaluable record Reynard the Fox! Are you still active in cataloguing non-league grounds? Regardless, what you've left here is a fabulous record of a bygone age and superb facilities that just cannot be replicated by modern stadia, no matter how much better they might serve the multi-purpose needs of most clubs today who need revenue from a variety of streams, other than that taken through the turnstiles to survive & prosper going forward... Have often said I was born 30 years too late - memories like you've captured & shared here prove it!...

    Kudos, sir!

    Jake Whiteley

    ReplyDelete