Bastion Road
Encyclopedia
Bastion Road, also known as Bastion Gardens, is a football stadium
in Prestatyn
, Wales
. It is currently used for football
matches and is the home ground of Prestatyn Town F.C.
. The stadium holds up to 2,300 people, although the record attendance was 1,280.
that can be seen directly opposite the ground) was sold off for development.
For many years the new ground was relatively undeveloped with the only building being the dressing room block which for its time was modern and well-equipped with spacious dressing rooms, a tea bar and storage rooms - but the rest of the ground fell some way short.
The pitch was just roped off and access was from Bastion Gardens as it is to this day. No other spectator facilities were available and low crowds reflected the spartan surroundings in the dead of winter but early and late season games in the warmer weather often saw gates top the 100 mark.
Grand plans to build a 250-seated stand over the dressing room block were drawn up but the scheme was costly and never came to fruition. A lean-to cover was added to the building in the late 1970s to afford spectators
some shelter from the elements
. In the mid-1980s another set of plans were drawn up to build a covered enclosure but again, this never came to fruition.
Thus the scene remained virtually unchanged until the 1992/3 close season when, after being elected to the Welsh Alliance League as runners-up to St Asaph City, a post and rail was erected around the pitch along with brick built dugouts.
This work was masterminded by club stalwart Henry Porter and then chairman Glyn Breeze Jones and part of the labour was carried out by community service
offenders.
In the mid-1990s old bus shelters were acquired from Prestatyn
Town Council after the main bus station in the town centre was modernised and these were put up on the cricket field side of the ground which although something of an eyesore
, offered adequate protection from the rain and gave the ground a more `enclosed` feel.
In 1995 the committee decided that in-house bar facilities were needed and with the help of a generous loan from Prestatyn Town Council, the building was extended towards the cricket field and a small bar installed which was functional and cosy and gave the club its first proper base for meetings, etc.
It was officially opened for a match against a Manchester United XI in July 1995 which the Red Devils won 5-0 in front of a record attendance for a Prestatyn game of 3,200.
When incoming chairman Steve Jones took over the helm in 2004/5, he took the project to new heights and added on the new bar area as well as demolishing the bus shelters and replacing them with a new more modern stand which provided seating for 200 and covered standing for another 150.
At the same time the entrance was fenced off and a turnstile
built with hard standing laid all around the pitch - no more muddy shoes for spectators! The dressing rooms and kitchen area were also redeveloped and extensive landscaping work carried out.
But the biggest changes came in the summer of 2008 when, having clinched promotion to the Welsh Premier League, the committee and a band of dedicated volunteers were left with just eight days to bring the ground up to the required criteria.
Due to a planning wrangle and the usual council red tape, Town`s original application was due to be heard in March but deferred until April 23rd. The deadline to meet the criteria was May 1st.
At the meeting of Denbighshire County Council at Ruthin on the 23rd, the application was heard at 10am and passed through 'on the nod' in record time, by five past ten chairman Tony Thackeray had phoned the good news to the ground and by ten past the workmen were hard at it, digging footings for lights and laying concrete bases for the new seats.
In just eight days the miracle was achieved - the floodlights were put up and working, a turnstile block was built, 200 extra seats were installed, a press box went up, the referee's changing accommodation was revamped and the whole ground was tidied up and painted. The superhuman effort put in was rewarded when WPL supremo John Deakin came to inspect the work and passed the ground as fit for promotion.
But the hard work doesn't stop and in order to meet the new higher criteria when the WPL splits into the so-called Super 12 in 2010/11, Prestatyn must build further spectator accommodation, improve car parking facilities, provide more hard standing, enlarge the dressing rooms and create more turnstile entrances. With foresight, the Seasiders carried out ongoing work throughout their inaugural WPL season, paying for it as and when funds allowed.
At Christmas 2008, the open seats were covered and in March 2009 a further 60 seats were added and covered which meant Bastion Gardens had the requisite 500 seating capacity to comply with the FAW Domestic Licence. For the big Bank Holiday derby on Easter Monday 2009, the old pay hut which had stood at the clubhouse end was given a makeover and installed at the top of the ground where a new walkway and railing were also added.
