Restoration - Week 17

Cathkin was a real mess when I returned this week, with booze bottles and cans littering the terraces and took 4 more bags to clean up the rubbish. If only drinkers were a bit more respectful of the ground but what can you do? There are only two trackside bins which are always full and simply

not enough to cope when there is a crowd down at the park. The summer is always a nightmare anyway for antisocial behaviour and if the Council won't pick up the litter then we bloody well will! Just holds us back on the stone restoration work however and can do without it. But Cathkin has

been a public park for 50 years and has always attracted vandals and drinkers and it will take a long time and a lot of work to transform the ground into something people will be proud of once again and hopefully clear up after themselves. On top of that Nature has returned to try and claim back our

previously cleared terracing and weeds have sprouted everywhere! As a local gardener said to me this week "One year of seeds, 7 years of weeds" so it is a never-ending task to maintain this place! So much easier to clear the place during the winter! But made good progress this week with clearing the

East pitch wall and made a start on restoring the running track as well. We aim to repair the wall and again repaint each section as we go along later this summer. As stated previously we are concentrating on this East Terracing for the rest of the year and every day another little section is revealed from the moss and weeds and preserved for the future. Despite the vandalism over the

years there is still enough of the original terracing to restore and only two pieces actually need recast and the rest cleaned and lifted back into position. We are replacing the missing concrete on the steps with more red blaes from the track in the short term which at least marks out the terracing clearly and looks 100% better than it did a month ago! Really pleased with how this section is beginning to 

shape up. We completed 15 x 1/3 sections of the East End Terrace this week and will move on to the next section next week, hopefully clearing and restoring half of this full terrace by the end of July. But as you can see from these photos the place has really come back to life and some semblance of how this part of Old Hampden used to look in the past? Originally these steps would have been filled with black ash with wooden stepping but the red blaes does really highlight this section as well as

giving park users a safe and comfortable footing once again. We are still cutting out huge tree roots here and so the full section is still not safe to use but what a huge difference in how it was just a few short weeks ago. But it is painfully slow work and hard on the old body but am prouder of this section of our restoration than any of the other (easier) parts of the old ground. And good to see that the

Council lads have nearly cleared the Third Lanark Terrace of moss and this part of the old stadium is looking really good again and far more accessible for locals and fans alike. Slowly, very slowly, but surely, Cathkin Park is emerging from the past yet again and we are determined to continue until we

once again have a ground worth shouting about. It simply has too much of Scotland's sporting history seeped into every corner of the ground to be abandoned and left to rot away. It may be a beautiful ruin but it still needs lots of preservation work just to keep what is still there. It is Scotland's finest sporting amphitheatre, a reminder of our glorious past and a testament to the legends who once

performed here. One day we hope more people will feel the same as we do and Glasgow City Council realize just what a wonderful asset Cathkin Park could be to the Southside of Glasgow. Until that day however we shall plough on with our daily restoration, clearing up the rubbish and posting updates!

Restoration - Week 16

Four months of our restoration work at Old Hampden and making inroads into this EAST Terracing. Really happy with the way the kerb stones now look having wire brushed them and dug out the tree roots between each step this week. Not exactly much fun, but the eventual result is worth the effort!

We have also now found some missing kerb stones which suffered vandalism over the last 50 years and will reset these in the coming weeks, thus outlining the original 1947 pattern of stepping. As I said in previous posts, I am constantly surprised by how much of the original terracing remains buried under mounds of earth and moss and strewn around the wooded areas and wish to use

as much as we can to reshape this section of the park and keep it as original as we can. Cut away more earth and trees this week to uncover 4 more steps and despite the huge regrowth of summer plants and trees recently we are slowly getting there! Only managed to clear a small section of 9 of these terrace steps and filled with red blaes as it is painstaking work and every tiny piece of moss

needs to be cut out and then wire brushed as it grows back instantly! But as these photos show the difference is remarkable. With no power sources nor running water nearby then everything has to be done by hand with basic tools which is in keeping with our ethos of doing this Victorian restoration properly however it is very time-consuming! But we are in no rush and would rather it was done

properly so that it last a bit longer! Good 10 hours of graft done this week before heading off on holiday and very pleased with progress all over the ground this last 4 months, however we now have a huge mound of chopped down trees and branches to get rid of! Will recycle what we can and pulp the rest but for now this is the situation (below) this week! And again the ground has been left

covered in litter and vandalised again, with my wood store being smashed up and bin bags ripped open and the contents emptied again, but undeterred it was all cleared up again and thanks to the GCC boys for taking away another 4 bags of refuse this week. The battle continues to rescue the

old ground from the past and half a century of neglect and slow progress is being made! Now, time for a holiday...

