Restoration - Week 24

Another burst of lovely weather as the heatwave allows us to clear more and more of the EAST terracing of debris and foliage and cleaned and infilled another 3 x 1/3 terrace steps this week.

However the weeds have grown back rapidly and we are fighting a losaing battle this summer to be honest as we are weeding by hand and having to go over old ground every week just to keep the terracing looking clean and clear of growth!

Roll on the Winter! But undaunted we cracked on with dozens of buckets of ash, moss and soil removed from the terracing this week as well as returning to level the unstable running track in this end of the ground. Cleared 12 feet x 10 feet  so far and although unsightly, it does really even out
the surface for running on and although laborious, it needs done urgently.

As you can see however we have a long way to go before the whole 400 yard track is completed! But we have at least made a decent start of it and it will benefit all park users once completed as I see runners every day struggling with the lumps and bumps and it just is not operational at all in it's

current state. Hopefully after we have it cleared we can appeal to the Council to have it resurfaced with red blaes but it will need rolled and leveled so that the original black ash and stone mix resets hard as it is crumbling at present. You can see the original surface in these photos and how much

we have cut down the track to get it level. Again it is achingly slow work, but we are making progress in the East End of the ground one spadeful at a time! In 6 months we have helped to bring much of the ground back to life and reckon it will take three years of work just to get it all done and 

complete Phase 1 of the restoration. We aim to restore and re-concrete this section of the ground and then move on to the final section on the South East corner which has disappeared under the trees once again! Again, thanks for all the encouragement this week. Much appreciated!

Restoration - Week 23

Weather up and down this week but still got a fair amount of clearing done of the EAST terracing and 50 buckets of muck, moss, weeds, ash and roots removed and more branches cut down and taken away, as well as 4 more 1/3 sections of the terrace steps cleaned and back-filled with stone and

red blaes and cleared another large section of this area of large tree roots this week. The roots are deep and snake all the way under many of the steps and took a big effort to cut them out fully. But they need to go as they have undermined the remaining kerbstones which I have managed to refill and flatten back out in places this week.

But as soon as one part is finished more bloody weeds spring up and have again had to spend hours pulling out these quick-growing plants! But as you can see from these photos the ground is improving every day and nice to chat to the Ayr United, Rangers and Dumbarton fans who stopped by this

week to photograph the ground and have a look around. I am working on a little booklet at the moment which will tell the story of the ground from 1884-1967 and hopefully these will be available to buy later in the year. Lots more research this week on our Twitter page and thanks to all of those

who have contributed photos and documents this month. It really helps build up an accurate picture of the other sports held at Cathkin/2nd Hampden over the years, including cycling, athletics, boxing, cricket, rubgy, The Tug Of War, Golf and of course, the footie!(photo below c/o Bert Bell website)

This ground was a famous Glasgow sporting destination and sportsmen loved performing here in front of large crowds in an intimate and 'cauldron-like' atmosphere, the noise boosted by the natural bowl into which Third Lanark cut the new ground in 1903.

Also this week we were delighted to be asked along to another press shoot for the Benny Lynch Statue Appeal at The People's Palace along with Benny's grand-daughter & Sammy Wilson's grandson as well as former Coronation Street favourite Connor McIntyre (see below) with

our very own Simon Weir sporting the natty Benny Fund T-Shirt, which you can buy and help to fund the statue appeal here: http://alternativetshirts.co/product/benny-lynch-t-shirt/ We are currently also researching the other famous fighters who boxed at Cathkin over the years, including the infamous

Freddie Mills (above) who is the subject of a new documentary on August 1st on BBC4. He fought an exhibition bout here in 1943 and his story is a remarkable one indeed, so give it a watch! For
daily updates on our work restoring the old ground and for fascinating historical snippets please follow our Twitter page on @CathkinPark and our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/CathkinParkLimited/

Restoration - Week 22

As the heatwave continues we grafted hard at the park again this week, clearing three more full terraces of heavy growth and large deep roots to reveal more of the 1947 East Terracing still in saveable condition. Some serious weeding also required again this week on the restored areas

and we are making a marked difference here now. Had lots of interesting chats with visitors and ground-hoppers this week and am delighted with how much interest there is in the old ground and very thankful for all the supportive messages this month. It really helps when this task seems

insurmountable! As the photo above demonstrates we are again down to the WW2 rubble and ash underneath the weeds and bushes but have yet to discover anything of note. Will bring down the metal detector next month to check through the heaps of rubbish, as requested by one of our

Twitter followers. We have removed 120 buckets of muck from this area alone in the last week and it has been bloody hard work in the hot sun but great exercise! And every hour we spend at Cathkin is saving another wee section for posterity, so it will all eventually be worth it. For now we just need

to keep on going and get this part of the ground back into use and the remaining stonework cleared of moss, re-aligned and filled with whatever stone and red ash we can find to reconstruct the missing concreted terrace step sections and will be starting a 'GoFundMe' page this month to help with the

costs of replacing the terracing and repairing the 6 breaks there are in the old pitch wall, which we still aim to repaint this summer, which will really bring the place back to life. The JJFA have been holding free football coaching for local kids and the park has really felt alive and thriving again

this month, photo above c/o JJFA on Twitter. The Council have been back again helping scrape the latest growth of weeds from the West Terracing and the ground is looking good as the pitch is improving with no football on it and the grass allowed to grow longer. The running track has been

utilised a lot more this close season and I have cleared another 12 feet of the East End of the track, but it's a big job and am only clearing a small section every week as the terraces have priority. I
am trying to cut the treack back down a few inches to the original level in order for runners and
players to have a safe and solid surface to train on. At the moment the track is still in an awful

condition so please be careful if you are using it! The pitch damage has been repaired and there has been far less antisocial behaviour of late so that's a big plus this summer! Quite proud of CPL's
work at Cathkin Park this week and by the end of the year we should have the place looking 100%

better than it did in january when we started restoring the terracing. Good chatting to Stephen Cameron this week and thanks to him for the photo below of our rather exhausted Exec Producer Simon Weir hard at work in the East Terrace! But the hard work is really paying off now and

the East End of Cathkin will look fantastic once it is finished. However we have a lot of hours of hard work ahead before we can move on to the final section of terracing in the South West Corner which
is looking hellish at the moment and completely overgrown and unsafe to walk on. The photo

below shows how much better this section will look once we get it cleared and re-aligned and all the remaining kerb stones wire brushed and restored. Onwards!!