Cover Story : Dorchester Cherries
Dean Court - The Changing Face
O
ver at
the site
o
f
Dean
Court our visit
met with the site
of a huge construction in early
July. All traces of
the former ground
had been bulldozed except for the corner floodlights and pylons which were lying forlornly in the rubble. The only
indication of the shape of the original Dean Court was by the rear wall of the Brighton Beach End.
The new main stand was well under construction and ran the full length of what had once been the
South End. The ground had been rotated a full 90 degrees from its previous alignment and work
was also progressing on the seeding of the new pitch. None of the other three sides had started to
take shape at this stage although work
began soon afterwards on the new
North Stand. Once two stands are finished the ground will re-open for business and work on the third new side will
continue. Plans for an eventual fourth
side are in hand but commencement of
work is dependant on finances being
available. At the time of writing, the club The plans and the reality. The illustration above
shows the original plan for the rebuild and the
hoped that football would return to Dean
Court by October with an interim capac- photo below the new stand being built (July 2001)
ity around the 6000 mark.
The stadium is set in a large recreational area known as Kings Park and
other facilities in the vicinity include
tennis, hockey, cricket and an athletics
stadium (which also boasts a large
stand just on the other side of the park).
Initial reports indicated that the rebuilt
stadium could be renamed ‘Kings Park’
but this now seems in doubt as all at6
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