| Town map from 1927 on 19:07 - Nov 23 with 1474 views | R17ALE |
Aye, that's a map prior to Sandy Lane Road being built!
I remember being told by a long since departed fan, that when he started watching Rochdale in the 1920's, the Sandy Land End went back to roughly where the white lines are now in the middle of the road.
In the late 20's early 30's the council did a compulsory purchase on land from The Cem pub to the lights at Edenfield Road meaning half the stand had to make way for the road. So we ended up with a bus shelter instead of the Holte End!
I presume the road was needed as access to the yet to be built Greave estate and Oulder Hill School. |  |
|  |
| Town map from 1927 on 19:35 - Nov 23 with 1416 views | Clivert |
| Town map from 1927 on 19:07 - Nov 23 by R17ALE |
Aye, that's a map prior to Sandy Lane Road being built!
I remember being told by a long since departed fan, that when he started watching Rochdale in the 1920's, the Sandy Land End went back to roughly where the white lines are now in the middle of the road.
In the late 20's early 30's the council did a compulsory purchase on land from The Cem pub to the lights at Edenfield Road meaning half the stand had to make way for the road. So we ended up with a bus shelter instead of the Holte End!
I presume the road was needed as access to the yet to be built Greave estate and Oulder Hill School. |
https://fbcdn-photos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-0/1471999_101524704
Is anyone old enough to remember the tree in the middle of Sandy Lane?
I'm certainly not! |  | | |
| Town map from 1927 on 19:41 - Nov 23 with 1393 views | 49thseason |
I was only talking about that tree on saturday and remember it well!
I also remember putting sixpence in the fighting fund collection tins to enable the Sandy Lane stand to be built although my memory does not run to what was there before the current stand was built. |  | | |
| Town map from 1927 on 19:42 - Nov 23 with 1387 views | TVOS1907 |
Actually, that picture was taken on Saturday 30th August 2014.
A player called Mr Donnelly then hit a shot out of the ground that felled the tree, leaving the clear Sandy Lane we see today. |  |
| When I was your age, I used to enjoy the odd game of tennis. Or was it golf? |
| |
| Town map from 1927 on 19:51 - Nov 23 with 1357 views | 49thseason |
Just remembered that my dad use to talk about a tree that used to be inside the ground, dunno if its that one but if the ground used to go to the middle of the road I guess it might be. | | | |
| Town map from 1927 on 19:52 - Nov 23 with 1351 views | D_Alien |
My dad told me the earth used to excavate the Sandy Lane end when the road was build ended up as the hill to the right of the Pearl St End |  |
| |
| Town map from 1927 on 19:59 - Nov 23 with 1327 views | TVOS1907 |
Gigg Lane will look like that in a few weeks. | |
| When I was your age, I used to enjoy the odd game of tennis. Or was it golf? |
| |
Login to get fewer ads
| Town map from 1927 on 20:01 - Nov 23 with 1318 views | BigKindo |
Lots of Spotland mongrels whose grandparents no doubt frequented the tree. |  | | |
| Town map from 1927 on 20:02 - Nov 23 with 1315 views | TVOS1907 |
| Town map from 1927 on 19:52 - Nov 23 by D_Alien |
My dad told me the earth used to excavate the Sandy Lane end when the road was build ended up as the hill to the right of the Pearl St End |
When I was researching something for the Northampton programme, I cobbled this together which may have made 'The Hill' even bigger.
SLOPING OFF
Ahead of the first round tie at home to Barrow in November 1948, the club were carrying out work to level the infamous slope at Spotland.
The pitch was five feet higher at Pearl Street than at Sandy Lane, so the 1948 equivalent of bulldozers moved in to remove the extra mound, before replacing the turf.
Unfortunately, Barrow protested about the newly-laid surface and the FA agreed with them by ordering Dale to take the game to another ground, which happened to be Oldham’s Boundary Park.
There the teams drew 1-1, before Barrow won the replay 2-0 at Holker Street.
As for the removed earth, it was moved in between Pearl Street and the Main Stand and became known as ‘The Hill’ | |
| When I was your age, I used to enjoy the odd game of tennis. Or was it golf? |
| |
| Town map from 1927 on 20:04 - Nov 23 with 1310 views | BigKindo |
| Town map from 1927 on 19:51 - Nov 23 by 49thseason |
Just remembered that my dad use to talk about a tree that used to be inside the ground, dunno if its that one but if the ground used to go to the middle of the road I guess it might be. |
Sandy Lane was a single carriageway through road. To enable road widening the back of the Sandy was taken away. | | | |
| Town map from 1927 on 20:04 - Nov 23 with 1312 views | ArthurDaley |
| Town map from 1927 on 19:41 - Nov 23 by 49thseason |
I was only talking about that tree on saturday and remember it well!
I also remember putting sixpence in the fighting fund collection tins to enable the Sandy Lane stand to be built although my memory does not run to what was there before the current stand was built. |
Alright who cut the tree down, environmental vandalism.
The Obbie ran an appeal for the new stand if you donated to the Obbie you got your name in the paper. So the owd feller Jim and his mate Geoff got their names in the Obbie. |  |
| |
| Town map from 1927 on 20:16 - Nov 23 with 1285 views | BigKindo |
| Town map from 1927 on 20:02 - Nov 23 by TVOS1907 |
When I was researching something for the Northampton programme, I cobbled this together which may have made 'The Hill' even bigger.
