Restoration - Week 10

Tenth week of work at Cathkin Park and with the help of the Council lads, JJFA and ourselves we have cleared 2 complete sections of the West end of the ground! Check out the photos below of the latest restoration in comparison to how the terracing looked when we began in january.

These lads have done an amazing job of clearing the terraces and the tennis courts area as well as the car park around the Jimmy Johnstone Pavilion, enabling CPL to continue apace with cleaning the remaining stonework and pitch wall this week.

Quite a transformation in just 2 and a half months! It has been brilliant working with both the GCC and JJFA recently and getting Cathkin cleaned up properly for the first time in decades. Our next aim is to cut back more of the trees and overhanging branches and to clear a walkway all around the ground, which is currently still impossible due to the ravages of time and nature.

But we are getting closer and closer to clearing half of the ground already with the Council boys moving on to the former South Enclosure this week and already making a huge improvement to this area which is also still in decent condition underneath the leaves & moss!

Cathkin was also the venue for some filming we did this week in support of the campaign to #KeepHampdenRoaring serving as a warning from history of what can happen to a club and their ground if the wrong decisions are made. We feel that Queens Park FC need our support to either remain in situ at 3rd Hampden or Lesser Hampden as it looks increasingly likely that they will be pressurised to sell the stadium to the SFA.

Delighted to report that CPL are also now backing Graeme Brown's fundraising efforts to restore the 1st Hampden Park, now the Hampden Bowling Club and we have enjoyed pulling the history of our 2 grounds together this month. Really impressed with the work Graeme has done there and we are committed to assisting his efforts in maintaining the building that is so important to Glasgow's sporting heritage.

A busy month of meetings and restoration work as well as many hours of research as we put together a 'Cathkin Calendar' of the important and memorable events held at 2nd Hampden/Cathkin Park since it opened in 1884 until it's demise in 1967.

If you wish to follow and support our campaign to #KeepHampdenRoaring please follow @Hampdeners on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates.

Restoration - Week 9

Again much better weather enabled us to clear most of this section of terracing in the SW corner. The boys from the Council have been grafting hard this week alongside us, clearing a full section of the North West terrace of 50 years of neglect! Together we are really now beginning to see a major

improvement in the site and not before time as the ground is still in real danger of disappearing and will need constant restoration and upkeep to get it properly operational again and a fitting 'living museum' to Glasgow's sporting heritage. Below are the latest photos of the Council's work at the behest of the Jimmy Johnstone Football Academy, who are supporting our efforts to renovate the

park and we are delighted by the results achieved already this month in this half of the old ground. Lots of great support also from the local community who are impressed by how good the place is beginning to look and are once again able to walk and run up and down the old terracing in safety.

We managed to clean much more of the stonework this week on both the pitch wall and individual terraces. This is the time-consuming part of the renovation but absolutely vital to retaining the originality of each surviving terracing block. But as you can see from the photo below, the difference

is quite spectacular! Hopefully this will now preserve this 1947 terracing for a few more years and provide the template to eventually re-step all of the missing terracing, now covered by the trees.

This was another solid week's work and more branches cut away and dead trees removed as well as another 4 feet of the pitch wall cleaned and brushed down and looking much better than the moss-covered crumbling stone that it was just 2 months ago. Again, this is an original feature of the 1903 designed ground and must be preserved, so vitally important that this is maintained and repaired.

As you can see from the photo above, the difference 'before' and 'after' it has been cleaned and wire-brushed back to life! 9 weeks now into this restoration and there is a great feeling of positivity down Cathkin way with us all working together to bring Old Hampden Park back to life for future generations to utilise and enjoy.

Restoration - Week 8

Again it was a week of inclement conditions but undeterred we cracked on with the digging, cleaning and stone polishing of the South-West Corner Terracing's main section. Behold a cheeky selfie as we completed clearing one full section of the old ground! 6 more dead trees were cut down and their overhanging branches, clearing a better view for future spectators of the entire playing area, the first time this has been possible for as long as any of us can remember. Ideally by the end of this year you

will be able to stand anywhere in these surviving terraces and have a clear perspective on the whole playing area. The Council lads have done a great job of clearing the tennis courts and North West corner terrace of rubbish this week and their assistance is much appreciated. We really feel that the community is coming together nicely to clean up Cathkin and expect further local involvement once the weather improves this summer. Unfortunately however the Council ordered the removal of our new earthwork embankment, causing a two day delay this week as we returned the heaped earth back into the wooded areas! We are coming up with other ideas to enclose this missing part of the ground in the near future and it's a real shame about this order as the earthworks was beginning to work in drying up this boggy area of grass above the foundations of Third Lanark's original stand.

