Muntz Street
Encyclopedia
Muntz Street is the popular name of a former association football stadium
situated in the Small Heath
district of Birmingham
, England
, taken from the street on which it stood. During its lifetime the ground was known as Coventry Road; the name "Muntz Street" is a more recent adoption. It was the ground at which the teams of Birmingham City F.C.
– under the club's former names of Small Heath Alliance, Small Heath and Birmingham – played their home games for nearly 30 years. It also served as the headquarters of the Small Heath Athletic Club.
The Muntz Street ground, then situated on Birmingham's eastern edge and bordered on two sides by farmland, opened in 1877. It was a field with terracing
round it which provided standing accommodation for roughly 10,000 spectators. A wooden stand was built and the terracing raised to expand the capacity to around 30,000, but eventually it proved too small for the football club's needs. They built a new stadium nearer the city centre, St Andrew's, which hosted its first game in December 1906. Muntz Street, by then in a heavily built-up area, was demolished in 1907 and the land used for housing. The street of the same name remains.
district of Birmingham, very near the site where the club's St Andrew's
stadium would be built some thirty years later. In 1876, they made a temporary move to a fenced-off field in Ladypool Road, Sparkbrook
, with a capacity estimated at 3,000; because the field was enclosed, admission could be charged. A year later they moved again, to a field in Small Heath
, rented for an initial £5 a year from the family of Sam Gessey, a Small Heath player. The field had a capacity of 10,000 spectators, and was situated on the eastern edge of Birmingham's built-up area, just north of the main road to Coventry
. It was bordered on two sides by developed streets, Muntz Street on the western side, Wright Street to the south; the other two sides of the enclosure adjoined farmland.
When it first opened, the ground had few facilities for either player or spectator. Uncovered terracing
surrounded the pitch, and a hut acted as the players' changing room. A small but well-appointed covered wooden stand was built on the Coventry Road side, and over the years the terracing was enlarged to raise the capacity to around 30,000. In 1895, the football club bought the lease to the ground, which had 11 years remaining, for a sum of £275. Two years later, they paid £90 to their near neighbours, Aston Villa Football Club
, for an old grandstand
from Villa's former ground in Perry Barr
. The club transported it piece by piece, and re-erected it as a terrace cover behind the goal at the Muntz Street end. No other major improvements were made, nor did the club ever move their administrative offices to the site, instead maintaining premises in Corporation Street
, in Birmingham city centre.
Muntz Street was readily accessible by public transport. In the early years, horse-drawn bus
es ran along the Coventry Road, linking Small Heath with the city centre and with other nearby districts. In 1882, the building of a tramline along the Coventry Road to Small Heath Park was authorised, and four years later, the Coventry Road steam tramway route was opened to a terminus near Dora Road, a few yards past the ground. In the early years of the 20th century, this line was converted for use by electric trams.
Contemporary reports referred to the ground throughout its lifetime as Coventry Road. Writer and researcher Steve Beauchampé suggests that the Muntz Street name may have been adopted to distinguish it from St Andrew's, which was also built just off the Coventry Road.
The first game at Muntz Street, a friendly match against Saltley College, was played on 11 September 1877. Small Heath Alliance won 5–0, in front of "a handful" of spectators who contributed gate receipts of 6s 8d
. This marked the start of a run of 22 games unbeaten at the new ground. The playing surface was notorious for its poor quality – bumpy and stony – and was referred to locally as the "celery
trenches". The first meeting between Small Heath and Aston Villa – who went on to become the club's major rivals – took place in 1879; it resulted in a 1–0 home win, after which the Villa players described the pitch as "only suitable for pot-holing
". In 1883, Wednesbury Old Athletic paid Small Heath £5 to switch the venue of a Walsall Cup
tie away from Muntz Street; the club took the money, won the match and went on to win the competition, their first ever silverware
. Nine years later, The Wednesday
offered £200 to switch venues in a second-round FA Cup tie; the money was accepted, but without the success.
Events surrounding the February 1905 First Division
match with Aston Villa highlighted the ground's inadequacies. The official attendance was given as 28,000, though with the gates closed before kick-off, thousands climbed over walls or forced entrances in order to gain admission, and the actual attendance is estimated at anything up to 35,000. The Birmingham Daily Mail reported "a constant stream of vehicles to the ground, while the trams were disgorging their freights at Muntz Street every two or three minutes." Inside, "the swaying of the mass of spectators rendered the placing of additional supports against the barriers a necessary precaution", and children were passed overhead and deposited on the pitch for their own safety. The following Monday the same newspaper commented that had space been available, another ten or fifteen thousand spectators might well have attended, as "hundreds of people found the doors closed against them, and probably there were thousands who would not go to the ground in view of the inevitable crush." The size of the crowd preferring to attend the same day's Birmingham & District League match between the two clubs' reserve team
s at Villa Park
– at least 3,000 spectators – lent support to that view.
