As a result of the Taylor Report, which arose from the Hillsborough disaster, Football League and Scottish League clubs are having to make stringent alterations to their grounds, in preparation for all-seater stadia. This revised edition reflects many of those changes, as well as the promotion to Football League status of Maidstone United and Barnet. New illustrations have been included, where appropriate. Since his book was first published in 1983 as "The Football Grounds of England and Wales", Simon Inglis has become acknowledged as an authority on the safety aspects of football ground architecture, and is now a member of the Football Licensing Authority. His survey, in this book, of every ground in all Divisions of the Football and Scottish Leagues, discusses their significance from the perspectives of football history, architecture, safety and social history.
Mine is the original 1983 edition. Indeed by then I had been to 72 of the 92 So very many of these fine grounds have now gone (The Baseball Ground, Burnden Park, Booth ferry Park), while others no longer host league football (The Shay, Plainmoor, Sealand Road) Of the 20 I had not visited in 1983 all but one have been ticked off (Goodoson Park) Only a very few old school grounds now look like they did in 1983 (Kenilworth Road, Fratton Park, Braunton Park) Most new grounds (The Etiad, Huddersfield, Bolton, Middlesbro) are depressingly uniform. How it makes me long for a wet mid week trip to a long gone park: Roker or Ayresome, Ninian or Upton But not, let's be honest The Den....
There was a time when I knew the name of the gorund for every football league club....I knew their nickname, team colours and second strips too.... I was younger then and didn't know any better than to fill my head with a lot of silly nonesense - I'll not do it again - I don't have the time anymore - nor the memory!
A book that was comprehensive at its time (1987) and poignantly historical now as so many of the grounds it records have been replaced as football as become an adjunct to consumer-marketing. The cloth caps are gone, lad, along with the steak and kidney pies.