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/