Turf Moor

Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA · EN · 04/10/2026

Turf Moor is an association football stadium in Burnley, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Burnley F.C. since 1883. This unbroken service makes Turf Moor the second-longest continuously used ground in English professional football. The stadium is situated on Harry Potts Way, named after the manager who won the 1959–60 First Division with the club, and has a capacity of 21,944.

The Turf Moor site has been used for sporting activities since at least 1843, when Burnley Cricket Club moved to the area. In 1883, they invited Burnley to use a pitch adjacent to the cricket field. The first grandstand was not built until 1885, while terraces were also added to each end of the ground in the same year. Between the mid-1950s and mid-1970s, all stands were rebuilt. Turf Moor underwent further refurbishment during the 1990s, when the Longside and the Bee Hole End terraces were replaced by all-seater stands following the recommendations of the Taylor Report. The ground comprises four stands: the Bob Lord Stand, the Cricket Field Stand, the North Stand and the Jimmy McIlroy Stand.

In 1886, Turf Moor became the first football ground to be visited by a member of the Royal Family, when Prince Albert Victor attended a friendly match between Burnley and Bolton Wanderers. The first Football League match at the ground took place in October 1888; Burnley's Fred Poland scored the first league goal at the stadium. In 1922, Turf Moor hosted its only FA Cup semi-final and, in 1927, it was the venue of an international match between England and Wales. The stadium's record attendance was set in 1924, when 54,775 people attended an FA Cup third-round game between Burnley and Huddersfield Town.

History

Early years and construction

Burnley is in Lancashire in Northern England on the edge of the Pennines; its River Brun drains the moors to the east. During the Middle Ages, the Turf Moor area was one of the town's commons and the inhabitants probably cut turf here for fuel. Sport has been played at the Turf Moor site since at least 1843, when Burnley Cricket Club made it their home. Before 1840, there was a short-lived attempt to host an annual horse (turf) race. In 1878, rugby football club Burnley Rovers played a side from Bacup on the cricket field in an evening match to demonstrate electric lighting. The pitch was surrounded by only three lamps which were powered by a small engine; the experiment cost £39 (the equivalent of £ as of) but was unsuccessful as the darkness caused many spectators to leave early. In January 1883, the cricket club leased seven acres of land between the cricket field and Bee Hole Colliery to the east. The following month, they invited association football team Burnley to move from their original home at Calder Vale to the pitch adjacent to the cricket field at Turf Moor, which offered superior facilities and a more central location. The cricket club also donated £65 (the equivalent of £ as of) toward the setup costs, partly to provide its members with an organised winter sport. Burnley played their first match at Turf Moor on 17 February but lost 6–3 against Rawtenstall; according to a local newspaper, "a high wind made correct play impossible". Committee member Charles Riley subsequently appointed himself Turf Moor's first groundsman.

Attendances during the early years averaged around 2,000, although a crowd of 12,000 was at the ground in March 1884 to see Burnley play local rivals Padiham. Spectators had to congregate around the pitch or watch from the hill at the back of Turf Moor, so in 1885, the club built an 800-seater wooden grandstand along the south side of the ground, along Brunshaw Road (as it was then known), and installed uncovered standing areas (terraces) for 5,000 people at each end of the pitch. In the same year, a dispute broke out as the cricketers complained that the footballers left the shared dressing room uncleaned and did not pay toward repairs. In October 1886, Turf Moor became the first football ground to be visited by a member of the Royal Family, when Prince Albert Victor attended a friendly between Burnley and Bolton Wanderers while he was in the town to open a new hospital.

The Football League, the world's first professional league, was founded in 1888, and Burnley were one of its 12 founder members. Turf Moor hosted its first league match on 6 October, an encounter between Burnley and Bolton Wanderers. Burnley forward Fred Poland scored the first league goal at the ground after five minutes, and the home side went on to defeat Bolton 4–1. In 1889, after more disputes, Burnley separated from the cricket club and agreed to pay £77 per year (the equivalent of £ as of) to rent the stadium, and subsequently increased their ticket prices from four to six pence (the equivalent of £ as of) to the dissatisfaction of the supporters. In 1891, local rivals Burnley Union Star disbanded and vacated their ground, which included a grandstand. Burnley bought the stand and moved it to the north side of Turf Moor, where it became known as the Star Stand. Turf Moor hosted its first floodlit football match in March of the same year, between Burnley and Nelson; 16 creosote-fuelled lamps were placed on poles at intervals along the sides of the pitch. Spectators reported that while the edges of the field were sufficiently lit, there was a dark area in the centre.

