Never seen 'Elm Park'

[Irvinchangeyaname]

Having been exiled up North about 4 years before the Royals moved away from the mecca of football, I was never witness to the move away from the ground I grew up with.

Being a hopeless traditionalist, I have never since made that journey along Tilehurst Road as I can't face the thought of seeing house where there used to be turnstiles.

This thread is probably a several-year old Dodd, but having read a recent edition of Four Four Two, it made me wonder whether we have any vestiges of that bygone era. Apparently at Middlesbrough on the site of the old Ayresome Park, they have a bronze ball on one of the old penalty spots and a kid's coat to mark one of the goalposts.

Did we have anything like that? I guess something like South Bank Close has been invented, but have we got anything a little more poignant, or has history been lost forever?

[The 17 Bus]

at least four pieces of EP survive, a few years ago i went down and took photos, they may still exist somewhere on the internet.

[AthleticoSpizz]

There is still reminders of EP

One being a gate post..... in edit Norfolk not Wantage Road attached to an old terraced house.

2-0 did a photo shoot several years ago


The post remains to this very day.......just the blue paint is fading.

[Winchester Royal]

I recently bought Rusting Tin and Shiny plastic, and its a fantastic memoir of the place.

It didn't say anything about anything to mark the fact that it was once a football stadium.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Narizz Fizz.........who remembers that? (gets a mention in the Rusting Tin)

[higher]

I got a bundle of photos before the halocaust.My fav memory jerker is the Tilehurst rd turnstiles that I worked on for a while back in the day...you can see the pitch in the background.
For me it was a pity they couldnt have designed the housing development say with a small green area marking the centre circle or somesuch.There is the argument that residents wouldnt want "their" domain invaded by possibly alcohol fueled dives around on the grass mimicing that Friday goal or the Hurlock lunge but hey apparently we live in a democracy<---drat grr.I really should have bottled the south bank loo smell...Au de la Half time flood.I`d be minted by now!!!
OS have a few memories too. http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/pa ... 06,00.html

PS I aquired a drain cover from the Elm Park Loos but its not for sale

[Winchester Royal]

I got a bundle of photos before the halocaust.My fav memory jerker is the Tilehurst rd turnstiles that I worked on for a while back in the day...you can see the pitch in the background.
For me it was a pity they couldnt have designed the housing development say with a small green area marking the centre circle or somesuch.There is the argument that residents wouldnt want "their" domain invaded by possibly alcohol fueled dives around on the grass mimicing that Friday goal or the Hurlock lunge but hey apparently we live in a democracy<---drat grr.I really should have bottled the south bank loo smell...Au de la Half time flood.I`d be minted by now!!!
OS have a few memories too. http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/pa ... 06,00.html

Any chance you could put them online?

[The 17 Bus]

best I can do

Fence where directors car park was.



Section of wall, possibly corner of tilehurst End



That blue post, gates on Norfolk Road

[doylefan]

ahh the memories!!

[Kurtz]

They should have done a Highbury. Maybe turned the main stand into flats and the terracing into a moroccan garden.

[higher]

Winchester..Ive no immediate access to a scanner and they grace my living room and bathroom walls but at some stage i`ll do it. Be good to gather such stuff in a database somewhere.Rustin tin ive glanced at must grab a copy.Ahh the memories.

[Winchester Royal]

Winchester..Ive no immediate access to a scanner and they grace my living room and bathroom walls but at some stage i`ll do it. Be good to gather such stuff in a database somewhere.Rustin tin ive glanced at must grab a copy.Ahh the memories.

Ah right, no worries.
If anybody else has any Elm Park photos that haven't made thier way online, would they care to share?

[Millsy]

They'll never take the memories...

I miss you Elm Park

[phil in cornwall]

I really should have bottled the south bank loo smell...Au de la Half time flood.I`d be minted by now!!!

I remember that smell too. Any mention of the EP pissoir brings it back. I'm not sure you could sell it though. (Bottles of EP pong in the Megastore??) It seemed like those areas were never cleaned between matches, but I bet some poor underpaid woman did her best to scrub them out. It just festered.

Did anyone have a sh*t? I always managed to avoid it. You'd have had to be very brave, or desperate, to go in there I think.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Having been exiled up North about 4 years before the Royals moved away from the mecca of football, I was never witness to the move away from the ground I grew up with.

Being a hopeless traditionalist, I have never since made that journey along Tilehurst Road as I can't face the thought of seeing house where there used to be turnstiles.

This thread is probably a several-year old Dodd, but having read a recent edition of Four Four Two, it made me wonder whether we have any vestiges of that bygone era. Apparently at Middlesbrough on the site of the old Ayresome Park, they have a bronze ball on one of the old penalty spots and a kid's coat to mark one of the goalposts.

we had planned to take the old goalposts to the Madejski, but in the last match (or one of the "last" matches - a friendly) some kids ran on at the end and snapped them.

I've driven down Tilehurst Road many times, and I still expect to see the ground there every time. As the site still follows the old slope down to Norfolk Road, the sense that the ground ought to be there is even stronger.

I used to drive past the ground now and then when it was being knocked down. I remember once turning down Norfolk Road and I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong for a second, then I realised that the main stand had completely gone and I was just staring at the pitch and three sides of terracing.

[tink]

They should have done a Highbury. Maybe turned the main stand into flats and the terracing into a moroccan garden.

the main stand of highbury was a listed building so they couldnt actually knock it down. if they could have im sure they would have built houses there too.

would have been nice to have a 'memorial' of some sort at EP tho

[Mr Angry]

There is a plaque near where the Tilehurst Road entrance was, commemorating the fact that once upon a time RFC played there, and I understood that there is a garden at the location of what was the centre spot.

Last time I went back was the night we secured promotion; felt the right thing to do somehow.

[RoyalBlue]

There is a plaque near where the Tilehurst Road entrance was, commemorating the fact that once upon a time RFC played there, and I understood that there is a garden at the location of what was the centre spot.

Last time I went back was the night we secured promotion; felt the right thing to do somehow.

Very fitting - I wish I'd thought to do that now.

[Stranded]

There is a plaque near where the Tilehurst Road entrance was, commemorating the fact that once upon a time RFC played there, and I understood that there is a garden at the location of what was the centre spot.

Last time I went back was the night we secured promotion; felt the right thing to do somehow.

Did something similar. Got my taxi to drop me off on the Tilehurst Road and cut through Elm Park to get home. Seemed like the thing to do when very drunk.

[G'La]

Between 2002 and 2004 I lived in Suffolk Road which backs onto what was the away end. The rather large grey concrete wall still exists with the most sophisticated of all security systems at the very top... broken jagged glass set in more concrete.