In early 2009 plans were submitted to Denbighshire Council for another 500 seat stand behind the top goal and a brick built facility to house the boardroom, club shop, tea bar, a toilet and stores. In spring 2009 the club were awarded a grant of £8,500 towards the cost of installing a concrete panel fence along the whole of the Bastion Gardens side and across the top end of the ever-improving stadium.
On July 29th 2009, Denbighshire's planning committee unanimously approved submissions for the new stand - which would also contain a refreshment bar, additional toilets and disabled seating - behind the 'top' goal as well as a combined TV gantry and interview area plus a police control room on the Bastion Gardens side.
Coming on the back of earlier approval for the utility building and an extension to the dressing rooms and covered terracing/seating at the Clubhouse end, the Seasiders now had the requisite permission to build all the facilities they needed to meet the Domestic Licence and also the UEFA Licence in due course.
The latter half of 2009 saw the club striving to attain Super 12 status and while manager Neil Gibson made improvements to his squad in order to compete on the pitch, off the field the committee began planning the necessary grant applications that would enable them to upgrade the facilities.
In January 2010 after a two-month delay, the Welsh Grounds Improvements Trust awarded them just short of £32,000 to build a new medical room, extend the dressing rooms to meet the new criteria, lay down concrete over the grassed areas in front of the clubhouse and build a new TV gantry and police control room. In addition a spacious disabled area was also built which provided covered accommodation for six spectators and their carers if needed, all sited within easy reach of the club's facilities.
Soccer-specific stadium
Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States, Canada, Australia and South Korea coined by Lamar Hunt, to refer to a sports stadium either purpose built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multipurpose...
in Prestatyn
Prestatyn
Prestatyn is a seaside resort, town and community in Denbighshire, North Wales. It is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the east of Rhyl. At the 2001 Census, Prestatyn had a population of 18,496.-Prehistory:...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. It is currently used for football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
matches and is the home ground of Prestatyn Town F.C.
Prestatyn Town F.C.
Prestatyn Town Football Club is a Welsh association football club based in Prestatyn, Denbighshire.- History :Prestatyn town FC played their first-ever game on Thursday October 20th 1910 when they travelled to Rhyl Amateurs and got off to a flying start, winning 3-2 thanks to goals by Gratton,...
. The stadium holds up to 2,300 people, although the record attendance was 1,280.
Full History
Prestatyn moved to their present site in 1969 when their previous ground at the rear of the Central Beach Club (the large public housePublic house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
that can be seen directly opposite the ground) was sold off for development.
For many years the new ground was relatively undeveloped with the only building being the dressing room block which for its time was modern and well-equipped with spacious dressing rooms, a tea bar and storage rooms - but the rest of the ground fell some way short.
The pitch was just roped off and access was from Bastion Gardens as it is to this day. No other spectator facilities were available and low crowds reflected the spartan surroundings in the dead of winter but early and late season games in the warmer weather often saw gates top the 100 mark.
Grand plans to build a 250-seated stand over the dressing room block were drawn up but the scheme was costly and never came to fruition. A lean-to cover was added to the building in the late 1970s to afford spectators
Spectators
Spectators is the fourth full album of the German synthpop duo Wolfsheim. As with all of their commercially available albums, this album is bilingual, although most tracks are in English...
some shelter from the elements
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...
. In the mid-1980s another set of plans were drawn up to build a covered enclosure but again, this never came to fruition.
Thus the scene remained virtually unchanged until the 1992/3 close season when, after being elected to the Welsh Alliance League as runners-up to St Asaph City, a post and rail was erected around the pitch along with brick built dugouts.
This work was masterminded by club stalwart Henry Porter and then chairman Glyn Breeze Jones and part of the labour was carried out by community service
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
offenders.
In the mid-1990s old bus shelters were acquired from Prestatyn
Prestatyn
Prestatyn is a seaside resort, town and community in Denbighshire, North Wales. It is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the east of Rhyl. At the 2001 Census, Prestatyn had a population of 18,496.-Prehistory:...
Town Council after the main bus station in the town centre was modernised and these were put up on the cricket field side of the ground which although something of an eyesore
Eyesore
An eyesore is an unpleasant view. Its technical usage is as an alternative perspective to the notion of landmark. Common examples include dilapidated buildings, graffiti, litter, polluted areas and excessive commercial signage such as billboards. Some eyesores may be a matter of opinion such as...