A month later the club changed its name to Birmingham Football Club, to reflect its position as the only Football League club in the city. Football as a spectator sport was becoming increasing popular: a Birmingham Daily Post
editorial pointed out that "Birmingham has not escaped this great wave of popularity, and the club bearing the name of the city has found itself compelled to seek a new home. Its old one at Small Heath was quite inadequate for the requirements of an important match".
The rent had risen to £300 a year, and the landlords refused to sell the freehold, to renew the lease, which was nearing expiry, or to allow extensions to be made to the ground, which was by then surrounded by tightly-packed housing. The directors estimated that remaining at Muntz Street was losing the club as much as £2000 a year in revenue; the March 1906 cup-tie against Newcastle United
produced receipts of £900 from a crowd restricted to 25,000, with "probably 60,000 people anxious to attend". Club director Harry Morris
identified a site three-quarters of a mile (1 km) nearer the city centre where a new ground could be built, on wet, sloping wasteland where a disused brickworks stood, near the railway and St Andrew's Church. Within twelve months of a 21-year lease being signed, the new ground, which became known as St Andrew's, was ready for use.
The last game at Muntz Street was played on 22 December 1906. Birmingham beat Bury
3–1 in the First Division in front of some 10,000 spectators. The last goal was scored by Arthur Mounteney
, and the Birmingham Daily Post described how
Within months the ground had been demolished, the land cleared and housing built in what became Swanage Road; no plaque
commemorates the site.
XI, comprising players from teams in the Birmingham area, played several representative football matches at Muntz Street. The ground twice hosted matches against the London Football Association
, and between 1898 and 1906 four matches were played against teams representing the Scottish Football Association
.
Small Heath Athletic Club (later called Small Heath Harriers) established its headquarters at the Muntz Street ground from the club's foundation in 1891. Though primarily a cross-country
and road-racing
club, they also participated in track and field athletics, and during the summer months the athletes were allowed to train on the football pitch.
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
situated in the Small Heath
Small Heath, Birmingham
Small Heath is an inner-city area within the city of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. It is situated on and around the A45 ....
district of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, taken from the street on which it stood. During its lifetime the ground was known as Coventry Road; the name "Muntz Street" is a more recent adoption. It was the ground at which the teams of Birmingham City F.C.
Birmingham City F.C.
Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, they became Small Heath in 1888, then Birmingham in 1905, finally becoming Birmingham City in 1943.They were relegated at the end of the...
– under the club's former names of Small Heath Alliance, Small Heath and Birmingham – played their home games for nearly 30 years. It also served as the headquarters of the Small Heath Athletic Club.
The Muntz Street ground, then situated on Birmingham's eastern edge and bordered on two sides by farmland, opened in 1877. It was a field with terracing
Terrace (stadium)
A terrace or terracing in sporting terms refers to the traditional standing area of a sports stadium, particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
round it which provided standing accommodation for roughly 10,000 spectators. A wooden stand was built and the terracing raised to expand the capacity to around 30,000, but eventually it proved too small for the football club's needs. They built a new stadium nearer the city centre, St Andrew's, which hosted its first game in December 1906. Muntz Street, by then in a heavily built-up area, was demolished in 1907 and the land used for housing. The street of the same name remains.
Location and facilities
Small Heath Alliance Football Club, founded in 1875, played their first home games on waste ground off Arthur Street, in the Bordesley GreenBordesley Green
Bordesley Green is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England about two miles south-east from the city centre. It also contains a road of the same name. It is also a ward in the formal district of Hodge Hill. Neighbouring areas include, Alum Rock, Saltley, Small Heath and Yardley.Heartlands Hospital...
district of Birmingham, very near the site where the club's St Andrew's
St Andrews (stadium)
St Andrew's is an association football stadium in the Bordesley district of Birmingham, England. It has been the home ground of Birmingham City Football Club for more than a century....
stadium would be built some thirty years later. In 1876, they made a temporary move to a fenced-off field in Ladypool Road, Sparkbrook
Sparkbrook
Sparkbrook is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, England. It is one of the four wards forming the Hall Green formal district within Birmingham City Council.-Etymology:...
, with a capacity estimated at 3,000; because the field was enclosed, admission could be charged. A year later they moved again, to a field in Small Heath
Small Heath, Birmingham
Small Heath is an inner-city area within the city of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. It is situated on and around the A45 ....
