Bishops Stortford make it to Woodside at last

This article appeared in Issue 18

After an enforced period of exile lasting nineteen months, Ryman League Bishops Stortford finally came home on 17 July 1999.  Exactly one year later than planned, the Blues entertained a Norwich City XI in a pre-season friendly before a crowd of 918 at their new Woodside Park base.

Anyone who had visited the ground a few weeks earlier would have been astonished at the amount of work that had been carried to make sure that this historic first match took place.  As late as mid-June the clubhouse was still a shell, the stand had no seats, the pitch was not properly railed off and only the superstructure of the covers behind each goal had been put in place. 

Thanks to the efforts of a team of contractors working around the clock, the July 17 deadline was met, and now Bishops Stortford can look forward to a bright future at their new home.

When plans to sell their old George Wilson Stadium to developers and move to a new state of the art ground were first announced, little could Stortford have imaged the nightmares that lay ahead.  To begin with they were forced to vacate their former ground in December 1997, four months ahead of schedule, due to financial reasons.  Then work on the stadium was delayed for ten months by a public enquiry coupled with a financially crippling period of a season and a half renting out ten different grounds to use as ‘home’ venues.  To add to their problems and to deplete their finances further, large fines had to be paid to the Ryman League for missing an agreed deadline for moving into the new ground.  When work did finally start on Woodside Park, it was soon halted and for a while it looked as though Stortford might go under.  However, the arrival of former Romford chairman John Goodwin in January 1999 turned the situation around, and as good as his word, the new stadium was ready for use by July 17. 

Access to Woodside Park is gained via the road leading into the Woodside Industrial Estate.  Close to and signposted from the M11 (A120 turn-off), the stadium is not quite as grand as originally envisaged, but is functional and there is scope for further development should events warrant it.  Similar in layout to the old ground at Rhodes Avenue, there is a grandstand on one side and behind each goal, sections of covered terracing.  The main stand itself is brick built with a light blue cantilever roof and fitted out with blue and white tip-up seats, and in common with the almost identical stands at Letchworth and Arlesey, is joined onto the clubhouse and dressing rooms behind.  The terracing beneath the simple covers at each end is made of pre-cast concrete sections, and stretching along the uncovered side and joining onto the two covers is a continuous strip of three step terracing.  Though not finished in time for the Norwich game, there is a large car park and space has been made for brick built turnstile blocks on either side of the grandstand.

It has been a stressful time for all those connected with the club, with a sizeable proportion of the money raised by the sale of Rhodes Avenue going not towards the stadium as intended, but instead being swallowed up by fines, rental charges and legal costs.  It demonstrates once again the extent to which pre-planning is essential before any club takes the decision to sell up and move to a new ground.  There have been several clubs in their position over the years, who faced with similar problems, have fallen by the wayside.  Happily, Bishops Stortford have not become the latest addition to this sorry list.