Lidgett Green Rugby Stadium, Dracup Avenue, Bradford BD7 2RJ
The Lidgett Green stadium as it was known, was constructed in 1919, and became the home of the Bradford Rugby Union Club. The venue’s claim to fame was during 1954, when it became host to a fixture between the New Zealand touring side, and a select team. But this fixture almost never came about due to the morning frost that arrived made the pitch virtually unplayable. Yet efforts made by the groundstaff to spread salt and roll the pitch with a steam roller paid off, as it was the only sports fixture in England to be played. More pleasing was the record 20,000 crowd, who made the effort to attend the match.
The ground closed during 1982, having seen the rugby club form up with the nearby Bingley Rugby Club. But it was during June 1969 before Greyhound Racing was to play a part at Lidget Green, three months after Bradford’s Greenfield track had closed on the opposite side of the city.
The venue hosted just a handful of meetings, staging them under a temporary license, on a track marked out around the perimeter of the rugby pitch. Planning permission for further meetings were applied for during 1981, but disappointingly was rejected by the council.
After the venues closure in 1982, the ground was demolished, yet the pitch, the main stands concrete base and some terracing remained, and became a part of a new sports complex that was erected next door. By the beginning of the millennium the sport complex too had become abandoned before it was demolished in 2011, to make way for new housing.
The site of the old Lidget Green ground lies north of Dracup Avenue, which is roughly two miles east of Bradford city centre.
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