THE HISTORY OF FIELD MILL

It is known that football has been played at Field Mill since 1861, making it the second oldest football ground in the Uk (behind Sheffield FC).  However, Mansfield Town played their first competitive match at the ground in the season 1919/20, using the very pitch used today.  The pitch was not quite as flat as it is now and many can remember the slope that existed up until the late 1950's.  In its early years there were no stands, the pitch being roped off, and the cricket pavilion was positioned in the corner where today sit the West and Quarry Lane Stands.  Typically the cricketers did not allow the Stags footballers to use the pavilion to change and so they had to use a nearby pub.  The first 'Stand' was a pile of pit ashes laid at one end of the pitch.  1921 was a momentous year in the life of Field Mill and Mansfield Town, for the land owner, the Duke of Portland, offered to sell the site subject to certain conditions, mainly that the site could only ever be used for sporting purposes.  The money, £500, was raised and the club was given a 25 year lease by the land's new owners (Chairman, Directors and Secretary of MTFC).  This gave the club the stepping stone to league football which arrived at the Mill in 1933.  Turnstiles were erected at both North and Quarry Lane ends of the ground in 1921 and the first Grandstand (on the West side of the ground) was built in 10 days by volunteers in early 1922.  More pit ashes followed and by 1926 the ground had banking on 3 sides and a covered stand running the length of the West Stand. The next major development took place in 1929, when after a good cup run had earned the Stags a bit of money, they developed the eastern side of the ground (Bishop Street) building a covered stand which covered roughly the same area as the current Bishop Street Stand.  The image on the right shows how Field Mill looked in the 1930's.   The first terracing was made out of railway sleepers during the 1930's  which remained in place until the 1950's. After being damaged by gales the Bishop Street Stand was rebuilt to almost what it is today - though later damage and new seating means that there is now very little remaining from the 1930's.  When it was originally built it was intended that the Bishop Street Stand would cover the

The first sign of concrete terracing came in 1947, and at around the same time a pa system was installed.  The land adjacent to the west side of the ground, previously allotments, was bought by the club in the mid 1950's, and in 1957 the Supporters Club funded the building of the North Stand.  It cost £30,000 and came with the famous clock, but the board surrounding the clock did not say John Sankey but "MTFC North Stand 1957 - Presented by the Supporters Club".  Floodlights arrived at the Mill for the first time in 1962.  The West Stand as we know it used to be a Grandstand at Hurst Park Racecourse in London.  When the racecourse closed the Supporters Club purchased the Stand for £30,000.  However this was not the only cost, for the costs of erection and reconstructing the Stand meant that the total cost was £200,000 - and also meant the the components of the Stand were left for several years on the land next to the Stand.  The West Stand was first partially used in 1966 before being fully completed, with seats, in 1971.  In the picture left you can see that this new Stand created much interest in national media.  The old scoreboard at the Quarry Lane End was demolished in the early 1980's and replaced, eventually, by an electronic scoreboard which only worked for a short while before breaking and being demolished with the rest of the Quarry Lane End. 

Following the Bradford Fire tragedy, the Bishop Street Stand was closed for several years, re-opening as a family stand in the early 1990's.  New floodlights were installed in 1991 and the West Stand got a new roof in 1991 with the Bishop Street Stand getting its own new roof in 1994 and also new blue & amber seats which replaced the original 1939 planks of wood!!  In July 1999 demolition work began on both the North Stand and Quarry Lane End, ready for the redevelopment.  However, delays meant that construction of the new stands did not begin until April 2000.  Once work had begun on the two new ends the West Stand was demolished to make way for a new two tier stand.  More delays have affected the renovation of the final undeveloped stand at Field Mill, the Bishop Street Stand.  New paragraphs will be added to this over the years, but the grounds history is a remarkable story of the affection ordinary supporters have for their club.