Leith Athletic's Grounds

[Boris57]

I've been researching the history of Leith Athletic (1887 to 1957) for the last few years & I've been able to trace the locations of all the old grounds they played at in a nomadic existence except one. I've traced Hawkhill Recreation Grounds (1887), Bank Park (1889), Beechwood Park (1894), Logie Green (1901), Chancelot Park (1921), Wardie Park (1922), Powderhall (1926), Marine Gardens (1928), Old Meadowbank (1936), New Meadowbank (1946). The year in brackets is the first year they played there but with some grounds they played there more than once. They also played a few home matches at the Royal Gymnasium, Bathgate Park & Easter Road.

The one ground I have been unable to trace is Hawthorn's Recreation Ground where they played a few matches at the start of the 1921/22 season in their Western League days. All I know from little snippets in math reports is that it was in the Wardie/Granton area. I suspect it may have been an old name for a park possibly known by another name - possibly an old name for Wardie Park which seems to have been on 2 slightly different footprints.

I'm planning some further detailed research at the NLS Map facility in Edinburgh but if anybody with a knowledge of old Edinburgh grounds has any information it would be gratefully received.

[Sat31March1928]

From David Speed

Sorry I do not know the exact site, but the ground belonged to Leith Hawthorn, a club sponsored by Hawthorn & Company, marine engineers and shipbuilders, which was based from at least 1881 at Sheriff Brae and then West Pier, Granton, and finally Western Harbour until taken over by Henry Robb & Co in 1924.

[Boris57]

From David Speed

Sorry I do not know the exact site, but the ground belonged to Leith Hawthorn, a club sponsored by Hawthorn & Company, marine engineers and shipbuilders, which was based from at least 1881 at Sheriff Brae and then West Pier, Granton, and finally Western Harbour until taken over by Henry Robb & Co in 1924.

Thanks for this David - very useful little nugget of information that confirms a train of thought I had. I did wonder if there was a connection between the famous Hawthorn Engineering company who as you say became Henry Robb & on that basis I did look on maps for the time around their work sites. Looks like it could be a solid line of investigation & I'll see if I can trace any company records of assets which might still exist in the City archives.

[bluedragon]

Ordnance Survey maps of 1896 show a "cricket ground" in Wardie bordered by Wardie Road, Rosebank Road and Afton Terrace but not stretching as far as Granton Road. That might help?

[Boris57]

Ordnance Survey maps of 1896 show a "cricket ground" in Wardie bordered by Wardie Road, Rosebank Road and Afton Terrace but not stretching as far as Granton Road. That might help?

I'm pretty sure the ground was in this general area but the difficulty in establishing exactly where it was located is that in their non-league days Leith Athletic probably had crowds of no more than a few hundred for most games & the park was probably little more than a roped/fenced pitch. The other factor is that this area of the city was mainly fields/open land up until developments starting in the 1920's.

[ScottishFA]

It is also worth having a look at the Scotland aerial photos archive, many of which were taken between the wars: http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/worldwide/Scotland.php Just search for Leith!

[RobertB]

Apologies for the size of the link, but this is genius as you can overlay
modern google and historic maps.

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16 ... FFFFFFFFFF