FAREWELL TO TOWN MEAD

A look at the former home of Crawley Town

With the opening of every new stadium there is always the downside of the loss of the former ground.  Such was the case when Beazer Homes League side Crawley Town moved from Town Mead to their wonderful new home Broadfield Stadium during the summer of 1997.

The fifties built ground at Town Mead was too tempting to miss when the Groundtastic team visitied Crawley's new stadium in August. A minor diversion took us to Ifield Avenue for a quick last look at the ground before its impending demolition.

Located close to the town centre, Town Mead was a reasonably modern venue fitting in well with it’s New Town surroundings.  In fact there appears to be not a lot wrong with it and it would probably have been more than adequate for 95% of non-league sides in the country.  Crawley Town however had other idea’s!

Built in 1952 the ground developed at a snails pace with the next major work being the covered terrace area at the Car Park End of the ground in 1969.  In 1980 the club offices and changing rooms were re-built at the same end.  Another decade passed before the next set of improvements when the remainder of the ground was terraced along with the installation of crash barriers.  In 1994, the main stand was replaced with a larger version that included a boardroom on top with access via a rear set of stairs

By the time of our visit Town Mead was already well on its way to oblivion.  The floodlight pylons had disappeared and all but one of the covered area’s had been removed.  The club offices and buildings had been vandalised with windows broken and their former contents strewn around.

The Car Park End terrace was littered with old programmes poignantly blowing around the now vacant steps. Walls had been knocked over, advertisement hoardings broken up and weeds had already begun to take hold. 

The scene was captured on film by us for posterity as within weeks there would no traces left of the ground.  On these pages we bring you a brief snapshot of Town Mead in its final hours.