Restoration - Week 15

Lovely weather again so cracked on with cleaning the remaining stonework in the crumbling East Terracing and cleared another 4 bags of rubbish from this section. The park is busy during the summer but with not enough bins around the drinkers leave their bottles and cans strewn around the ground and it is a pain in the arse cleaning up after them. But hey-ho, needs must..

I am concentrating on the East end of Cathkin now for the summer as it needs the most work and is most at risk of being lost forever due to nature's progress and years of vandalism. Once this section has been cleaned up and refilled I will move to the last section of the ground, the much maligned SE corner terrace which has almost disappeared this year!

Very tough going this week but managed to cut away lots of growth and rubbish to clear the first 4 steps and another 4 sections of the long-gone terracing and polished the stone underneath. Already looking far better than before but a MAMMOTH job ahead to get this entire section done in the next 3 months...!

However I'm delighted with the difference already and although only a small part of the terrace is done I have had a great reaction from the local community to the work completed so far. Thanks to Jim Simmonette for the photo below!

But this is slow work, down and dirty with small wire brush, dulled knife, trowel and shovel and small saw to cut away the surviving 'ankle-breaker' tree roots! I am inching my way along the EAST Terrace, which eventually we will rename 'The Queens Park End' in honour of the first tenants from

1884 til 1903. We will rename the former SOUTH Enclosure as 'The Third Lanark Terrace' in memory of their custody of the ground between 1903 and 1967 and the WEST Terrace will become 'The Jimmy Johnston End' in honour of their 9 years here so far. The crush barriers will be repainted to remember each team's colours which will also really bring the old place back to life.

The pitch wall has now had 30 feet of moss cleaned and scraped off and a path once again cut all across this section of terracing and we will repair the crumbling pitch wall and repaint later in the year. This however encourages more vandalism as I found to my cost 8 years ago when I repainted the entire ground, to have it tagged and ruined within 48 hours! (see below photo from 2011)

Determined that this time we will defeat the vandals and return this Grand Old Lady Of Scottish Sporting History to a recognizable arena once again. But as I said before, this is an incredibly slow process and we are making incremental improvements to the remaining structures and have no real end point. This is a true labour of love but am convinced that we can save the ground for future

generations to enjoy. There is simply too much history here in multiple sports for us to sit idly by and watch as it crumbles into nothing. There are dozens of lost grounds in Britain but none had the same heritage as this Second Hampden. For too long it has been neglected and we will not give up on it and have a very clear vision of how Cathkin Park should eventually look, with minimal expense but lots of time and hard graft! And great to have the Community Service lads back this week to help out.

Photograph above is courtesy of actor Colin McCredie on Twitter on his first visit to the ground. So now 4 out of the 5 remaining terraces are being cleared and preserved bit by bit and delighted to have helped transform the look of the ground so much already since January 2018, as this photo below

shows, 'before' and 'after' we cleaned the stonework this week. We are also trying to recycle what materials we can and utilise what is already there, so have in-filled the missing terrace concrete with red blaes from the currently overgrown and unusable running track around the pitch. I repaired the first broken kerbstone below and knocked it back into place before filling with ash and pleased with

the result! This is only a temporary 'fix' until we have cleaned up the whole Queens Park End and then we will re-concrete later in the year. Thanks for all the comments & support and please follow our Twitter account for daily updates and much more about the history of the ground @CathkinPark

Restoration - Week 14

Another good week's work in decent weather allowed us to completely clear the East End terracing of all trees and rubbish built up over the years. Started to cut away the weeds to expose what remains of the steps, which as you can see below is not very much! Most of the concrete has gone now and we are down to ash and WW2 rubble below, first filled in 1947. Dusty and dirty work but necessary

and grafted for another 10 hours to try and bring this area of the ground back into some semblence of a stadium. Cleared the first three terraces of moss and leaves and began the laborious process of polishing the stonework underneath and began refilling the missing concrete with red blaes from the

running track and giving a decent surface to walk upon in the meantime. The plan is to cover all of the missing areas with small stones and red ash until we have raised enough funds to begin filling these back in with concrete, however the terracing will need to be re-aligned as vandalism and nature have wrecked much of the stepping, which will need replaced with brick in the short time.

