Victoria Ground (Stoke)
Encyclopedia
For Hartlepool United F.C.
Hartlepool United F.C.
Hartlepool United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Hartlepool that currently play in League One. The team won promotion to League One in the 2006–07 season...

's ground, see Victoria Park, Hartlepool
Victoria Park, Hartlepool
Victoria Park is a 7,856 capacity football ground in Hartlepool, County Durham, England and it is the home of Hartlepool United.The four sides of the ground are known as the Town End Terrace , the Niramax Stand , the Cyril Knowles Stand and the Rink End Victoria Park is a 7,856 capacity football...


The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City F.C.
Stoke City F.C.
Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts...

 from 1878. The club played there for an unbroken period of 119 years until it moved to its new ground at the Britannia Stadium
Britannia Stadium
The Britannia Stadium is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, England and the home of Premier League club Stoke City Football Club. With space for 27,598 spectators . The name is taken from the sponsors of the Stadium the Britannia Co-operative Bank...

 in 1997. At the time of its demolition it was thought to be the oldest operational football league ground in the world.

The club moved to the Victoria Ground in 1878 after playing at the Victoria Cricket Ground (1868–75) and Sweeting's Field (1875–78). The first game at the ground, a friendly, was played on 27 March 1878. Opponents Talke
Talke
Talke is a village in the English county of Staffordshire, four miles northwest of Newcastle-under-Lyme.-Etymology:Its unusual name is derived from the even more unusual "Talk o' th' Hill" which means 'bush on top of the hill'...

 Rangers were beaten 1-0.

With its good road connections and sizeable car parks, the Victoria Ground appeared to be at little risk of being a victim of relocation as clubs in England's top two divisions were faced with having to have all-seater stadiums due to the Taylor Report
Taylor Report
The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry report, better known as the Taylor Report is a document, whose development was overseen by Lord Taylor of Gosforth, concerning the aftermath and causes of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. An interim report was published in August 1989, and the final...

 of 1990, but by 1996 work was in progress on Stoke's new Britannia Stadium
Britannia Stadium
The Britannia Stadium is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, England and the home of Premier League club Stoke City Football Club. With space for 27,598 spectators . The name is taken from the sponsors of the Stadium the Britannia Co-operative Bank...

. The last game at the ground was played on 4 May 1997, a 2–1 win against West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion F.C.
West Bromwich Albion Football Club, also known as West Brom, The Baggies, The Throstles, Albion or WBA, are an English Premier League association football club based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands...

 in Division One
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....

, watched by a crowd of 22,500.

Demolition took place late in 1997 and 13 years later the site remains undeveloped. Several turnstiles recovered from the site are still in operation at Whyteleafe F.C.
Whyteleafe F.C.
Whyteleafe F.C. are an English semi-professional football club based in Whyteleafe, Surrey. The club was established in 1946 and joined the Athenian League in 1981. They are currently members of Division One South of the Isthmian League.-History:...

 in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

.

The official record attendance was 51,380 for a match against Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...

on 29 March 1937.

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