Lost Grounds: The Imps and Leeds Road, Huddersfield

Huddersfield Town’s history began at a meeting in 1906 when, with rugby league already established in the town, members of the Huddersfield & District FA and others discussed the possibility of starting up what was described as a professional soccer club, writes Malcolm Johnson.

Two years later in June 1908 at the Albert Hotel another meeting led to the formation of the Huddersfield Association Football Ground Company which paid £500 to purchase the recreation fields on Leeds Road which had been staging major football matches since 1899. Two months later the ground was rented by the newly registered Huddersfield Town AFC with their first game seeing a 2-1 win in a friendly match against Bradford (Park Avenue) in front of a crowd of 1,080 on 2^nd September 1908.

The club joined the North Eastern League with the ground little more than a pitch at this stage. An old tramcar was used as both dressing room and ticket office or if that was not available a nearby pub or even a tent was used.

For the 1909/10 season the club transferred to the Midland League in order to reduce travelling costs but with ambitions to join the Football League asked renowned football architect Archibald Leitch to completely reconstruct Leeds Road at an estimated cost of £6,000. The pitch was turned by 90 degrees and a 4,000-seat stand was constructed to a design similar to those by Leitch at Chelsea, Fulham and Tottenham. Open banks of terracing were constructed to give an overall capacity of 34,000 and the club were duly elected to Division Two of the Football League in place of Grimsby Town. The first league game at Leeds Road saw a 1-0 defeat to Burnley on 10 September 1910 and a first visit to the ground by Lincoln City came in what was then classed as the Fourth Qualifying Round of the FA Cup on 19 November 1910. The Imps, or the Citizens as they were then known, came away with a 1-1 draw, the distinction of being the club’s first scorer on the ground falling to right winger Bertie Foster. City were back at the ground the following April for a league game which produced the same scoreline with a goal again from the right wing, this time from Fred Haycock.

With lower half of the table finishes over this and the following season attendances slumped to below seven thousand and Huddersfield Town paid the price for the high development costs of the ground by going into liquidation in 1912 with a new company being formed to take over the club’s assets.

Lincoln had been rooted to the bottom of the league at the time of their visit to Leeds Road in 1911 and they were still there at the end of the season leading to their being voted out of the league as Grimsby got back in. However, they were back after one season and next visited Leeds Road in March 1913 in a very healthy fifth place. But the home side, just two places below them sent the Citizens away with a 5-1 defeat, the goalscorer being inside forward Sandy McCubbin. Just under a year later McCubbin was again the scorer with the margin of defeat having improved to 2-1. It was a bottom of the table clash at the time and City again had to seek re-election, this time successfully.

The First World War had broken out by the time of City’s next visit in December 1914 which saw their first win on the ground, the only goal of the match being scored by the skilful Billy Chesser. Top of the table at the time of the game Huddersfield slipped to finish well outside the promotion places while City achieved safety. However, in the first season after the war the two clubs exited the division in opposite directions as at the time of City’s visit on the last day of the season Huddersfield were already confirmed in the second promotion place while City’s 4-2 defeat – with Chesser again the scorer along with winger Alf Ball – saw a next-to-bottom finish and another season out of the league.

With attendances down to around 3,000 Huddersfield were still heavily in debt, reportedly to the tune of £25,000 which prompted a plan to sell Leeds Road for redevelopment and a move to play at the recently defunct Leeds City’s Elland Road ground. However, thanks to fundraising by supporters along with a share issue the club stayed in Huddersfield.

Meanwhile the club had reached the FA Cup Final for the first time in 1920, losing 1-0 to Aston Villa and following the appointment of the legendary Herbert Chapman as manager towards the end of the 1920/21 season the club embarked on what was to be its golden age. The FA Cup was won in 1922 with victory over Preston North End and this was followed between 1924 and 1926 by Huddersfield becoming the first club to win the league championship three years in a row. Following the departure of Chapman to Arsenal there were no more league titles but the club recorded seven top six finishes in the 13 seasons up the outbreak of World War Two along with three more losing FA Cup Final appearances.

Lincoln City’s only visit in a more than 30-year period came with an FA Cup third round tie in January 1928 and a second successive 4-2 defeat, the scorers being prolific scorer Billy Dinsdale and the long-serving Harry Pringle.

Ground improvements at Leeds Road during the inter-war period were relatively modest, with a wooden roof, which became known as ‘the Cowshed’ erected over the Leeds Road End in 1929. Two years later, the club purchased a 1,300-capacity stand from Fleetwood Town for £170 with the intention of putting it at the top of the Dalton Bank End terracing. However, the foundations were unsuitable there so it was installed in the corner between the Cowshed and the Main Stand. The ground capacity was increased first to 47,000 then to 60,000 thanks to an expansion of the terracing on the open Popular Side and the Dalton Bank End. This enabled the ground’s record attendance of 67,037 to be achieved in 1932 during an FA Cup sixth round tie against Arsenal. However, it was reported that 5,000 fans broke through the gates on the Popular Side leading to two being crushed and over one hundred injured as many more spilled onto the pitch. Five years after this, barriers gave way leading to further injuries which led to the club reconstructing all the ground’s terracing and installing stronger crush barriers.

During this period, Leeds Road became a regular venue for FA Cup semi-finals, and in 1946 it staged an England game when the Netherlands were beaten 8-2 in front of a crowd of 32,435. The ground also hosted a Manchester United home FA Cup game in 1948 while Old Trafford was being rebuilt following wartime bomb damage.

