Saltergate

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Recreation Ground

Saltergate
The Main Stand during a match in 2007.
Full name	Recreation Ground
Location	Saltergate, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S40 4SX
Built	1884
Opened	1884
Owner	Chesterfield F.C.
Capacity	8,504
Field dimensions	113 x 71 yards
Tenants
Chesterfield F.C.

Saltergate, officially the Recreation Ground, is a multi-purpose stadium in Chesterfield, England. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of Chesterfield F.C.. The stadium holds 8,504 people.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Cricket 1.2 Football 2 Other uses 3 Structure and facilities 4 Records 5 References

[edit] History

[edit] Cricket

Saltergate was used for cricket in the 19th century and there are records of six matches involving teams called Derbyshire or Chesterfield playing against the All-England Eleven from 1858 to 1872.^[1] Derbyshire County Cricket Club was founded in 1870 and began playing in 1871. There were two Derbyshire first-class matches at Saltergate. The first was a county match versus Lancashire in August 1874, which was drawn after the final day was rained off.^[2] The second and final match was Derbyshire versus the United North of England Eleven in August 1875, which the UNEE won by 90 runs.^[3]

First-class cricket returned to Chesterfield in 1898 when Derbyshire began playing at the Queen's Park ground which is still in use in 2008.^[4]

[edit] Football

It is generally regarded to be one of the oldest football league grounds still in use, having had its inauguration in 1871. Despite a number of improvements over recent years, Saltergate remains an aged stadium lacking many of the modern facilities available to many of their rivals who have relocated or redeveloped their existing ground in recent years. In 2006, the club's fans voted to relocate from the Recreation Ground to a new £13.5m 10,500 seater development on the site of the former Dema Glass factory, near the Chesterfield - Sheffield bypass (Sheffield Road), around a mile from the town centre.

Efforts were made in the past to re-develop Saltergate, these were abandoned at the planning stage however, mostly due to practicalities. An early proposal showed a two tier kop, with smaller seated stands on the remaining three sides.

[edit] Other uses

In the past, the stadium has been used to host rugby matches, concerts. Saltergate stood in for Wembley Stadium, Carrow Road, Bloomfield Road & most prominently, Derby County's Baseball Ground (now demolished) in the 2009 film The Damned United. Saltergate was chosen because it had not had any significant modifications since the 1970s,though some repainting work was done by the production team to differentiate the grounds from each other.

[edit] Structure and facilities

The four sides of the stadium are; The Main Stand, which is all-seated and contains the Family Stand in addition to away fans seating; The Spion Kop, which is the main terrace - known as The Karen Child Kop as of 2008 for sponsorship reasons; The Compton Street stand, which has recently been fitted with seats in the covered area; and the Cross Street Terrace, which is an open terrace where the away fans usually stand.

[edit] Records

The record attendance is 30,986, which was set when Chesterfield played Newcastle United in 1949.

[edit] References

Football League Two venues, 2008–09 v • d • e
Adams Park · Blundell Park · Christie Park · Crown Ground · Darlington Arena · Dean Court · Deva Stadium · Don Valley Stadium · Gigg Lane · Griffin Park · Kenilworth Road · Meadow Lane · Moss Rose · New Meadow · Priestfield Stadium · Recreation Ground · St James Park · Saltergate · Sincil Bank · Spotland · Underhill Stadium · Vale Park · Valley Parade · Victoria Road

Coordinates: 53°14′21.84″N 1°26′7.65″W / 53.2394°N 1.4354583°W / 53.2394; -1.4354583