SLOPING OFF
Ahead of the first round tie at home to Barrow in November 1948, the club were carrying out work to level the infamous slope at Spotland.
The pitch was five feet higher at Pearl Street than at Sandy Lane, so the 1948 equivalent of bulldozers moved in to remove the extra mound, before replacing the turf.
Unfortunately, Barrow protested about the newly-laid surface and the FA agreed with them by ordering Dale to take the game to another ground, which happened to be Oldham’s Boundary Park.
There the teams drew 1-1, before Barrow won the replay 2-0 at Holker Street.
As for the removed earth, it was moved in between Pearl Street and the Main Stand and became known as ‘The Hill’ |
The ground work was undertaken by the Norden dairy farmer and milkman Frank Schofield - free of charge. The spoil was used to build the 'Hill' but we always called it the Kop. Now Frank and a few fellow hill famers (no pun intended) used to stand in the area in front of the old main stand at home matches. Frank had a very colourful vocabulary which he consistently used at the matches. Following complaints he was banned from attending matches at Spotland for life. | | | |
| Town map from 1927 on 20:27 - Nov 23 with 1260 views | TVOS1907 |
| Town map from 1927 on 20:16 - Nov 23 by BigKindo |
The ground work was undertaken by the Norden dairy farmer and milkman Frank Schofield - free of charge. The spoil was used to build the 'Hill' but we always called it the Kop. Now Frank and a few fellow hill famers (no pun intended) used to stand in the area in front of the old main stand at home matches. Frank had a very colourful vocabulary which he consistently used at the matches. Following complaints he was banned from attending matches at Spotland for life. |
Is he still banned? | |
| When I was your age, I used to enjoy the odd game of tennis. Or was it golf? |
| |
| Town map from 1927 on 21:09 - Nov 23 with 1177 views | R17ALE |
| Town map from 1927 on 20:27 - Nov 23 by TVOS1907 |
Is he still banned? |
I don't know, but to this day I still have to pay £5 ground rent to that farm's estate every year!
And back in 1927, Spotland was surrounded by farms, called things like Pitts Farm and Greave Farm, hence their names living on in the street names we all know today.
Oulder Hill farmhouse is still in residency very near Broadhalgh Avenue. | |
| |
| Town map from 1927 on 21:16 - Nov 23 with 1155 views | 442Dale |
If it was there now we could stick some light bulbs on it. |  |
| |
| Town map from 1927 on 21:22 - Nov 23 with 1144 views | D_Dale |
My dad (b. 1907) used to say that part of the deal when the tree became located outside the ground was that the club got a proper retaining wall and fence (shown in the first photo posted by Clivert).
Further to 49th Season's post, up to the mid-1950s the Sandy Lane end consisted of a dirt-cinder slope, similar to those on other sides of the ground (there was a sort of wooden - ex-railway sleepers? - terrace under the stand at the other end of the ground).
In about the summer of 1957 the Supporters' Club began to lay a paving-stone terrace at the Sandy Lane end. There's a photo of eight men and a boy at work on page 24 of the 1957-58 supporters' club yearbook (price one shilling). My hazy memories are that the stand was erected in the early 1960s.
Incidentally, the foreword to the yearbook, by the supporters' club president, Lt. Col. Wentworth Schofield, MP [Conservative], included the sentence: 'The voluntary staffing and supplying of refreshments on the ground on match days, ably assisted by the Members of the Ladies' Committee, the sacrifice of Members' spare time for ground improvements by the laying and building of terracing and the raising of funds which resulted in more that £10,500 being handed to the parent club during the past season, is a record of which all our Members can be justly proud.'
As someone said, 'the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.' [Post edited 23 Nov 2014 21:24]
|  | | |
| Town map from 1927 on 21:36 - Nov 23 with 1110 views | nordenblue |
| Town map from 1927 on 19:42 - Nov 23 by TVOS1907 |
Actually, that picture was taken on Saturday 30th August 2014.
A player called Mr Donnelly then hit a shot out of the ground that felled the tree, leaving the clear Sandy Lane we see today. |
They are still waiting for that ball to return to planet earth | | | |
| Town map from 1927 on 21:37 - Nov 23 with 1111 views | TVOS1907 |
| Town map from 1927 on 21:16 - Nov 23 by 442Dale |
If it was there now we could stick some light bulbs on it. |
Stop being so negative and critical. | |
| When I was your age, I used to enjoy the odd game of tennis. Or was it golf? |
| |
| Town map from 1927 on 21:54 - Nov 23 with 1072 views | 442Dale |
| Town map from 1927 on 21:37 - Nov 23 by TVOS1907 |
Stop being so negative and critical. |
If you could look past the username for a moment, you'll find there was a positive suggestion in there. Much like most of my posts.
Happy to discuss. | |
| |
| Town map from 1927 on 13:55 - Nov 24 with 777 views | BigKindo |
| Town map from 1927 on 20:27 - Nov 23 by TVOS1907 |
Is he still banned? |
He and his cronies seemed to disappear from the Spotland scene circa 1954. His two (?) sons carried on with the farming and milk round into the early 1960's and perhaps beyond. | | | |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