, rented for an initial £5 a year from the family of Sam Gessey, a Small Heath player. The field had a capacity of 10,000 spectators, and was situated on the eastern edge of Birmingham's built-up area, just north of the main road to Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
. It was bordered on two sides by developed streets, Muntz Street on the western side, Wright Street to the south; the other two sides of the enclosure adjoined farmland.
Terrace (stadium)
A terrace or terracing in sporting terms refers to the traditional standing area of a sports stadium, particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
surrounded the pitch, and a hut acted as the players' changing room. A small but well-appointed covered wooden stand was built on the Coventry Road side, and over the years the terracing was enlarged to raise the capacity to around 30,000. In 1895, the football club bought the lease to the ground, which had 11 years remaining, for a sum of £275. Two years later, they paid £90 to their near neighbours, Aston Villa Football Club
Aston Villa F.C.
Aston Villa Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Witton, Birmingham. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They were also founder...
, for an old grandstand
Grandstand
A grandstand is a large and normally permanent structure for seating spectators, most often at a racetrack. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap all or most of the way...
from Villa's former ground in Perry Barr
Perry Barr
Perry Barr is an inner-city area in north Birmingham, England. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Perry Barr ward and the wards of Handsworth Wood, Lozells and East Handsworth, and Oscott, which elect three councillors to...
. The club transported it piece by piece, and re-erected it as a terrace cover behind the goal at the Muntz Street end. No other major improvements were made, nor did the club ever move their administrative offices to the site, instead maintaining premises in Corporation Street
Corporation Street, Birmingham
Corporation Street is a main shopping street in Birmingham city centre, England.It runs from the law courts at its northern end to the centre of New Street at its southern.- Planning :...
, in Birmingham city centre.
Muntz Street was readily accessible by public transport. In the early years, horse-drawn bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es ran along the Coventry Road, linking Small Heath with the city centre and with other nearby districts. In 1882, the building of a tramline along the Coventry Road to Small Heath Park was authorised, and four years later, the Coventry Road steam tramway route was opened to a terminus near Dora Road, a few yards past the ground. In the early years of the 20th century, this line was converted for use by electric trams.
Contemporary reports referred to the ground throughout its lifetime as Coventry Road. Writer and researcher Steve Beauchampé suggests that the Muntz Street name may have been adopted to distinguish it from St Andrew's, which was also built just off the Coventry Road.
Club matches
£sd
£sd was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the Kingdom of England, later the United Kingdom, and ultimately in much of the British Empire...
. This marked the start of a run of 22 games unbeaten at the new ground. The playing surface was notorious for its poor quality – bumpy and stony – and was referred to locally as the "celery
Celery
Apium graveolens is a plant species in the family Apiaceae commonly known as celery or celeriac , depending on whether the petioles or roots are eaten: celery refers to the former and celeriac to the latter. Apium graveolens grows to 1 m tall...
trenches". The first meeting between Small Heath and Aston Villa – who went on to become the club's major rivals – took place in 1879; it resulted in a 1–0 home win, after which the Villa players described the pitch as "only suitable for pot-holing
Caving
Caving—also occasionally known as spelunking in the United States and potholing in the United Kingdom—is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems...
". In 1883, Wednesbury Old Athletic paid Small Heath £5 to switch the venue of a Walsall Cup
Walsall Senior Cup
The Walsall and District Football Association Senior Cup is an English football competition for clubs in and around Walsall. The competition has been played 123 times, with the Final taking place at Walsall F.C.'s Bescot Stadium. The current holders are Boldmere St...
tie away from Muntz Street; the club took the money, won the match and went on to win the competition, their first ever silverware
Silverware (sport)
Silverware is a sporting term used to describe trophies awarded to winning players or teams.In English football, silverware is used to describe one of the cup trophies or the championship trophies awarded for winning one of the leagues...
. Nine years later, The Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday F.C.
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who are currently competing in the Football League One in the 2011-12 season, in England. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world and the fourth oldest in the...
offered £200 to switch venues in a second-round FA Cup tie; the money was accepted, but without the success.
