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Redevelopment of Meadow Lane

By Chris (edited)

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Nottingham City council eventually leased a plot of land to Notts and a new home stadium was quickly erected.

The stadium, 'Meadow Lane', would become the centre of football within Nottingham, as the ground en-counted historic moments, such as the World War II bombing, many matches and legends of the game.

Moving onto the early 1990's then Chairman, Derek Pavis, set about plans to modernise the stadium. Over the years, the ground had witnessed a few characteristic additions but largely remained unchanged.

After the Bradford City Stadium fire, when sadly 56 deaths occurred, plus over 250 injuries and the Hillsborough disaster, the Taylor report required football clubs to abide by health and safety regulations. This brought about a swift move towards many English football teams being required to modernise their ground.

meadowlanerd.png

Meadow Lane was subsequently redeveloped in the early 90's.This saw the Meadow Lane End, County Road Stand and Spion Kop demolished and new modern stands replacing the former one's, as the Family Stand (Hayden Green Family Stand), Jimmy Sirrel Stand and the Spion Kop stand were rebuilt in a matter of months. Revamp cost the club an excess of around £5million pounds and a combination of selling strike partners Paul Rideout and Tommy Johnson contributed to the costs.

During the close season of 1994, the Main Stand was replaced with the existing Derek Pavis Stand.

The stadium is somewhere to be truly proud., it's many fans second 'home' and over the years we've seen other parts receive it's own revamps, such as the Meadow Lane Sports Bar. The whole ground has a 'special' family feel.

It's only when you think back into the past, recall the nostalgic memories and look about the redevelopment that you truly the appreciation the feeling.

Meadow Lane is also the only ground in Europe, possibly the world where the Chairman has his own personal view. The balcony is a wonderful feature of the stadium, as are many other aspects. My personal favourite being the tree locations, which I believe one will become the home of the Jimmy & Jack statue.

I've taken some pictures of the Stadium using my mobile phone, I will share some below and hope to share the album with fans who might be interesting in browsing.

-Edit: 28/05/2017

Due to the date in length of time between now and the original date of this publication, the link to the gallery has since experienced but if there's any interest (please do let us know) - I will consider releasing a new gallery of images that I have taken over the years.

http://prideofnottingham.co.uk/community/gallery/album/15-/

Pride of Nottingham would like to Thank 'Notts County Football Club' for allowing me to take the pictures.

Edited by Chris

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    liampie

    Members

    awesome feature and article, i didn't know much about meadow lane. the link to the gallery works nicely

    Enthusiast

    sadlad

    Members

    A smashing article. Learned a lot about the history of Meadow Lane reading this.


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    super_ram

    Global Moderators

    Nice write up.


    .I enjoy learning about  anything to do with the history of football.


    There's so much more  than the eleven players out on the pitch.that make up what any football club is about.


    Very enjoyable.


    Hall of Fame

    upthepies

    Members

    Smashing write up Joe, it's a nice little read.


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    Magic magpie

    Members
    (edited)

    Fantastic article and read more like this please ????????Great to see how far we have really come thanks to a legend  

    Edited by super_ram
    typo

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