Mansfield Town played their first competitive match at Field Mill in the 1919-20 season with the ground itself being little more than a field with a small cricket pavilion. In 1921 the cricket club departed and Town erected their first stand along the west touchline. This was a low wooden structure with bench seats for 1,600. In 1928 a cover was added on the Bishop Street side and Field Mill was adapted to stage greyhound racing. In 1939 a new Bishop Street Stand was financed by the supporters club, with bench seats for 1,120 taken from the West Stand which reverted to terracing. The supporters club, in 1956, raised more funds for a cover at the North terrace and in 1959 decided to spend a further thirty thousand pounds on the steel frame of a stand bought from the recently closed Hurst Park racecourse in south London. The steelwaork, however, lay in bits for four years as the board struggled to raise the funds needed to assemble them. Eventually, the steelwork did start to rise up behind the old West Stand, but the new stand would not be partly useable until early 1966. After the old wooden stand was demolished a concrete paddock was built in its place and the new West Stand was fully completed in 1971. Following the Bradford fire tragedy, the Bishop Street stand was closed eventually re-opening as a family stand in the early 1990s. In 1991 the West Stand got a new roof and a new roof was added to the Bishop Street Stand in 1994 along with new seats to replace the 1939 bench seats. In July 1999 demolition work started on the North Stand and the Quarry Lane End. However, delays meant that construction of the new stands did not begin until April 2000. Both end stands are almost identical single tiered stands, accommodation 2,500 supporters. The West Stand was also demolished to be replaced by a two-tiered cantilevered stand seating 5,500 which was opened in February 2001. Plans are now underway to re-develop the Bishop Street Stand (as of 2001). (1)

Field Mill [NAT] (2)

Football Ground. Home to Mansfield Town F.C. since 1905, and previously owned by Mansfield Mechanics. The dominating west stand was brought from Hurst Park racecourse in South London in 1959 and erected complete - its design is paralleled only by the two stands at Highbury. (3) (4)

Some reports of the ground hosting football as early as the mid 19th century. (5)

<1> Historic England, 2021, National Record of Historic Environment (Digital archive). SNT5271.

<2> OS, 1977, 1:10000 1977 (Map). SNT999.

<3> S. Inglis, 1991?, The Football Grounds of Great Britain, p.147-148 photo (Published document). SNT6439.

<4> Simon Inglis, 1996, Football Grounds of Britain (3rd edition), pp. 242-244 (Published document). SNT6237.

<5> S. Searl, 1990, Mansfield Town: A Complete Record, 1910-90 (Published document). SNT6440.