Hyde Road - History

History

Gorton A.F.C. were one of a number of football sides from east Manchester active in the 1880s. Between 1885 and 1887 they played home games on a field adjacent to the Bulls Head Hotel, on the border of Gorton and Reddish. The landlord of the Bulls Head demanded a rent increase in 1887, so the club sought an alternative venue. The club captain, Kenneth McKenzie, discovered an area of waste ground on Hyde Road, Ardwick, and informed the club committee. Lawrence Furniss, the club secretary, ascertained that the ground was owned by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company. Following an initial letter of enquiry by Gorton player Walter Chew to railway company estate agent Edwin Barker, Furniss and Chew negotiated a seven month lease at a cost of £10, and the club changed its name to "Ardwick A.F.C." to reflect the new location. A few weeks later, using materials provided by the nearby Galloway engineering works, a rudimentary football ground was ready for use. The ground had no changing rooms, and teams changed in a nearby public house, the Hyde Road Hotel, where the football club held business meetings. The ground's first seating area was built in 1888, with 1,000 seats, paid for by Chesters Brewery in return for the right to be the sole provider of alcohol inside the ground. Ardwick were admitted to the Football League in 1892. The first league match held at Hyde Road was a 7–0 Ardwick win against Bootle on 3 September 1892. Two years later the club reformed as "Manchester City F.C."

The increasing popularity of the football club resulted in improvements being made to the ground on several occasions. Improvements costing £600 were made in 1890, and changing rooms were provided in 1896. A new stand was purchased for £1,500 in 1898, and £2,000 worth of improvements were made in 1904, resulting in a capacity of 40,000 with stands on three sides. This development resulted in Hyde Road being chosen to host two prestigious matches—an inter-league match between the English League and the Irish League, and an FA Cup semi-final between Newcastle United and The Wednesday. In 1910 multi-span roofing was built on the three previously uncovered sides of the ground, resulting in covered accommodation for 35,000 spectators.

Even though improvements were made the ground suffered problems when hosting large crowds, due to narrow surrounding streets and a shortage of turnstiles. A reporter for the Manchester Football News summarised the access problems: "The croft is a nightmare in wet weather, and altogether the approach is easily the worst of any I know". On occasion, further problems occurred inside the ground as well as outside. A 1913 cup tie against Sunderland drew a crowd officially recorded as 41,709, but believed to be significantly higher. An hour before kick-off the gates were closed, with many ticket-holders unable to gain admission. The crowd was so large that once the match kicked off the crowd began to spill onto the pitch, a problem which worsened as the game progressed. Sunderland's Charles Buchan recalled that "Before half-time they were three or four yards inside the touchlines." A Sunderland goal in the 58th minute caused further encroachment, forcing the referee to abandon the match. An FA inquiry into the events on the terraces gave rise to debate on the issue of crowd control at sporting events. Use of mounted police was a particularly contentious issue, the chairman of the committee asking "If the ball struck a horse, and the creature plunged among the people, who was to be held responsible for any injuries that might accrue?"

During the suspension of competitive football in the First World War, Hyde Road was used to stable 300 horses. Later in the wartime period the club became the sole leaseholder of the ground, no longer dependent upon support from Chesters brewery. At this point the annual rent was £500. In 1920, the ground became the first football venue outside London to be visited by a reigning monarch; King George V attended the ground to watch a match between Manchester City and Liverpool. In November a fire caused by a cigarette end destroyed the Main Stand, and Manchester City began to seek a new home. Initial discussions raised the possibility of sharing Old Trafford with neighbours Manchester United, but United's proposed rent was prohibitive, so repair work was undertaken and Manchester City continued to play at Hyde Road.

Plans for the club to move to a new ground—Maine Road—in Moss Side were announced in 1922. The final Manchester City match at Hyde Road was a league fixture against Newcastle United on 28 April 1923, and in August 1923 a public practice game was the last football match played at Hyde Road. Manchester City began the 1923–24 season at Maine Road, which had an 80,000 capacity. Parts of Hyde Road were used elsewhere; the roof of the Main Stand was sold to Halifax Town, and erected at The Shay, where even in the 21st century, part of the Hyde Road roof is still in place. Within a decade, all traces of the football ground had disappeared from Hyde Road. The bulk of the area was taken over by Manchester Corporation Tramways department, whose major Hyde Road depot and works was alongside, for use as their Permanent Way yard for assembling and storing tramway rails and materials. The Tramways system also provided at this time a substantial parcels handling service within the city, using both vans and special parcels trams, and a new central parcels depot was built on the Bennett Street side of the former site, against the railway viaduct. After the end of Manchester's trams in 1949 (most of the old trams were scrapped on this site) it was used for storing old buses and as a bus drivers' training area. As of 2000, the site of the pitch is Olympic Freight Terminal, a container storage and warehousing facility.