Torquay United moved into Plainmoor in 1910, the ground was formerly the home of the rugby club but it has remained Torquays home ground to this day.
The football ground has had a fairly uneventfull history until 1985, when just days after the tragic events at Bradford, the Plainmoor ground was also badly damaged by fire meaning for a few years afterwards facilities at the ground were very poor with portacabins being used as dressing rooms.
Apparently there is an ancient byelaw which allows anyone to walk across the pitch whenever they want, be intersting to see if this byelaw prevented you getting a football banning order if you tried it during a game !!
The picture below was taken from a 1970s Football Review magazine and shows the ground as it used to look.
The text on the picture reads as follows;
“Torquay Uniteds Plainmoor Ground has a capacity set at 20,000 with seating for 1,345. The record attendance for the ground is 21,908 v Huddersfield Town in an FA Cup fourth round game in January 1955. The playing surface measures 112 yards by 74 yards. Inset: Torquay United manager Malcolm Musgrove.”
The picture above is available for sale (along with loads more Torquay football memorabilia) on our main site Footybits, a link to which is at the top of this page.
I have also found an absolutely stunning piece of old film footage on Google that shows the old Plainmoor ground as it used to be in the 1970s.
Older fans will find this brings back some great (and not so great) memories while younger fans who never experienced what these football grounds used to be like might just get a feel for why us “older” fans go on about the “good old days” !!