Ground force never stronger: A nod to historic homes as Kettering’s Rocky Road on its way out

By Matt Badcock
A TOUR of Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox, was always on the bucket list.
The chance to see a famous old ball park in person is always much better than through a screen or on a page. When you’re there, you get to feel it, smell it and experience it. Because of its age, improvements and developments have had to fit into the surroundings, meaning a unique look compared to a purpose-built arena.
In many ways it’s like walking back in time and, judging from the popularity, of the 5pm guided tour on this particular Tuesday many other people from across America and the world were looking for the same.
“The oldest seats in baseball,” were the guide’s big early sell before we climbed the Green Monster and took pictures in the intimate dressing room. The press box was far more spacious than those in Non-League!
The near-38,000 seats are all green apart from a single red seat in row 37 that signifies the longest home run ever hit at Fenway.
Apparently if this happens to be your seat on game day, you should expect to be getting up and down a lot while people pop down to take a photo.
In 1999, the then-CEO unveiled plans to build a new stadium with the current one demolished for a new development. Highly controversial – it later emerged that the scheme was to increase the marketable value of the team before selling – several fan groups were set-up to block the move. Fenway Park, albeit modernised in places, still stands today.
Strange things buildings – especially ones that house sports teams. Fans grow seriously attached to the bricks and mortar that surround them in some of life’s special moments.
Funny as it may seem, football can act as a signpost through our lives. The places we watch games in may not always be the most pretty, they may be rough around the edges, paint splattered around and things not quite in working order, but they’re loved by the people who matter.
It probably wouldn’t have come as much of a shock to Kettering Town fans when the news was confirmed this week that their former Rockingham Road home has been bought by a developer. It’s the latest step towards a ground that’s been dormant since 2011 being bulldozed and turned into houses.
The Poppies have been playing out of town at Latimer Park after briefly moving in at Nene Park, former home of their rivals Rushden & Diamonds – another stadium that has been razed to the ground to make way for a leisure complex.
Bids for Rocky Road to be listed as a community asset have been rejected by Kettering Council in the past and the club say the agreed valuation far exceeds its viable purchase price as the location of a football stadium.
That’s the thing about spreadsheets in council offices. They only show numbers and little imagination for much else.
On social media, Kettering fans have been reminiscing about the great moments they saw there. Historic FA Cup runs, last-minute winners, individual moments of magic.
MP for Kettering Philip Hollobone was quoted in the Northants Telegraph that the sad redevelopment has been on the cards ever since the club sold the freehold back in the 1980s.
It’s not the first case and it probably won’t be the last. It shows the issues clubs potentially can face when they don’t own their own ground. Rent can be hiked up at any point or the carpet sold from underneath your feet.
Cambridge City are still bouncing around the local area as they fight to build a place of their own. In 2013 they were finally booted out of their City Ground just a goal-kick away from the River Cam. A ground that used to host 10,000 strong crowds is now a housing development.
Of course, some clubs move onto bigger and better things in order to improve. The estate that sits on Middlesbrough’s old Ayresome Park home has plenty of nods to its past. The old dug-outs became bus shelters and the penalty spot sits on someone’s front garden.
But, too often, history is lost when the demolition crews move in.