Reconstruction was necessary after a fire broke out in the corner stand in 1950 which led to the destruction of the Main Stand with the club having to play two home games at Leeds’ Elland Road ground. However, a replacement stand of similar appearance was quickly constructed during the summer in time for a Rugby League Championship Final to be staged in 1952.

After several seasons of struggle in the post-war period Huddersfield were relegated to Division Two in 1952 to renew league meetings with Lincoln City following their promotion to that division the same year. However, it was not a happy return to Leeds Road for the Imps as they went down to their heaviest defeat on the ground, losing 5-0 in late January 1953 in front of 26,512, the highest attendance ever to see them play there. Huddersfield went on to finish as runners-up to gain promotion straight back to Division One, and in 1955 the last major construction at Leeds Road took place when a vast cover was built over the Popular Side at a cost of £24,000 which covered 20,000 fans. Also around this time, what was possibly the first electronic scoreboard in the country was installed at the top of the open terracing at the Dalton Bank End. This remained in use until 1970 when it was removed following vandalism.

Huddersfield were back in Division Two after three seasons to play City again in October 1956, the Imps triumphing 1-0 thanks to an own goal. The last away game of the following season saw the same result, Ron Harbertson the scorer, as part of the Imps famous ‘Great Escape’ from relegation thanks to winning six games in a row. Almost a year later the Imps were again in a relegation battle, and although not aided by a 2-1 defeat, John McClelland the scorer, again just avoided relegation. The 1959/60 season was a better one for the Imps but it was an unsuccessful visit to Leeds Road towards the end of January with a 3-0 defeat.

The end to the longest run of meetings at Leeds Road between the two clubs in consecutive seasons came with a 4-1 defeat on New Year’s Eve in 1960 with McClelland again the scorer. The result dumped City to the bottom of the division and that is where they finished the season as Huddersfield themselves narrowly avoided joining them in Division Three. The two clubs went their separate ways then for several years, the Imps quickly sinking into the fourth tier. In 1975 they were joined there by Huddersfield, down to that level for the first time in their history after having spent a couple of seasons back in the top flight in the early 1970s.

Meanwhile, floodlights had been installed at Leeds Road in January 1961 at a cost of £23,000 financed by the British record sale of Denis Law to Manchester City for £55,000. Consequently, these became known as the “Denis Law Lights”. In February 1962 two of them blew down in a gale but were replaced for the start of the next season. Other ground improvements saw seating installed on the terracing in front of the Main Stand in 1970.

Leeds Road saw City’s first away win of their 1975/76 championship season in mid-September in front of the lowest recorded crowd to see a meeting between the two sides at the ground of 5,209. The Imps rode their luck somewhat before John Fleming scored the only goal of the game as City held on despite being down to ten men for most of the second half after full back Dennis Leigh was sent off.

The teams next met in January 1980 with City back in the fourth tier after three seasons. This time Huddersfield were on their way to the championship and in a game which saw them awarded two penalties, one of them saved by City’s Eric McManus, they scored a late winner to make it 3-2 after City had twice equalised through Mick Harford and Tony Cunningham. The Imps followed them to Division Three a year later and recorded their biggest win on the ground at the beginning of March 1982 with Cunningham again and Trevor Peake the scorers in a dominant performance for a 2-0 win. Narrowly failing to gain promotion that season the Imps were back in early April 1983 for what was to be their last game at Leeds Road. Needing a win against their promotion rivals to give them a chance of a top three finish the best the Imps could manage was a 1-1 draw with a goal from Gordon Hobson. Huddersfield themselves finished in the third promotion place and the two clubs again went their separate ways with City’s next visit to Huddersfield being at their new stadium.

In the 1985/86 the ground hosted six Bradford City home games while their Valley Parade ground was being rebuilt following the fire.

The capacity of the ground had been progressively reduced from a 1962 figure of 52,000 to 31,000 under new regulations in 1984, and following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 it was down to just 14,000 with the Cowshed End closed for two years due to being deemed unsafe.

In 1991 the ground once again hosted the home match of another team when local Northern Premier League side Emley played a first round FA Cup tie against Bolton Wanderers. Between 1992 and 1994 it was also the base for Huddersfield Rugby League Club.

In January 1990, the Taylor Report had required all clubs in the top two divisions of English football to have an all-seater stadium by the 1994/95 season. Huddersfield were in the third tier at the time but were aiming for promotion and the decision to build a new all-seater stadium at a different location was made in August 1992. Construction began the following year on a new site close by the existing ground with the new stadium initially owned by a consortium made up of Kirklees Metropolitan Council, the football club and the rugby league club.

Huddersfield Town played their final League game at Leeds Road on 30 April 1994, beating Blackpool 2–1, watched by a near capacity crowd of 16,195. One further reserve match was then played followed by a number of local teams being allowed to hire the pitch for one last occasion. The ground was demolished soon afterwards and the site was redeveloped as a retail park. The point once occupied by the centre spot is now marked by a plaque in the car park, outside B&Q.

City’s results at Leeds Road were fairly typical for an away ground with the number of defeats (nine) more or less equalling the wins and draws put together (five and three respectively). With an average of just over one goal scored per match City never managed to score more than two on any occasion, while goals conceded averaged just over two per game. City’s top scorers on the ground with a total of two goals each were Sandy McCubbin, Billy Chesser, John McClelland and Tony Cunningham although none managed two in one match.