Elm Park

Elm Park was a football ground in West Reading, Berkshire. It stood on the site of an old gravel pit leased from Councillor Jesse. The first match there in 1896 drew about 2,500 spectators despite torrential rain. The pitch was surrounded by four modest stands, each separated by fences by the 1970s. Floodlights were added in 1954 for a friendly against Racing Club de Paris. By the mid-1950s the ground held roughly 30,000 people. The stadium grew through supporters’ schemes and modest improvements. A new grandstand seating about 4,000 opened in 1926. The Supporters’ Club raised one shilling per member to roof part of the South Bank in 1936. In 1946 a ‘twenty thousand shilling fund’ paid for the rest of the South Bank cover. Floodlights were first switched on for a BBC broadcast in front of 13,000 fans. Visitors found a compact ground with steep terraces and narrow gangways. The Tilehurst End had concrete steps replacing rotten sleepers in 1957. A club shop and folding seats appeared in the Norfolk Road stand before closure. The South Bank once let fans walk the length of the ground. By the late 1980s executive boxes replaced unusable seats at the back of the old stand.