The New Recreation Ground was a football stadium on Bridge Road, Grays

Grays

Grays is the largest town in the borough and unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex and one of the Thurrock's traditional parishes...

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and was the home ground of Grays Athletic

Grays Athletic F.C.

Grays Athletic Football Club is an English football club currently based in Corringham, Essex after leaving the New Recreation Ground in Grays at the end of the 2009–10 season...

. Prior to it being closed, the capacity stood at 4,100, of which 1,000 is seated.

Grays Athletic moved to the ground, originally known as the Recreation Ground in 1906. Previously the ground had been home to Southern League

Southern Football League

The Southern League is an English football competition featuring semi-professional and amateur clubs from the South West, South Central and Midlands of England and South Wales...

 club Grays United

Grays United F.C.

Grays United F.C. was an English football club based in Grays, Essex. The club played at the Recreation Ground.The club joined Division Two of the Southern League in 1899. In 1900–01 they finished second and qualified for the promtion-relegation test matches...

, but they had merged into Athletic. The record attendance of 9,500 was set in 1959 during an FA Cup

FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

 tie with Chelmsford City

Chelmsford City F.C.

Chelmsford City F.C. is an English semi-professional football club based in the town of Chelmsford, Essex. The club are currently members of the Conference South and play at the Melbourne Stadium.-Chelmsford:...

.

The ground was redeveloped at the beginning of the 2004–05 season in order to meet the standards set by the Football Conference

Football Conference

The Football Conference is a football league in England which consists of three divisions called Conference National, Conference North, and Conference South. Some Football Conference clubs are fully professional, such as Luton Town, but most of them are semi-professional...

, and was renamed the New Recreation Ground, often nicknamed The New Rec.

Below the bar area was an indoor 5-a-side AstroTurf

AstroTurf

AstroTurf is a brand of artificial turf. Although the term is a registered trademark, it is sometimes used as a generic description of any kind of artificial turf. The original AstroTurf product was a short pile synthetic turf while the current products incorporate modern features such as...

 pitch. This was hired out to the public and also hosts various community schemes. Grays Athletic had planned to move to a new stadium, but at the end of the 2009–10 season announced they would groundshare at East Thurrock United

East Thurrock United F.C.

East Thurrock United F.C is an English football club based in Corringham, Essex. The club currently plays in the Isthmian League Premier Division and is based at Rookery Hill.-History:...

's Rookery Hill.

External links

• Information For Visitors Grays Athletic