Memories of Eastville

I wonder if I will ever be able to drive up the M32 without thinking about Bristol Rovers in general but Eastville Stadium in particular? These days I am twice removed from the club, thanks to the arrogance of its autocratic and vindictive chairman and owner Nick Higgs, but I cannot forget for the life of me what it used to be like.

Let’s be absolutely clear about this: Eastville Stadium was a tip. It had minimalist facilities, there was an overwhelming smell of gas from the nearby gas holder and the River Frome which ran by the back of the South Stand was, on its day, quite odorous too. For some odd reason, I remember night games better than Saturday games. That ‘some reason’ may well be the Saturday lunchtime pre match visits to the Old Fox public house, CAMRA’s first real ale pub in Bristol, or it may be that night games were more memorable due to their atmosphere where the smell of tobacco – everyone smoked back in the 1970s – mingled with the gas and dubious water quality under the dull floodlights and the missing bulbs. All I know is that Eastville, for all its many failings, was deep in my psyche. As a youngster, and then less frequently as my parks football career…ahem… took off, it was where I watched my team.

Rovers left Eastville in 1986 and now play at the other end of Muller Road in Bristol at the Memorial Stadium, via Bath and even – whisper it – Ashton Gate, but as with Tony Bennett whose heart was left in San Francisco, mine was left at Eastville. And, until December 2003, a single floodlight remained at Eastville, by the side of Scandinavian furniture store IKEA which now stood on much of the pitch.

I drove past the floodlight on a daily basis, usually at least twice, and I always had a not-too-overlong lingering glance at the floodlight and what used to be there. In some ways, it gave me happy memories but in other ways they were sad ones. I thought it would always be there as a constant reminder of a bygone age. But it was falling to bits.

IKEA informed Bristol Rovers that the floodlight was becoming unsafe and needed to be dismantled and a ceremony to remove it was arranged for a cold December day. I slipped out of work and met up with my friends and fellow Gasheads Tim and Sladey at IKEA, where we were joined by former players from a more recent era, David Mehew and Peter Aitken, and by the legendary Alfie Biggs, as well as former trainer and manager Bobby Campbell and kitman Ray Kendall. IKEA were very thoughtful and provided us with cakes and coffee and seemed to be very respectful of what used to be there. Soon, it was all over and some of us were scrabbling through the weeds to find small items of memorabilia. For my sins, I am the proud owner of a wing nut.

Apart from the steps leading to where the North Stand used to be and the underground passage on Stadium Road (!) which took you to the famous Tote End, you would not guess there had been a stadium there at all. But I cannot get over myself. I often worked at that end of Stapleton Road and parked my car underneath the M32. Rarely would I avoid a quick walk to where the ground used to be, even if there was next to nothing left to remind me of it. And the same thing happens when I drive up the motorway. Am I really expecting or hoping that the stadium will magically reappear as if the last 29 years never happened? Not really, but I cannot but get a little wistful at what might have been. The old ground had first class motorway links, was near major bus routes, was a few hundred yards from a railway station, was not far from the city centre. What a waste.

Eastville Stadium could have been huge too. Whilst the stadium was dilapidated the site of the ground was ripe for redevelopment. Many if not all of the structures would have to have been demolished, but it would still have been ‘the Rovers ground’. Maybe that is what I cannot get Eastville out of my head.

It was essential for Rovers to leave Eastville because otherwise they would have gone bust, no doubt, and there was never a prospect of coming back. Praise be to the Dunford family who quite literally saved Bristol Rovers in those dark days, brought the club back to Bristol and ultimately gave current owner Nick Higgs the opportunity to finally provide the club with a modern, sustainable stadium at the UWE.

Memories in football are usually short and if Mr Higgs succeeds in building the new stadium, the past will be forgotten, especially those who kept the club alive against all odds. Personally, I hope people will remember those who went before and ensured there was a club to support and put aside their bitterness to show a little respect.

In the meantime, I’ll still cast a nostalgic glance to my footballing past when I pass Eastville Stadium which was not exactly the theatre of dreams, but it was as near as it got for some of us.