Old Craven Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Old Craven Park was a stadium in Hull, England. It was the home of Hull Kingston Rovers Rugby League Club between 1922–1989.
Hull KR moved to Craven Park from their cramped Craven Street Ground in 1922. The club purchased and developed a site behind the tram and bus depot on the eastern end of Holderness Road and it hosted its first game on 2 September 1922. The ground staged its only test match in 1929 as Australia beat Great Britain.
Craven Park also hosted greyhound racing. Hull KR sold the ground to the Greyhound Racing Company in 1930s due to financial difficulties, securing a long term lease to continue playing there.
In the early 1970s Hull KR purchased a site at Winchester Avenue with the aim of building a new stadium there. These plans never came to fruition and the site was later sold to a private developer. The profit made from this land was used to buy back Craven Park with greyhound racing continuing as a subsidiary concern.
Following the Bradford fire, capacity was restricted and costs of safety work spiraled. With the club in debt the ground was sold to developers and the final game was played there on 9 April 1989.
The ground was demolished and a supermarket was built on the land originally belonging to Co-op, it is now occupied by Morrisons.
