The Manor Ground was a football stadium in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

, England, the home of Oxford United (previously known as

Headington Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston, Oxford, Marston to the north-west, Cowley, Oxfordshire, Cowley to the south, and Bar ...

United) between 1925 and 2001. It hosted United's record crowd of 22,750 against

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syst ...

in an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

6th Round match on 29 February 1964. The main seating stand was the Beech Road stand (on the west), the 'home' terracing was the London Road stand (south), the 'away' terracing was Cuckoo Lane (north) and on the fourth side was the Osler Road stand (east). In 1966, with the demolition of Sandfield College, a new entrance to the ground was created onto London Road. With the advent of the 1990s and the

Taylor Report The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry report is the report of an inquiry which was overseen by Lord Justice Taylor, into the causes of the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989, as a result of which, ...

, the Manor Ground's terracing was rapidly becoming antiquated, and it gained a reputation amongst fans as one of the more dilapidated stadiums in English professional football. The location of the Manor Ground was unsuitable for conversion into an all-seater stadium, so the club decided to move to a purpose-built all-seater stadium (later to be named the

Kassam Stadium The Kassam Stadium (also known as Grenoble Road) is the home of Oxford United Football Club, and is named after the ground's owner and former chairman of the football club, Firoz Kassam. The Kassam Stadium currently hosts League One (third t ...

) on the outskirts of the city, on land near the Blackbird Leys housing estate. Construction work began in the early part of 1997, but was suspended later that year because of the club's financial problems. Construction of the new stadium resumed in 1999 following a takeover deal and Oxford moved there in 2001. The last league match at the Manor, on 1 May 2001, was a 1–1 draw with Port Vale. Andy Scott opened the scoring after 82 minutes as the Us looked set for a final home victory, but a minute from the end

Tony Naylor Anthony Joseph Naylor (born 29 March 1967) is an English former footballer. He is best known for his spells at Port Vale and Crewe Alexandra in the 1990s. He moved to Dario Gradi's Crewe from non-league Droylsden in 1990, turning professional ...

equalised. Oxford's final season at the Manor Ground was one of the worst in their history: the club finished bottom of

Division Two NCL Division Two The NCL or National Conference League Division Two (known as the Kingstone Press NCL Division Two) League winners {, class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" , - , colspan=4 style="text-align:center;" , NCL DIVISION TWO , ...

with 27 points and were relegated to Division Three, their lowest standing in 35 years. The stadium was later demolished and is now the site of The Manor Hospital, a

private hospital A private hospital is a hospital not owned by the government, including for-profits and non-profits. Funding is by patients themselves ("self-pay"), by insurers, or by foreign embassies. Private hospitals are commonly part, albeit in varying deg ...

owned and operated by

Nuffield Health Nuffield Health is the United Kingdom's largest healthcare charity. Established in 1957 the charity operates 31 Nuffield Health Hospitals and 114 Nuffield Health Fitness & Wellbeing Centres. It is independent of the National Health Service and ...

References

External links

* Defunct football venues in England Manor Ground Defunct sports venues in Oxford Parks and open spaces in Oxford Sports venues demolished in 2001 English Football League venues Demolished sports venues in the United Kingdom {{England-sports-venue-stub