Clacton Town/FC Clacton

1. 1935-37, 1938-39, 1946-58 and 1964-87, Old Road.

2. 1987, Gainsford Avenue.

3. 1987-present, Rush Green Bowl.

Old Road before 1967, and other early grounds.

When the original Clacton Town folded in 1901, some of its former players started a new club which they called Old Clactonians.

They began by playing friendlies behind the Queen’s Head in Great Clacton before moving in 1903 to a ground at the rear of the National Schools. In 1905 they changed name to Clacton Town and a year later Clacton Cricket Club offered them the use of their ground in Old Road which became Clacton Town’s first permanent home.

The ground had an unusual history, which can be split into three phases. At the outset the entrance to the ground was a short distance behind the east end goal, on Old Road. The ground was relatively undeveloped except for a timber stand that had been purchased from Dr. Barnado’s Homes. What use they had for it is not clear! It wasn’t the sturdiest of structures and by the early 1920’s had a number of supporting props holding it up at the rear. The ground was still large enough to be used for cricket for a number of years and it was shared with Clacton St. Paul’s C.C. (a reformation of Clacton C.C.) between 1918-23.

Just months before the start of Clacton’s debut season in the fledgling ECL, in March 1935, came the news that the ground was required for a car park! This was not the last time that they experienced problems with their council landlords. The club were able to take their place in the new league by pushing the pitch back with the car park (which in later years accommodated much of the seaside town’s coach traffic) taking up a third of the former playing area. A new wooden stand was built alongside the south touchline, and the original stand found itself isolated in one corner of the new set up. It witnessed the first ECL game against King’s Lynn on 31^st August 1935 before being dismantled. A long and more centrally positioned cover soon replaced this. The changing facilities during this era were within a railway carriage. The home team were able to experience First Class, but to the amusement of many, the referee and linesman emerged from Third Class!

After World War II the short lived cover on the north side made way for a large pitched roof concrete grandstand, seating in excess of 500 in seven rows, and with a press box and partitioned VIP area. Plans were tabled in 1950 to redevelop the Old Road ground in to a 5,000 capacity stadium with a seated stand on the south side and covered terraces behind each goal that stretched around the corners toward the seated areas. This plan was never realised although the old cover opposite the new grandstand was removed and an L-shaped covered terrace was built over the south east corner.

The largest crowd to see a game was 3,505 for the F.A. Cup tie with Romford in September 1952. In November 1960 an F.A. Cup First Round tie was played here, with Southend winning an Essex derby 3-1 in front of 3,200.

By the time of Clacton’s entry into the Southern League in 1958 there was again a stand on the south side. This was a long, low terraced cover and there was a further cover behind the far goal. A permanent post and rail barrier was installed at around the same time.

Old Road, 1967-87

The third phase for the ground came in 1967 when the character of the ground was lost forever by the introduction of greyhound racing. To fit in the track, the playing area was again shunted further away from Old Road itself, necessitating the removal of both the stands at the far end and south side. The pitch was then narrower and shorter than before, but still large enough for senior football. Part of the L-shaped cover survived into the early 1970’s and although yet another, much narrower, cover (with a P.A. box perched on the roof) sprung up on the south side it had gone by 1974 and that side was abandoned for ever. Thereafter it was only possible to walk around the curve of the track at the entrance end, nearest Old Road, and in front of the grandstand up as far as the corner flag. The main stand itself did not escape the destructive nature of the greyhound invasion, with a totaliser office being built into one end, and an elevated referee’s viewing box alongside it. The Greyhound Bar, Café and Paddock, an ugly portakabin style building appeared at that far end, next to the stand.

As a small concession to the large areas of cover that had been lost to the greyhound fraternity, a lean-to was extended out from the Supporters Club hut behind the goal. There were numerous buildings in this area including a cafeteria, changing room area, board room, entrance block and even a hut that sold cushions to make sitting on the cold concrete of the main stand more bearable.

In 1974 the club were given six months notice by the council to quit the ground, although they were then offered a yearly licence to continue there until such time as a new ground was ready. Their current Rush Green Bowl home was identified as a possibility during this era.

Since 1967 the ground had ugly spotlights around the dog track, but the lack of proper floodlighting held the club back. They did go as far as purchasing a set of four corner pylons in the 1980’s, and although these were erected the club never had the finance to fit lamps to them!

In 1985 the council reiterated their desire to sell Old Road, and decided to sell the entire nine-acre site for a retail park. The club remained tenants until the last possible moment, when they entertained Lowestoft Town on 21^st February 1987 to bring the curtain down on 81 years of eventful history. By the time of this game, the roof had been removed from the stand with a view to moving the structure to the new ground, a grand idea but one that was to prove impractical.

Gainsford Avenue

Having lost the use of Old Road, a short term venue in town was needed to tide the Seasiders over until their new home at the Rush Green Bowl was ready. A quite basic football pitch at Gainsford Avenue was chosen. It had formerly been college grounds and was used by St. Osyth College F.C. The pitch had to be enlarged for senior football, and was roped off on match days. There were no dug-outs, and only basic changing facilities. The first game was played against March on 28^th February 1987 and usage continued right up until the move to their new ground in November of that year.

The Gainsford Avenue ground still exists, but the dressing rooms were considered unsafe and removed, and with them the opportunity for any more football. In 2005 the grass was left deliberately uncut and used for hay. The ground is a very short distance from the home of the now defunct St. John’s (Clacton) F.C. in Holland-On-Sea.

Rush Green Bowl

Clacton Town’s new out of town ground at the Rush Green Bowl has proved problematic since the outset. Too cold and remote, and with poor drainage, the club have struggled to attract the crowds despite a number of innovative ideas that have included live match broadcasts via the internet and on a big screen in the clubhouse.

The park within which the ground was built had hosted football for a number of years, with the Seasiders’ home being banked up and fenced off and a clubhouse sunk down below pitch level behind the goal at the car park end. It had been hoped that the old grandstand from Old Road would be re-erected. If that had happened the ground would have taken on an entirely different look and offered sufficient comforts to tempt more locals away from their television sets. Instead, early visitors were greeted by no greater comforts than a wooden railing around the pitch.

The very first match on 7^th November 1987, against Soham Town Rangers, had to be abandoned after the floodlights failed. The 200 spectators observed four floodlighting poles on each side of the ground with a generous grass bank along the left hand side, with shallower banking along the opposite side and at the far end.

The Council dragged their heels over planning permission for the grandstand, and it was late 1988 before this was approved. The metal and brick shelter was then placed at the bottom of the largest banking, effectively reducing the capacity as supporters standing at the rear of the bank could no longer see the whole pitch. Two rows of bench seating were installed in the stand a year later, and this has changed very little over the years, except for a protective screen end nearest the clubhouse and a large sponsors board on its roof. It has come to be known as ‘The Loft’.

A very small cover was built up against the metal fence on the right hand side, behind the dug-outs and barely wider than them. This had three steps of concrete within it and has now been dubbed ‘The Bus Shelter’, with the club embracing the name to the extent that a small Bus Stop sign protrudes from the roof, and there is a timetable up against the rear wall! In February 2005 this was re-roofed, following a bout of storm damage.

At one time there was a club shop in a caravan on the banking. This was replaced by another adjacent to a hospitality suite and boardroom and in July 2007, this moved up on to the Burberry suite into a large Portacabin with the old shop making way for a Physio clinic.