Cheshunt Stadium
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Cheshunt Football Club play at the Cheshunt Stadium, which has an official capacity is 2,500, of which 285 are seats under cover and 300 standing spots under cover. 'The Stadium' has been Cheshunt's home for the majority of its existence. Originally a gravel pit, by the 1930s the site had become the local rubbish tip, but between February and October 1949, it was cleared, levelled and a pitch was laid. Two nissen huts were assembled, where the main gates are today, for changing rooms (with no power, telephone line or hot water), leaving the players with a long walk uphill to the pitch. The ground was opened on 29 October 1949.
No spectator facilities were built, other than some banking raised around the pitch, yet three months later 5,000 spectators would squeeze in to see holders Bromley knocked out the FA Amateur Cup. In March, the club decided to abandon all their hard work and move to the Brookfield Lane ground (later to become Tottenham's training ground) as the pitch had become totally unplayable – a layer of clay beneath the surface stopped any natural drainage, with the surface turning to a mudpatch. Everything was left and The Stadium reverted to weeds. In 1952-53 the club returned to The Stadium, only to leave for Brookfield Lane at the end of the season, the pitch once again being the problem.
The return to Brookfield was however as Tottenham's tenants and, at the end of the 1956-57 season, Cheshunt were told to leave. Chairman Les Noble and Vice-Chair Frank Davis moved quickly to secure a 21-year lease on The Stadium (which was about to be used by a new club, Waltham Cross FC) and spent £2,500 getting bulldozers in to level space for the present stand and Clubhouse (then the changing rooms too) to be built and clearing the banking to make way for a running track around the pitch.
Grants from the National Playing Fields Association also helped fund the works along with a Ministry of Education donation towards the laying of the track. The clubhouse and pitch (now with a sub-layer of ash to help drain it) were ready for the opening game of the 1957-58 season against Wingate. A year later the main stand was built (team photos that summer show the bare framework behind them) by the groundsman Albert Prior, his son Maurice and chairman Frank Davis in their spare time. It held 400 spectators on bench seats and had a door in the centre to the changing rooms. Floodlights came in 1964, the current function hall three years later and then, in 1968, up went the covered terrace on the east side of the ground. It cost £2,000 and then held 400 to 500 standing spectators under its concrete cantilever roof. An identical cover was also built at Brookfield Lane for spectators at Tottenham’s ‘A’ and Youth team games. In 1977 the current changing rooms were built, enabling the conversion of the old changing rooms to the Clubhouse we see today. In 1982 "proper" seating was installed for the first time. The oak seats in the directors box were taken from Tottenham's old west stand (which was being demolished) and the plywood seating to the north end of the stand was taken from the relatively new north-west corner of Spurs ground too. Ironically Tottenham toyed with the idea of taking over The Stadium site and use it as their new training ground after selling Brookfield Lane for housing. Fortunately, for Cheshunt, the grounds green-belt status denied Tottenham the planning permission they needed for their move.
During the mid-80s, the decision was taken to remove the running track and bring the perimeter fence closer to the pitch. This created the poor sightlines seen today, with spectators in the Stand and covered areas being far from the pitch and unable to see the near touchline. Minor but expensive improvements to the ground followed in the 90s (a concrete path around the pitch thus doing away with the oval running track, pitch maintenance and changes to the changing rooms) which were paid for by the Committee, not the then-leaseholder, causing them all to resign in 1996.
The new Committee were faced with the same problems of paying for ground improvements to a ground that didn’t belong to them and thereby having no access to the ground improvement grants available to other Clubs. This precarious situation came to a head in 1999 when Enfield struck a deal with the Clubs leaseholder to buy the ground (after they had sold their Southbury Road ground for housing) leaving Cheshunt at best as an unwanted tenant. Once again the Ground's green-belt status was enough for Broxbourne Council to refuse Enfield planning permission for their list of alterations and scupper their plans. In 2002, the Isthmian League set out a list of improvements needed to play in their newly created first division. 250 seats were needed in the ground and the main stand was calculated too small to accommodate them all. The remaining wooden benches were removed (later replaced by the disabled viewing area seen today) and blue plastic seats left by Enfield (which themselves originally came from the upper tier of the 1975 east stand at Chelsea) were installed and also placed on the covered terrace. 300 covered standing places were still needed so the Kirtis Townsend Stand was built and The Stadium got the grading needed for promotion.
Theobalds Lane has been through many changes in the year 2007. The old black wooden perimeter fence has now been removed and new steel boards have been installed in their place. The East stand has these steel boards in front of it and they have been set back due to safety regulations. This aggrieved many Cheshunt fans but the atmosphere is now as good as ever with a lively group of supporters congrigating in that area known as the Amber Army. At the same time the Club installed two more turnstiles (bringing the total for the ground to five)at the north end of the ground. These turnstiles could be used as an away supporters entrance should segregation inside the ground be needed at some time in the future. To date, these turnstiles have yet to be used. These turnstiles were bought from Hemel Hempstead, who themselves had got them from Middlesbrough's old Ayresome Park ground when it closed in 1995. The original asbestos Roof of the East stand has also been replaced with steel sheeting and the PA system has been upgraded.
