Field Mill

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Field Mill
The Mill
[[Image:Image:Mansfield-03.JPEG]]
Full name	Field Mill Stadium
Location
Built	1861
Opened
Owner
Tenants	Mansfield Town F.C.
Capacity	10,000
Field dimensions	114 x 70 yards

Field Mill is a multi-use stadium in Mansfield, England. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of Mansfield Town F.C.. The stadium holds 10,000.

[edit] History

Football has been played on the Field Mill site since 1861, making it one of the oldest football grounds in the country. Mansfield Town F.C. first started playing matches there in the 1919–20 season. The ground saw it first league football in 1933 following Mansfield's election to the football league.

The first grandstand was erected in 1922 along the length of the west side of the ground. The other three sides were initially mounds formed from pit ash. In 1929 a covered stand was built on the Bishop Street side and occupied a similar position to the Bishop Street Stand of today.

Concrete terracing was built in 1947 and in 1957 a stand on the North Side was added.

In the 1960s a new grandstand was purchased, for the west side, from Hurst Park Racecourse in Surrey. The cost was £30,000, however the final amount spent was considerably more than this once the cost of transportation and reconstruction had been taken into account. The stand was first used in 1966 but it was not fully completed until 1971.

Work began in July 1999 to completely modernise Field Mill. The North Stand, Quarry Lane End and West Stand were completely demolished and new stands built in their place, including a two tier stand on the west side of the ground. The 'new' ground was officially opened by John Prescott on 28 July 2001, six months after work had been completed.

In July 2005, safety officials temporarily restricted Field Mill's capacity to 5000 when fire safety certificates could not be located.^[1] The ground's capacity was reduced again in May 2007, from 9,368 to 4,684. Nottinghamshire County Council, who enforced the reduction, cited a poor standard of stewarding and a lack of a pro-active approach to safety.^[2] In July the capacity was raised to 6,553 following an inspection from safety officials,^[3] but was reduced back to 4,684 in September after visiting Chesterfield supporters were given too many tickets by mistake.^[4] Field Mill's capacity was then increased to 5,457, and in January 2008 further increased to 7,300 for the FA Cup tie against Middlesbrough after a problem with the turnstiles and other issues were resolved.^[5]