More sections of the pitch wall have been cleaned and brushed this week and another 5 terracing steps cleared of growth and rubbish. We have had some very positive meetings this week with interested parties and user groups of Cathkin and again had a lot of supportive words from the local community and dog walkers. Thanks to everyone who has helped out this week. Still lots to do!

Restoration - Week 7

Better weather this week and got lots more heavy digging done and cleared another large section of the main terrace in this South-West corner, seen below this week. Half of this terracing is now
cleared of all muck and rubbish and another 120 buckets removed this week alone! Over 10 hours

of hard graft this week to get this cleared up and really worthwhile. The 'Kop' mound of earth is also building up nicely and great to see the Council working hard on the pitch and to have the help of the Community Service boys clearing the pavilion area this week. Thanks due to the JJFA for getting

these lads in as there is plenty of work to do! Slowly but surely we are all now working together to breath new life into this much neglected public park and by then end of this year we feel this ground will look radically different and much improved for users and visitors alike. With the debate on the

the future of our National Stadium raging on the back pages we feel this is the perfect time to once again raise awareness and profile of Old Hampden/Cathkin Park and to finally have this place of heritage once again fully functioning and cleared of rubbish and weeds and out of control trees

that have threatened the very fabric of the remains of the old ground. We cut down 6 more dead trees this week and have marked out many more in each section of the park that will also need to come down soon as they are a hazard to users of the park, as proven by the sheer number of large trees that have crashed down due to high winds over the last couple of years. These felled trees will then be cut up and used for fuel in our Green Energy new pavilion building. 

And as this is a Victorian-styled renovation we aim to do all the work by hand with basic tools, no power tools and to recycle everything we are currently digging up to recreate the embankment first installed by Queens Park FC in 1883 and which replaces the concrete banking first put in by the Third Lanark AC in 1903 and seen above during the reconstruction of the ground in 1963/64. We hope

that these rather stern looking gentlemen of the QPFC seen above would thoroughly approve of our restoration and our plans for their old ground's renovation...although without the brick pavilion..yet!

Restoration - Week 6

Sub-zero temperatures again early this week, but pressed on with the heavy work and this week have cleared another 20 terrace steps of the main section of the SW Corner Terracing. Taxing work but

has made a big improvement to this part of the ground. A couple of large branches down due to the high winds of Storm Emma and we cut them away this week and removed to another wooded section of the terracing. Ultimately we will go back and chop everything down into small logs but for now

its only manageable clearing the area of fallen trees and branches one at a time. We added 160 buckets of cleared muck and moss to the new earth embankment we have created and it is already beginning to take shape. As the snow thaws it is even clearer why this 'mound' is necessary to draw more water away from the old stand imprint as this is one of the worst areas of Cathkin for holding

excess rainwater and it has again begun to pool at the North side of the pitch, creating another bog. The new earth 'terrace' will hopefully soon start to divert this water course and create a natural barrier to allow the playing area and running track to finally dry out this summer properly.

We have had some really positive meetings this week with various bodies about our planned Heritage tours and are putting the final touches to our proposal and have a few projects now on the table to generate much-needed income to finance more work down at the ground. Chatted to a few more locals and 'Groundhoppers' this month and all seem to be very happy with the work done so far!

However with the thaw also came the reveal of lots more bottles and rubbish collecting on the old terraces on the NW corner and will clear this up next week as the weather improves and another 6 bags of rubbish cleared this last week. Thanks to GCC for picking up the bags! And huge thanks

to those who have come by and photographed & commented on the work as it progressed last month on social media as this has really spurred us on to get this SE section completed as soon as we can. Lots to do but delighted with how Cathkin Park seems to be re-emerging from the undergrowth once again...!