Previous Grounds

Arrol Park - 1897 to 1903:

The club’s first home ground was Arrol Park, which had been the home ground of the now defunct St. Mungos’s, where our new Vice President P.J. Lavery had been Match Secretary. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, no pictures of Arrol Park survive. The ground was situated south of Petershill Road opposite Foresthall, on the east side of the railway line coming out of Barnhill station.

Atlas Park - 1903 to 1915:

Atlas Park was opened on September 26th 1903 with Perthshire the visitors in the First Round of the Scottish Junior Cup. An article in the Evening Times the following Saturday (3rd October) stated:

“The opening of Atlas Park last Saturday marks an epoch in football history in the northern district of the city. The Petershill Football Club at one time occupied a rather obscure position and last Saturday’s success is a tribute to their perseverance and energy. Atlas Park ranks as the finest junior enclosure in the city and I believe the Petershill Committee comtemplate still further improvements as time goes on.”

Atlas Park took it’s name from the Atlas Works of the North British Locomotive Works, which was right next door. Ultimately the location would lead to us having to move again, as the land that the ground sat on was used to build a munitions factory during the First World War.

This meant we had to leave in the summer of 1915, and as Hawthorn Park wasn’t ready we had to play at various grounds in the next few seasons.

Hawthorn Park - 1919 to 1934:

 After several delays, Hawthorn Park was finally ready to move into in early 1919, and was officially opened on Saturday 29th March with Bellshill Athletic the visitors. Everything considered, the “gate” was quite good, totalling £26. The ground was located on Hawthorn Street at Memel Street. In the picture below the tenement building on the left is still there, although the rest of the background has changed significantly with the Carron scheme and flats being the most obvious addition. Due to housing developments, Petershill had to leave Hawthorn Park in 1934. As Petershill Park was still not ready we had to play our home games in 1934-35 at Cathkin Park, home of Third Lanark.

Petershill Park - 1935 to 2005:

The Park was opened on Tuesday 20th August 1935 by Alexander B. Swan, the Lord Provost before an enthusiastic crowd of 20,000. The Lord Provost paid tribute to the club officials and the large band of volunteers who took part in the construction of the ground and pavilion. He then opened the pavilion door with a gold key presented to him by President George Henry.

“The spacious playing field, well graded terracing, modern dressing rooms, palatial upper hall for social gatherings, fine press box, and covered pavilion verandah with seats for 200 are all a credit to the designer Mr. Hutchison and the club.”  Mr. Maley the Celtic manager, said it all in one word “wonderful”, while Rangers manager Mr. Struth was also full of praise. Rangers and Celtic then played an exhibition match, with Rangers winning 3-1.

The volunteers apply the finishing touches (left) and the Old Firm teams from the opening match (above).

 The covered enclosure was opened in August 1954 with another Old Firm exhibiton match, this time ending in a 1-1 draw. The record attendance had been set back in 1951, when some 19,600 had squeezed in to watch the Scottish Junior Cup Quarter Final against Bo’ness United. At least, that was the official crowd, many older fans still talk of getting a “lift over”. The ground would continue to be one of the best in the grade for many years, both in terms of facilities and the quality of the playing surface. Unfortunately, as we entered the new millenium the ground was falling into a state of disrepair, and the costs required to maintain a ground which was now far bigger than what we needed were very prohibitive. The decision was taken to look for funding for ground improvements, and ultimately would lead to us moving out of Petershill Park in 2005 as work commenced on the new ground. Just as happened back in WWI, we played most of our matches at Ashfield, although we used several other grounds while we were rendered homeless.

New Petershill Park - 2007 onwards.

After some slight delays, we moved into New Petershill Park in the summer of 2007. Our first competitive match came on Saturday 1st September 2007, when we hosted Neilston in a Super Premier Division match. Petershill won 3-0 with goals from James Coulter and a double from Max Asante.

The official opening was marked a few weeks later when Scotland took on the Republic of Ireland in an international challenge match on Saturday 22nd September. Petershill’s Ryan Jordan was in the Scotland side and put in a man of the match performance.