This page is on the former stadium of Norwich City F.C.. For the ex-Crystal Palace F.C. stadium of same name see Croydon Common Athletic Ground.

The Nest was the former home ground of Norwich City F.C.

Norwich City F.C.

Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. As of the 2011–12 season, Norwich City are again playing in the Premier League after a six-year absence, having finished as runner up in the Championship in 2010–11 and winning automatic promotion.The...

, used for 27 years between 1908 and 1935.

The first competitive match at the stadium was a 0-0 draw with Portsmouth on September 12 1908, with the final match being a 2-2 draw with Swansea on May 4 1935. The record attendance for a match at The Nest was 25,037 for an FA Cup fifth-round tie against Sheffield Wednesday on 16 February 1935.

Before The Nest, the team played at a ground in Newmarket Road

Newmarket Road (football ground)

Newmarket Road was the home ground for Norwich City, before they moved to The Nest.Today, the club plays at Carrow Road.-History:Norwich City F.C. played at Newmarket Road from the club's founding in 1902 to 1908, with a record attendance of 10,366 in a match against Sheffield Wednesday in a second...

. Today, the club plays at Carrow Road

Carrow Road

Carrow Road is a football stadium in Norwich, England, and is the home of Norwich City Football Club. The stadium is located toward the easterly end of the city, not far from Norwich railway station and the River Wensum....

.

The ground was a disused quarry in Rosary Road, Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

 similar in appearance to Charlton Athletic

Charlton Athletic F.C.

Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...

's The Valley. Following the adoption of the club's nickname of "The Canaries", the ground was appropriately named. Its most noticeable feature was a large concrete wall at one end of the ground, which supported a cliff on which supporters would watch the matches.

Thousands of tons of earth had to be shifted before a pitch could be laid and stands erected and there then followed the process of dismantling the old Newmarket Road structures and moving them painstakingly by horse and cart to their new home on the other side of the City.

Chairman John Pyke, the man behind the switch, kicked off the first game at City's new home on September 1 1908 as City beat Fulham 2-1 in a friendly in front of a crowd of around 3,000. An FA Cup tie against Reading later in the year had to be switched to a neutral venue when City's opponents complained that the Nest pitch wasn't big enough – but the club soon settled into their new home and it wasn't long before five figure crowds were packing into the compact little ground.

The Nest was gradually improved over the years, with the playing surface re-laid and extra terracing added, and by the time the Canaries were elected to the Football League in 1920 crowds of between 12,000 and 14,000 were common place.

Further developments in the 1930s, including an extension to the 'chicken run' opposite the Main Stand, saw the capacity rise still further and, on February 16 1935 25,037 supporters crammed into the ground to watch City lose 1-0 to Sheffield Wednesday in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

By then, the Nest's days were well and truly numbered. Concern over the facilities had already been expressed by Norwich directors and the matter came to a head just a month after the big cup tie when the Football Association wrote to the club saying they were not satisfied the ground was suitable to house large crowds.

With the Canaries having been recently promoted to Division Two it was quickly decided that the time was right to move on and City kicked off the new season at a plush new stadium, the original Carrow Road having been constructed in just 82 days.

The Nest stood derelict for many years after being declared surplus to requirements before the site was redeveloped after the war. It was occupied for a time by Bertram Books’ factory and offices, but is now a building site for a housing development. A small section of the concrete wall is all that remains of The Nest.