Another bright spell of decent weather and another 12 hours of graft this week as we made inroads into the East Terrace, the area of the ground worst affected by years of neglect. Managed to clear the walkway behind the crumbling pitch wall completely this week, piling mounds of moss & dirt behind the wall, and pulling out the clumps of weeds that have taken over this terracing.
Toughest work we have done thus far, but the results are worth the blood, sweat and tears as you can see from the photos on this page. We have also been mining the archives to find photographs of each section of the ground from it's first incarnation in 1884 and the remodelling in 1903 and found this photo below of the East Terrace being constructed in the close season summer of 1947!!!
The very same section can be seen below in the present day! The photo is c/o John Lister's book on THIRD LANARK and is a treasure trove of records and photographs. 71 years after this terrace was laid down and 50 years since it fell out of use, we are delighted to be once again clearing this part of the old stadium and saving what little remains for posterity.
But it's a BIG job! As you can see we have partially cleared all of the trees growing out of the terracing and steps but their roots have buckled many sections of the concrete and vandals have smashed up other sections and we will re-concrete these in due course. Our first task is to realign what remains and clear and clean the stonework as we go along. The woodpile is already 3 foot high
but we have made a good start to cleaning the pitch wall here as well, brushing down 8 feet of moss and again, preserving what remains of the original structure. The pitch here is also in poor condition due to a drain being damaged and the running track is currently unsafe to utilise but the Community Service boys will be starting on this next, once the South Enclosure has been scraped of it's winter coat of moss and leaves!
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