SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Since 1963 some of my best days out were at Elland Road. Is there anyone out there still alive that remembers the pitch being parrallel to elland road???...it was changed more than once until its present layout was decided on in the mid 1920`s....this picture is from 1923 and shows clearly the roof of the old peacock and the garage building next door on elland road with the touch line parallel . Can anyone give dates as to when these changes occurred?? i think the final position was settled with the building of the scratchin shed (aaaah the scratchin shed)

I dont believe this is Elland Road at all. I understand the 'Scratching Shed' (which I do remember, and have stood in) was built by Leeds City F.C. c1905 as their main stand and they changed the pitch alignment c 1906 - 07. If this photo is from 1923, which I dont doubt, the stand in the background would have to be the shed - which it patently isn't. The roof line of the bulidings doesnt match the Old Peacock and 'United Garage' either.

Oh, and lastly the game would be being played north-south (i.e away from the shed not along side it)

The building you can see IS definately the old peacock, its the old one way before the present building, i have other pictures from the Leeds Mercury proving this. The pitch footprint was changed back and forth more than once and this was facilitated by the purchase of land from Doncasters Monkbridge, the stand that was built in 1905 was in fact the WEST stand, this structure was burned down in september 1956 along with all of the clubs records etc. The pitch orientation was finally decided on in the 1920s when a continuous concrete wall was built around the pitch replacing the old adjustable picket fence and it was then that the SHED was added with a barrel roof to match the double barrel of the west stand. The picture above was taken on the 21st April 1924 during the Leeds v Stockport game with a crowd of 22,145 witnessing United gain promotion to the 1st division. We won the game 4-0.

The pic above shows the "POP" side or Lowfields road terrace before the roof was added, This was taken during the 1926/27 during the match with Aston Villa, we were relagated that season. The final position of the pitch must have been decided on between the end of the 23/24 season and the beging of the 26/27 season.

Thanks for this info Loinerpete - I stand corrected! (no pun intended) the info I had is mainly from Mike Green's study 'Football in Leeds' (published in 1993 covering Rugby as well as football. He states that the pitch alignment was changed in 1906 and certainly implies that was the one and only time it was changed. Obviously he was mistaken and your knowledge of the ground is better than his, and mine. It does seem surprising that they should change it; one can see the logic of changing it in 1906, but why change it back again (at least once)?? very strange!

My Late uncle remembered those days, when i was a kid he told me that during the Leeds city days the pitch was always terrible. Because of the space that the club had it was decided to try different orientations to get the best of sunlight. The picket fence was just moved around, he told me that he remembers going to a game where the pitch was touch tight to elland road longways and there was a big space at the other side where he and the other kids were allowed to sit crosslegged on the grass, and there was an ice cream barrow going back and forth....i wish i could have seen it back then!!!!...i am trying to get exact dates because i want a definitive history of our ground. There are a few slightly misleading ones around and sadly living memory is proving difficult, i wish i had taken more notice as a kid. If you do the stadium tour they tell you about the pitch moving back and forth more than once, i just wish i had the exact dates.

I hope you can use this website to tap into some living memories & get some answers!

oh dear.. boys and football. Would rather have an F1 car any day, but would need to be able to drive.

Why do you assume I'm a 'boy' ???