As the photo above demonstrates though, this does look much better and a safer covering surface for park users as we are removing each large tree root on each terrace. This has slowed down much of the restoration work on other sections of the ground but I feel this area needs the most attention and is in

real danger of being lost forever. However enough remains for us to bring it back to life and there are still 42 of the 54 terrracing steps still in good enough condition to be simply refilled and repaired in the next 12 months. We are working on several fund-raising projects for 2019 which should raise enough money for us to repair this 4th section of the ground we have worked on thus far.

We have also now cleared more of the pitch wall this week and cleared the path in front of the terracing and removed all the growth, trees and weeds from this formerly 'green carpeted' nature reserve! The woodpile however is now over 4 feet in height and we are looking for a way to utilise most of this in future, but for now we will continue basic coppicing and storing the wood.

The Community Service lads have continued working on clearing the former South Enclosure and made more progress this week and half of the old stadium is now looking 100% better than it did when we began restoration in January 2018. They are aiming to get this section cleared next week

before moving on to the uneven and overgrown running track around the pitch which is currently unusable and this will make a huge difference to the ground for park users and the football teams who play here. These photos are of the South Enclosure which I will begin the stone work on next month.

More evidence of anti-social behaviour and drug use this week however as I cleared this section and this is another reason why we will be petitioning the council to remove, or let us remove the trees in the former terracing blocks as they encourage this behaviour and provide a cover from the public for

drug users. In the meantime we will crack on with this section, restore & fill out the terracing and cut a direct patch all around the ground over the next few weeks. A very good week's work.....!

Restoration - Week 13

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!

Restoration - Week 12

3 months of work now done at the ground and slowly making a difference to the overall appearance of this much maligned old sporting arena. Weather cleared this week allowing us to get a good 12 hours of graft in and returfed the 'kop' area, cleaned more of the SW corner pitch wall as the

Council lads continued clearing the South enclosure area. Following a discussion with their bosses however the next section at the East End of the park was deemed unsafe to work on, so CPL will now move on to clear this section ourselves.

But it is by far the worst part of the remaining terracing, with the concrete gone and trees now growing through the missing terracing. But it is vital to restore what is left and realign the cornerstones to then infill the missing concrete with red blaes in the meantime and remove the moss, trees, bushes, weeds and dirt that has eaten this terrace away over the last 50 years.

But undeterred by the mammoth task ahead we ploughed in to the clearing work with shovels and buckets and already have cleared a 6 foot section behind the pitch wall as well as cleaning this section of the wall with wire brushes. We also removed 12 small trees and branches from the front terrace but it is difficult and unpleasant work as each terrace is covered in broken glass, beer cans and bottles from years of anti-social behaviour here.

Old Hampden/New Cathkin as a Rugby venue!

The 1896 Calcutta Cup match between Scotland and England was held at Hampden Park and a photo of this has eluded us for years, until now! Delighted to have sourced this through the www.scottishrugby.org website.

And thanks to @ScottyCricket on Twitter we now also have a full match report from this legendary 4th Scottish victory in a row...see below! The Scots ran out 11-0 victors. We are now searching for details of the 1872 Cup match also held at the ground in December 1885 between Glasgow District and Edinburgh District.

We are compiling a daily diary of events held at Old Hampden/New Cathkin Park and these fascinating archives just reinforce the importance of this magical old sporting arena and our determination to salvage what remains, restore what we can and leave this ground as a perfect Victorian Sports Arena for future generations of Glaswegians to enjoy. Check out our Twitter page for info and daily updates @CathkinPark