Events surrounding the February 1905 First Division
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
match with Aston Villa highlighted the ground's inadequacies. The official attendance was given as 28,000, though with the gates closed before kick-off, thousands climbed over walls or forced entrances in order to gain admission, and the actual attendance is estimated at anything up to 35,000. The Birmingham Daily Mail reported "a constant stream of vehicles to the ground, while the trams were disgorging their freights at Muntz Street every two or three minutes." Inside, "the swaying of the mass of spectators rendered the placing of additional supports against the barriers a necessary precaution", and children were passed overhead and deposited on the pitch for their own safety. The following Monday the same newspaper commented that had space been available, another ten or fifteen thousand spectators might well have attended, as "hundreds of people found the doors closed against them, and probably there were thousands who would not go to the ground in view of the inevitable crush." The size of the crowd preferring to attend the same day's Birmingham & District League match between the two clubs' reserve team
Reserve team
Large professional sports clubs often have far more players under contract than could possibly play in a match. As a result, many of these clubs create second teams composed of players who need playing time, but have little hope of playing on the first team. The players on this second team are...
s at Villa Park
Villa Park
Villa Park may mean:United Kingdom* Villa Park, an association football stadium in Birmingham, EnglandUnited States* Villa Park, California, a small city in Orange County* Villa Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in DuPage County...
– at least 3,000 spectators – lent support to that view.
Move to St Andrew's
Birmingham Post
The Birmingham Post newspaper was originally published under the name Daily Post in Birmingham, England, in 1857 by John Frederick Feeney. It was the largest selling broadsheet in the West Midlands, though it faced little if any competition in this category. It changed to tabloid size in 2008...
editorial pointed out that "Birmingham has not escaped this great wave of popularity, and the club bearing the name of the city has found itself compelled to seek a new home. Its old one at Small Heath was quite inadequate for the requirements of an important match".
The rent had risen to £300 a year, and the landlords refused to sell the freehold, to renew the lease, which was nearing expiry, or to allow extensions to be made to the ground, which was by then surrounded by tightly-packed housing. The directors estimated that remaining at Muntz Street was losing the club as much as £2000 a year in revenue; the March 1906 cup-tie against Newcastle United
Newcastle United F.C.
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End, and has played at its current home ground, St James' Park, since the merger...
produced receipts of £900 from a crowd restricted to 25,000, with "probably 60,000 people anxious to attend". Club director Harry Morris
Harry Morris Sr.
Harry Morris was an English professional footballer who spent all his playing career with Small Heath . He became a successful businessman, joining the club's board of directors in 1903, and was instrumental in the club moving to the St Andrews stadium.-Biography:Morris was born in Birmingham and...
identified a site three-quarters of a mile (1 km) nearer the city centre where a new ground could be built, on wet, sloping wasteland where a disused brickworks stood, near the railway and St Andrew's Church. Within twelve months of a 21-year lease being signed, the new ground, which became known as St Andrew's, was ready for use.
The last game at Muntz Street was played on 22 December 1906. Birmingham beat Bury
Bury F.C.
Bury Football Club is an association football team based in Bury, Greater Manchester. The team currently play in League One. The club's nickname is The Shakers which was bestowed upon them by club chairman JT Ingham, an industrialist and ironmonger of the late 1890s.-Formation of the club and the...
3–1 in the First Division in front of some 10,000 spectators. The last goal was scored by Arthur Mounteney
Arthur Mounteney
Arthur Mounteney was an English professional footballer and cricketer.Arthur Mounteney was born in Loughborough, Leicestershire. He played as an inside forward for Leicester Fosse, Birmingham, Preston North End and Grimsby Town in the Football League...
, and the Birmingham Daily Post described how
Within months the ground had been demolished, the land cleared and housing built in what became Swanage Road; no plaque
Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....
commemorates the site.
Other uses
Despite the apparently poor quality of pitch and facilities the Birmingham County Football AssociationBirmingham County Football Association
The Birmingham County Football Association, also simply known as Birmingham FA, is the governing body of football in the counties of West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The Birmingham FA run 13 cup competitions at different levels for teams in the West Midland region...
XI, comprising players from teams in the Birmingham area, played several representative football matches at Muntz Street. The ground twice hosted matches against the London Football Association
London Football Association
The London Football Association is the regional Football Association for Greater London. The London FA was established in 1882 and is affiliated to The Football Association...
, and between 1898 and 1906 four matches were played against teams representing the Scottish Football Association
Scottish Football Association
The Scottish Football Association is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA include clubs in Scotland, affiliated national associations as well as local associations...
.
Small Heath Athletic Club (later called Small Heath Harriers) established its headquarters at the Muntz Street ground from the club's foundation in 1891. Though primarily a cross-country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
and road-racing
Road running
Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road . These events would be classified as long distance according to athletics terminology, with distances typically ranging from 5 kilometers to 42.2 kilometers in the marathon. They may involve large numbers of runners...
club, they also participated in track and field athletics, and during the summer months the athletes were allowed to train on the football pitch.