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stadium at Fossetts Farm (illustrated bottom of page 8). Plans for the £12.5 million scheme are with
the local council and the Shrimpers hope to get some indication of their chances shortly.
Macclesfield Town are pressing ahead with a new 1,700-seat stand on the Moss Estate side of
Moss Rose after their plans to move to a new community-style stadium at the huge Lyme Green
development fell through. The rejection of the plans for the new stadium came after a six month
study by the local council to see if a stadium could be incorporated in the further development of
Lyme Green. The new stand at Moss Rose, which should be completed by February 2001, is
costing £1.45 million, with 80% of the funding coming from the Football Foundation. Moss Rose
will then see a rise in capacity to around 6,500.
Last Minute Book Review
Despite arriving at the Groundtastic offices
well after the usual deadline, we simply could
not let this book slip through without a few
words. As our bookshelf section was already
full we have found space here to bring you
details of a book that should be on your
Christmas list!
FORTRESS ST JAMES
By Paul Joannou
Published by Ballast PLC, 108 pages,
£11.99 Reviewed by Paul Claydon
In this peach of a book official Newcastle
club historian Paul Joannou traces the development of St James’ Park from a hangman’s site to
the splendid 52,000-seat stadium that it is today. It is packed with some wonderful old photographs, illustrations and maps. Check out for example the city centre map of 1788 showing Gallowgate and the site of where the ground would be, the early postcard of a packed ground for a
match against Sunderland and an old match card for a game in 1892. Paul covers the complete
history of the development of the ground and provides excellent photographs of various stages
before, during and after building work. Several previous grand schemes are recounted along
with illustrations and scale models of what St James’ might have been. The most recent of these
was the plan a couple of years back to relocate the club to a new stadium on nearby Castle
Leazes and this is retold along with salient illustrations of the plans and the proposed site. Now
for the best bit! The final two chapters of the book concentrate on the gigantic newly built Milburn and Leazes stands which were opened at the start of the current season. There are some
spectacular photographs from all conceivable angles including four aerial views, one from each
direction. Tough not on the same level as the Inglis classic - Villa Park 100 Years - this book is a
superb record of an historic and now totally awesome football venue and simply is a ‘must have’.
As a special offer to our readers, this book is available for £11.99 POST FREE \