, offered adequate protection from the rain and gave the ground a more `enclosed` feel.
In 1995 the committee decided that in-house bar facilities were needed and with the help of a generous loan from Prestatyn Town Council, the building was extended towards the cricket field and a small bar installed which was functional and cosy and gave the club its first proper base for meetings, etc.
It was officially opened for a match against a Manchester United XI in July 1995 which the Red Devils won 5-0 in front of a record attendance for a Prestatyn game of 3,200.
When incoming chairman Steve Jones took over the helm in 2004/5, he took the project to new heights and added on the new bar area as well as demolishing the bus shelters and replacing them with a new more modern stand which provided seating for 200 and covered standing for another 150.
At the same time the entrance was fenced off and a turnstile
Turnstile
A turnstile, also called a baffle gate, is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. It can also be made so as to enforce one-way traffic of people, and in addition, it can restrict passage only to people who insert a coin, a ticket, a pass, or similar...
built with hard standing laid all around the pitch - no more muddy shoes for spectators! The dressing rooms and kitchen area were also redeveloped and extensive landscaping work carried out.
But the biggest changes came in the summer of 2008 when, having clinched promotion to the Welsh Premier League, the committee and a band of dedicated volunteers were left with just eight days to bring the ground up to the required criteria.
Due to a planning wrangle and the usual council red tape, Town`s original application was due to be heard in March but deferred until April 23rd. The deadline to meet the criteria was May 1st.
At the meeting of Denbighshire County Council at Ruthin on the 23rd, the application was heard at 10am and passed through 'on the nod' in record time, by five past ten chairman Tony Thackeray had phoned the good news to the ground and by ten past the workmen were hard at it, digging footings for lights and laying concrete bases for the new seats.
In just eight days the miracle was achieved - the floodlights were put up and working, a turnstile block was built, 200 extra seats were installed, a press box went up, the referee's changing accommodation was revamped and the whole ground was tidied up and painted. The superhuman effort put in was rewarded when WPL supremo John Deakin came to inspect the work and passed the ground as fit for promotion.
But the hard work doesn't stop and in order to meet the new higher criteria when the WPL splits into the so-called Super 12 in 2010/11, Prestatyn must build further spectator accommodation, improve car parking facilities, provide more hard standing, enlarge the dressing rooms and create more turnstile entrances. With foresight, the Seasiders carried out ongoing work throughout their inaugural WPL season, paying for it as and when funds allowed.
At Christmas 2008, the open seats were covered and in March 2009 a further 60 seats were added and covered which meant Bastion Gardens had the requisite 500 seating capacity to comply with the FAW Domestic Licence. For the big Bank Holiday derby on Easter Monday 2009, the old pay hut which had stood at the clubhouse end was given a makeover and installed at the top of the ground where a new walkway and railing were also added.
In early 2009 plans were submitted to Denbighshire Council for another 500 seat stand behind the top goal and a brick built facility to house the boardroom, club shop, tea bar, a toilet and stores. In spring 2009 the club were awarded a grant of £8,500 towards the cost of installing a concrete panel fence along the whole of the Bastion Gardens side and across the top end of the ever-improving stadium.
On July 29th 2009, Denbighshire's planning committee unanimously approved submissions for the new stand - which would also contain a refreshment bar, additional toilets and disabled seating - behind the 'top' goal as well as a combined TV gantry and interview area plus a police control room on the Bastion Gardens side.
Coming on the back of earlier approval for the utility building and an extension to the dressing rooms and covered terracing/seating at the Clubhouse end, the Seasiders now had the requisite permission to build all the facilities they needed to meet the Domestic Licence and also the UEFA Licence in due course.
The latter half of 2009 saw the club striving to attain Super 12 status and while manager Neil Gibson made improvements to his squad in order to compete on the pitch, off the field the committee began planning the necessary grant applications that would enable them to upgrade the facilities.
In January 2010 after a two-month delay, the Welsh Grounds Improvements Trust awarded them just short of £32,000 to build a new medical room, extend the dressing rooms to meet the new criteria, lay down concrete over the grassed areas in front of the clubhouse and build a new TV gantry and police control room. In addition a spacious disabled area was also built which provided covered accommodation for six spectators and their carers if needed, all sited within easy reach of the club's facilities.