Shawfield Stadium

Clyde F.C. took over the site, previously a trotting track, in 1898,[9][2] having previously been based across the River Clyde at Barrowfield Park. The club earned additional revenue from using Shawfield for boxing and Track and field; greyhound racing was introduced in 1932.[9] Clyde's financial difficulties led to the sale of Shawfield to the Shawfield Greyhound Racing Company Ltd in 1935, but the club continued to play there as tenants.[9] They invited emerging Junior team Bridgeton Waverley to play there temporarily in the 1920s.[10] During the Second World War, Clyde almost had to leave Shawfield because the owners demanded the use of the stadium on Saturday afternoons.[11][12] Eventually a compromise was reached where the stadium would be used for dog racing on alternate Saturday afternoons, allowing Clyde to play their home fixtures.[12]

Old entrance gate at Shawfield in 2008

After World War II, Clyde and the other smaller clubs in the Glasgow area struggled to compete with the dominant Old Firm.[13] In addition to this, many of the heavily populated tenements surrounding Shawfield (Oatlands, Hutchesontown, Dalmarnock, Bridgeton and central Rutherglen districts) had been cleared in the 1960s, reducing Clyde's support base.[9][14] The club proposed to move to the new town of East Kilbride in 1966.[9] Four years later, Clyde attempted to take over Hamilton Academical;[15] this collapsed when four of the Hamilton directors secured a lease on Douglas Park.[15] Clyde continued to play at Shawfield until 1986, when the GRA's redevelopment plans led to Clyde's eviction.[9] Despite the collapse of the redevelopment plans, Clyde did not return to the ground, although this was proposed in 1988.[9] After a period of uncertainty playing at Firhill in the north of Glasgow (home of rivals Partick Thistle) and then later at Hamilton, Clyde eventually accepted an offer from the town of Cumbernauld to move to what became Broadwood Stadium.[9]

On 14 December 1957, a disaster occurred at the stadium during a Scottish Football League match between Clyde and Celtic.[26] A very large crowd of 27,000 had been allowed into the stadium to see the fixture[27] (involving the team which had just won the League Cup and the team which would go on to lift the Scottish Cup at the end of the season), with reports of the time describing Shawfield as "bursting at the seams";[28] crushing was experienced among some of the spectators prior to kick-off. At the time this issue was a fairly common occurrence at popular events, and it was also normal for children in the crowd to be passed over the heads of the adults out of the terracing. In this instance the juveniles were passed over the four-foot-high terracing boundary wall onto the greyhound track and sat on the track to watch the match, with their backs to the wall.[29][26]

In the opening minutes a goal by Celtic resulted in a surge forward among the packed crowd, and a section of the boundary wall collapsed forward under the strain, falling onto the boys sitting on its opposite side.[29][28][26] Players stopped to help the injured,[29][28] whilst supporters at the other end of the ground were unaware of any incident due to the smog which enveloped the stadium,[28] and initially shouted for the game to be restarted. The match did resume following a 20-minute delay to rescue trapped boys and carry away the injured for treatment, despite some of the players being visibly distressed by what they had witnessed.[30][29] Celtic eventually won a contest played at particularly high intensity by a 6–3 scoreline.[30]

A total of 50 persons were injured, almost all of them children, with 13 detained in hospital suffering serious injuries and one fatality among them: a nine-year-old boy named James Ryan from Bridgeton whose chest was crushed.[27][26]

During the Fatal accident inquiry the following February his uncle stated that James had been lifted over the wall onto the track only seconds before it collapsed,[26] and other boys who were injured also stated that they had still been in the stand at the time the goal was scored and had jumped over the wall to avoid being crushed just prior to it falling.[27] The inquiry heard evidence that the wall had been inspected following the incident and was of sound and legal construction, and it was only the extreme force that caused it to collapse.[27][26] The accident was blamed on unruly persons in the crowd who had repeatedly been rushing forward irresponsibly,[26] and on the absence of any crush barriers in that area of the terracing which would have lessened the forward pressure exerted.[27] The police also stated that they had not formally agreed for any persons to be on the track at the time (although it was permitted in exceptional circumstances), and even larger attendances had previously been recorded at Shawfield for fixtures against Celtic and Rangers.[27]

The Glasgow Tigers, returning to their home city in 1988 after a year's exile in Workington, became the new tenants after Clyde FC. The Tigers raced there for a decade, apart from the 1996 season when they were temporarily in abeyance and replaced by the ill-fated Scottish Monarchs who had a team but no track due to the closure of Powderhall. When the venue opened, the racing could be viewed from two straights and the third and fourth bends but over the years the viewing area was reduced to a small part of the stadium in front of the stand. They departed to Ashfield Stadium ahead of the 1999 season.

• Historically, the boundary between the City of Glasgow and the county of Lanarkshire passed right through Shawfield. During World War II, when the gathering of crowds in areas deemed "unsafe" were severely restricted, this meant Shawfield was allowed to accommodate 20,000 spectators, whereas Celtic Park, less than a mile away but wholly located in Glasgow was permitted only 10,000 people in a much larger venue.
• In the 1966–67 season, Clyde's third-placed finish in the Scottish League should have earned them a place in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, however a one club per city rule applied to the competition, and second placed Rangers had precedence to represent Glasgow. Clyde attempted to argue that Shawfield's location actually meant they were from the separate town of Rutherglen, however the organisers of the tournament cited Clyde's membership of the Glasgow Football Association and participation in the Glasgow Cup.
• Local government reorganisation in 1975 meant that Rutherglen, and Shawfield with it, was now incorporated entirely into an expanded Glasgow district within Strathclyde region. Further changes in 1996 created the new unitary authority area of South Lanarkshire, with Shawfield now lying entirely within this area and no longer even partially in Glasgow.

• Scottish stadium moves

Sources

• Bob Crampsey (1990). The First 100 Years. Scottish Football League. ISBN 0-9516433-0-4.
• Inglis, Simon (1996). Football Grounds of Britain. Collins Willow. ISBN 0-00-218426-5.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shawfield Stadium.

• Official website
• Stadium and track info from dog-track.co.uk
• Photos of racing at Shawfield in 1955, from the Mitchell Library archive