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Mount Vernon Stadium

PostPosted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:11 pm
by Apollo
Mount Vernon Stadium. Located just off Daldowie Road, now derelict and abandoned.

Aerial view: http://www1.getmapping.com/iePreview.as ... 8&size=500
Note the Roaming and Zoom options do not work for Firefox.

I have no knowledge of the stadium when it was in use, and only visited the site after years of seeing the name on maps, finally satisfying those years of curiosity about just what was there. Earlier maps showed it as a dog track, an this is confirmed by the various surviving remains.

Not the best of areas, visting seems best confined to Sundays. Dropping in at other times has usually found drunken neds having drinking parties in the remains of the old stands. The roadside is used as a dump, and it is adjacent to a small commercial waste disposal site.

The full set of 26 pics is temporarily available at http://tinyurl.com/43t2v

Quick panorama of the front of the stadium, with the remains of the entrance to the left, showing the complete loss of the boundary wall, perimeter buildings, and the use of the Daldowie Road as a dumping ground.

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The entrance steps leading up from Daldowie Road

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The steps leading up to the remains of the entrance. The boundary fence is gone.

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The toilet area at the south side of the track, next to the stands.

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Views east along the track, showing remains of lighting and and stand area.

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Detail of the old insulators that used to carry the wiring.

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General view of the remains of the stand area.

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Scattered around the perimeter of the track, pieces of the guide rail that carried the mechanical hare can be found in various stages of decay.

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As with all such places, a shame to see its loss, not only as a location, but as a reflection on the the changing social habits of the local population.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:43 pm
by The_Clincher
I like! :D

Re: Mount Vernon Stadium

PostPosted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:51 pm
by paladin
Apollo wrote:Mount Vernon Stadium. Located just off Daldowie Road, now derelict and abandoned.
As with all such places, a shame to see its loss, not only as a location, but as a reflection on the the changing social habits of the local population.

My old 'playground' in the 60's & 70's, Mount Vernon Dogtrack was like a magnet for adventure as it had a scrapyard next to it, full of cars that used to fuel the imagination no end. The dogs were usually good on a Sunday as the 'trials' were run and we got in for free. The fields round about the dogtrack were the first paid work....Hay-making, great for getting a tanned, toned body as everything was done manually. There was a goods railway line nearby also, which was a highlight of the day when a train passed through, as we used to stand underneath the bridged pathway that led to the 'dogs'.
Seeing these pictures, the place hasn't changed that much considering. If anyone wanted to go to the Dogs now, I guess Shawfield would be the place.
What I wonder is, who owns the land? As far as I remember, it was all privately owned back in the 70's.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 11:22 pm
by Fossil
Quality Location Apollo 8)

Fossil

PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:38 am
by Apollo
Thanks.

Appreciate the update. Older maps show it as a dog track, while newer ones referred to it as Mount Vernon Sports Stadium, and there is a solitary set of goalposts at the west end that don't show in the pics. Some of the very recent maps don't even show it at all. I remember the scrapyard as they used to line all the vans on the edge facing Hamilton Road. That's Combes waste disposal now.

Maybe someone will come up with a closure date. I'd be interested to know.

PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 8:33 am
by paladin
Apollo wrote: there is a solitary set of goalposts at the west end that don't show in the pics.


Football 'trials' were held here, as were proper 'local' games as far as I recall in the late 60's. Not sure if there was some connection between MV Stadium and Baillieston Junior FC.

PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 10:55 am
by DickyHart
great stuff!! 8)

PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 8:07 pm
by Spaniard
The railway line was in fact The Glasgow, Bothwell, Hamilton and Coatbridge Railway.

http://www.railscot.co.uk/Glasgow_Bothw ... /frame.htm

Jim Craig the former Glasgow Celtic defender recently said that during the 1960s the Celtic squad occasionally trained here.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 12:02 am
by Apollo
The railway line is still there, being one of those they re-activated some years back. Don't know where else it goes, but it runs diesels between Mount Vernon and Glagow Central, though Shettleston to Queen street is cheaper.

There were squads of yellow jacketed engineers running up and down on bogies with lengths of rail on Sunday. It may be re-activated, but there's no Sunday service, another reason to stick with Shettleston :)

PostPosted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 12:54 am
by james73
Apollo wrote:The railway line is still there, being one of those they re-activated some years back. Don't know where else it goes, but it runs diesels between Mount Vernon and Glagow Central, though Shettleson to Queen street is cheaper.

There were squads of yellow jacketed engineers running up and down on bogies with lengths of rail on Sunday. It may be re-activated, but there's no Sunday service, another reason to stick with Shettleston :)


It's the Central to Whifflet line.




James H

PostPosted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 11:01 am
by paladin
Apollo wrote:There were squads of yellow jacketed engineers running up and down on bogies


Even back in the 60's they used to run the line on a Sunday aboard bogies. As after rooting about the tip for ginger bottles, doing some brambling and gathered up some spuds for roasting, we used to have a den next to the railway line and it used to scare the hell out of us when a 'silent' bogie came hurtling down the track with the guy aboard usually shouting some un-repeatable profanities at us. The Zoo, the cemetery, the tip, River Calder, wee friendly shoppes, endless sunny days.......what more do you want on your doorstep whilst trying to grow up as an intrepid explorer? :D

PostPosted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 11:10 am
by Bex Bissell
Great pics, Apollo
Ahem... I put three shillings on Gypsy Nugget 6-1 in the 8.25 on the Tuesday 17th October 1963, could you tell me if it has finnished.
The last I saw, it had mounted a fellow contestant at the first bend and was left there when the floodlights were switch off.

PostPosted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 1:33 pm
by Spaniard
The line that's still open is the Rutherglen to Coatbridge line(R&C). The other line that I referred too was closed in the 1960s

Mount Vernon Stadium

PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 5:37 pm
by Captain Brittles
post removed

PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 7:52 pm
by Apollo
Thanks, if it was still on the go in the 90s, then I'd say it's reverting fairly quickly. Just as well I grabbed some pics, but now I'm irritated that I never wandered up that 'dirty wee road' sooner. I've been passing it for years as well.

I've not managed to dig up any pictures of the place when it was live, or any of the other stadiums that have been lost.