Tag Archives: Floodlights

Maine Road 100 – Day 29

It’s day 29 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today – it’s a simple photo of the floodlights being dismantled in 1990.

Crosland Ward senior just happened to have his camera with him while at Maine Road one day and caught sight of the floodlights being dismantled. He took several photos that day (I’m sure I have others somewhere) and asked the men dismantling the lights if they were okay with him taking the photos. This was in 1990.

These were the second set of lights at the ground and these were the ones that could be seen for miles around. I remember getting on the 53 at Belle Vue and seeing the lights from the top deck straight away.

The lights were replaced roof roof lights on the Main Stand and Kippax roofs. You can see a couple of the floodlights on these images from the late 1970s/early 1980s.

1981 City v United Maine Road
The Main Stand’s benches with the Platt Lane Stand’s maroon and yellow benches in the background
1990 Floodlight being dismantled behind the North Stand. Photo by Crosland Ward senior.

The floodlight being dismantled is the one that stood in between the North Stand and Kippax on this 1971 photo (near number 9) and the men are dismantling it behind the North Stand (number 10).

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate
How To Subscribe

Maine Road 100 – Day 28

It’s day 28 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today – that odd Main Stand roof replacement (no, not the white barrels, the earlier one!).

The original Main Stand rood was a traditional style roof with a central circular gable. Though it was huge (at the time of it’s construction it was claimed to be the largest roof at a club ground, it seemed quite pleasant. It wasn’t a cheap affair or particularly a problem but as the 1960s wore on the number of stanchions it had holding up the roof was seen as being an issue by the directors. They decided that they could no longer watch games with their view obstructed by stanchions and so they decided to replace the middle section with a new section that allowed the removal of the stanchions that blocked the directors’ views. They didn’t seem to care about the problems other fans may have experienced! You can read all about that and the other Main Stand roof developments in Farewell To Maine Road.

In the end only two stanchions were removed but the gable was lost forever and the strange raised section of the stand looked so odd. Here’s an image of the original roof from an aerial photo:

Note the Trumanns for Steel advert on the following image. Another iconic part of Maine Road. Also the floodlight in the Platt Lane corner.

The ‘second’ Main Stand roof appears on the following aerial photo from 1971. It’s numbered number 1 and you can see how odd it looks.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate
How To Subscribe

Maine Road 100 – Day 27

It’s day 27 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today – the wooden benches! Many a fan’s first experience of Maine Road was sitting on the benches in the old Platt Lane Stand.

These images may bring back a few memories. The Platt Lane benches were painted maroon and yellow for many years – I’m not certain if they were originally that colour. Older fans may know the answer but if they were maybe it was because they were installed at a time, the early 1960s, when those two colours had been used as City’s second choice kit?

Maroon is City’s traditional away colour but in 1959 a yellow shirt with maroon cuffs and V was used. If there was a link then that was not obvious by the time my Dad was taking me on to the Platt Lane as a young boy.

For me it seemed so odd, but then again the new North Stand had grey seats, and back in 1923 much of Maine Road was painted green. So I suppose there was never much logic around football grounds.

City used to paint on to the seats whether they were for season ticket holders, ‘invalids’ (obviously the wording back then, not today’s wording!) or if they were just numbered you could either sit there if it was an unreserved seating game or the number would match a ticket holder.

Platt Lane corner benches – note the wording on the seats. Some say season ticket; some ‘invalid’ and some are numbered/unreserved.

Most of the benches lasted about 40 years, but some were destroyed when Leeds United fans visited in November 1990 and were replaced for the stand’s final season or so with blue plastic seats. The stand was demolished in 1992.

November 1990: Jimmy Frizzell inspects the damage after Leeds fans smashed up some of the Platt Lane benches.

The Main Stand also had benches for much of its existence. These were painted blue and in some cases had arm rests. They had been part of the original build in 1923 and were replaced in phases during the 1970s and 1980s.

The Main Stand’s benches with the Platt Lane Stand’s maroon and yellow benches in the background

For those unfamiliar with Maine Road this photo may help. This shows the original Platt Lane Stand corner (number 3) where the maroon seating with ‘invalid’ wording image was taken. The benches damaged by Leeds fans were near the front of the stand under number 5. The Main Stand bench image is taken to the left of number 2 looking towards the floodlight near 5 and 6.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One

If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.

Choose an amount

£2.50
£5.00
£7.50

Or enter a custom amount

£

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate
How To Subscribe

Fenerbahce Floodlights

On this day (21 October) in 1953 the second game played under floodlights at Maine Road occurred with Turkish side Fenerbahce (later famous for being Manchester City’s opponents in the Blues first European cup match) defeated 5-1 by City. You can read more about these first floodlights and the opening games here:

Floodlights

The photo is from the Hearts floodlit match.

On This Day in 1887…

It was a remarkable record breaking day when Hyde travelled to Preston for a FA Cup tie on 15th October 1887. The story of that day can be read here:

Hyde v Preston – A Record Breaking Day

Floodlights

On this day (14 October) in 1953 the first game under floodlights at Maine Road took place, Manchester City 6 Hearts 3.  Here’s an article about that period and City’s first floodlighting system, including a photo from the actual game and another report.

Subscribe to get access

If you’d like to read this article then why not subscribe? The £20 annual subscription works out about £1.67 per month. Every subscription directly helps support my research and provides annual subscribers with access to everything posted on this site, including the entire Manchester A Football History and From Maine Men To Banana Citizens books, plus interviews, articles and more. I am not employed by anyone and all my research is self funded or comes from subscriptions to this site.

Subscribe

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. You can subscribe at either £20 per year (above) or at £3 per month here (cancel any time). For those subscribing £3 per month you will be able to access all content from October 2022 onwards for as long as you are a subscriber. Those subscribing £20 a year have access to everything posted since December 2020.

Subscribe

Hyde v Preston – A Record Breaking Day

On 15th October 1887 one of the most remarkable FA Cup games of all time occurred at Preston and featured Hyde FC, who were formed in 1885 at a meeting attended by approximately forty men in the White Lion public house. For subscribers to this site here is the story of a remarkable day that saw Hyde, the town I spent the first 18 years of my life living in, enter the history books. 

Subscribe to get access

If you would like to read this piece and all the other in-depth articles (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe below. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year) or £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Each subscriber gets full access to the 240+ articles posted so far and the hundreds scheduled to be posted in the coming weeks.

Subscribe
Log in