The first ten years at Brickfields (part 6.) 2008/2009
By noibla
February 9 2014
The lead photo shows the North stand as it appeared for the start of the season in all it's new found glory displaying a new logo for the club and it added a large amount to the appearence of Brickfields in that the ground now had more of a stadium fell about it albeit with a few gaps between various structures, but it had a good feel to it non the less. So here at last we have the 2008 / 2009 seasons update at the ground which seems appropriate as the terrace has been in the news of late. I have also included some photo's of later years work on the terrace because this turned out to be like most other projects at Brickfields, to be an ongoing item to be tackled. There are also photo's of the installation of the floodlights at the ground which was a big plus for the club giving it far more appeal when applying for the right to stage various games including of course those of a representative and international nature.
After the Redrow, as it was named, was finished work began in ernest on the base for the North terrace on which was to go the newley purchased open stand from Harlequins, the one in which the travelling supporters for Albion sat in for the return league game in the season the the Quins graced National 1.
Do you remember the old scoreboard being at this end of the ground ? and you can also see the "Cuckoo Clock" bar next to it, soon to be moved and the position of the advertising hoardings behind that, all that remains of these are the telegraph poles that remain at the back of the current stand, I wonder if we have anyone who has a log burning fire at home, perhaps you might want to take the poles away and keep yourself in logs for a winter or two.
A few more tons of stone nearer.
Another view from the Eric Johns, the seats for the stand are now on site ready for the support scaffolding, just like lego really.
At much the same stage with a nice photo of the old grammer school in the background and some more of the Bath steel terrace which we have of course erected some at the side of the renamed Seddon stand and the remainder after being stored at Brickfields for a couple of years has now found a new home at the Plymouth Devils stadium, all newly painted in thier colours.
Jumping ahead a bit to when the electronic scoreboard had been installed for us, sponsored by the Astor Hotel, many thanks. I thought that as a result of last weeks game at Brickfields you might like to see another win over the Welsh, it's about time that happened more frequently hopefully.
Now the work starts to clean the seats of the logo that Quins had painted on the seats when at the Stoop, this turned out to be a slow and difficlut process using copious quanties of paint stripper and then when softened a quick blast with the power washer before the sun dried it hard again, many tins of paint stripper were used and many man hours were put into this big job, some sixten or so people came to help to make this into a stand that we could be proud of and to increase the viewing capacity of the ground at a time when things were looking pretty good for the club, before the financial plug was pulled that is, but not to worry things are on the up again it seems, watch this space as they say.
Some of you may recognize yourselve's in this photo. I see the Cuckoo Clock has reappeared in it's new but tempory position and that the weeds are already growing ready to provide many a happy hour pulling them up and spraying them in future years.
Now three weeks into it the seats have been cleaned of all the original paint from the old logo, now we need to put our own mark onto it and to clean and stain the decking flooring to achieve something we can all be proud of.
After another weeks effort in finishing the cleaning and staining the decking, some 2800 square meters if I remember correctly we now have the extra seating for some 2400 seats and we only have the logo to go on. here is the start of it, not easy to produce a perfect shape when seen from the other end of the pitch, as when on the terrace marking out the letters you are seeing them from a different angle, it being on a slope to the eye and the level of the pitch.
For the finished effect you will have to go back to the first photo or have a good look at it when next at our ground. (sorry)
Look out men at work.
Here we are again carrying out running repairs to some of the steps on the terrace that were starting to show their age and were becoming a problem for the saftey side of things. This was carried out as you can see at the top end of the ground near the main entrance, notice how things change over time almost without your noticing them. The old canvass awaning which I thought was a great touch especially in the summer months has now gone having had it's day and started to tor out, the recently new pilgrims pasty shop is another new item in this area now and very nice they are too.
Part of the Bodge and Scarper gang, also known as the F.A.B. group ( Friends at Brickfields )
Very technical stuff this refurbishing you know.
I did say that I would include photo's of the instillation of the floodlights, well I can't find the photo's that I should have uploaded onto this site so will add them later, before the next round of "The first ten years at Brickfields" cheers.
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Semper Sersum.