The Star Stand was demolished in 1898 and replaced by a larger grandstand, which continued to be referred to as the Star Stand by the supporters. In 1903, Burnley built a second tier on the Brunshaw Road Stand to accommodate club offices, and in September of that year, the club hosted its first annual general meeting at Turf Moor. The Star Stand was extended in 1909 with new turnstiles and barricades erected in preparation for the FA Cup quarter-final game against reigning Football League champions Manchester United. In 1911, the club unveiled plans for the rebuilding of the Brunshaw Road Stand, with former Burnley forward Arthur Bell being the architect for the project. A strike amongst railway workers delayed the deliveries of steelwork for the new roof but spectators were still able to use the stand in time for Burnley's first league game of the 1911–12 season against Leeds City. Work on the dressing rooms had not been completed so players from both teams changed in the adjoining cricket pavilion. The stand cost the club £5,000 (the equivalent of £ as of) and could accommodate over 5,500 spectators, including 2,200 seated places. By this time an L-shaped embankment had been constructed, possibly with spoil from the coal mine, stretching from the eastern goal around the northeast corner to the halfway line.

Development and decline

In 1913, the Burnley directors decided to demolish the Star Stand for a second time and opted instead to expand the uncovered embankment. The Brunshaw Road Stand was also extended to run the whole length of the pitch. In 1914, a roof was constructed to cover the terracing at the Cricket Field End. The developments increased the ground's capacity to around 50,000, almost equal to the town's male population. Burnley won the FA Cup during the same year, and they were crowned First Division champions in 1920–21. During that season, the team went unbeaten in 30 consecutive league matches—at that time an English record—and won 18 consecutive games at Turf Moor. The average home attendance was more than 30,000, a then club record. In 1922, Turf Moor hosted its only FA Cup semi-final, with around 46,000 spectators watching Huddersfield Town defeat Notts County 3–1. The Football Association demanded that the pitch be lengthened to 115 yd for the match, although afterwards it was returned to its original 111 yd. That same year, Burnley bought Turf Moor for £4,500 (the equivalent of £ as of) at a Thursby Estates auction. The club also acquired the adjoining cricket ground. On 23 February 1924, Burnley beat Huddersfield 1–0 in the FA Cup third round in front of 54,775 supporters, still the record for Turf Moor. The ground hosted its only senior international fixture three years later when England played Wales. The Englishmen lost 2–1 after Burnley captain Jack Hill scored an own goal to give the visitors the win. In 1932, a hut and scoreboard were installed at the Bee Hole End embankment—named after the Bee Hole Colliery—with funds from Burnley's newly founded supporters' club.

In 1938, the club announced that a covered terrace would be built on the site of the old Star Stand. The plan was delayed by the outbreak of the Second World War, but the new Longside terrace was eventually completed in 1954. Constructed on the four-decade-old embankment, the club spent £20,000 (the equivalent of £ as of) on the roof alone. The terrace was built with help from the Burnley youth players. In 1955, Burnley became one of the first clubs to set up a purpose-built training ground, on 80 acres of farmland at Gawthorpe Hall purchased by their new chairman, Bob Lord. The club installed permanent floodlights in 1957, which were first used during a friendly against local rivals Blackburn Rovers. Around this time, terracing was added to the banking at the Bee Hole End.

Burnley won the First Division title in 1959–60, and as a result, Turf Moor hosted its first ever European Cup match on 16 November 1960; Jimmy Robson and Jimmy McIlroy scored early in the first half as Burnley recorded a 2–0 victory over French side Stade de Reims. In 1969, the Cricket Field Stand was built at a cost of £180,000 (the equivalent of £ as of) and incorporated the changing rooms, which made Turf Moor one of the few English grounds to have the players' tunnel behind one of the goals. It was the first stand to include oil-fired heating for supporters, with hot air blown through holes under the seats. The system was abandoned after two seasons due to high costs. The club also extended the open terrace at the Bee Hole End in 1970, with the aim of increasing its capacity to around 20,000.

Lord hired Cambridge Soil Services to re-lay the pitch in 1974, and to install new drainage technology and under-soil heating. Neither came into operation as Lord found them uneconomical, partly because of a major rise in oil prices. The pitch was raised, however, and the slope that had existed was minimised. Lord then replaced the Brunshaw Road Stand with a single-tier stand named after himself, which was opened in September 1974 by former prime minister Edward Heath. The Bob Lord Stand could accommodate 2,500 supporters and cost £450,000 (the equivalent of £ as of). It was partly financed by Martin Dobson's transfer to Everton, leading some fans to dub it the "Martin Dobson Stand". In 1978, Scottish club Celtic visited Turf Moor for the Anglo-Scottish Cup quarter-final first leg match. The Celtic fans rioted and hurled bottles, stones and iron railings, injuring 60 supporters. Burnley won the game 1–0 and defeated the Scots 2–1 in the return leg, securing a 3–1 aggregate victory before going on to win that season's cup final.

A drop in home attendances combined with increased debt caused a rapid decline in the team's fortunes between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. Burnley were left with little money to invest in the stadium's redevelopment and safety work. In 1992, the 17-year-old apprentice footballer Ben Lee was killed when he fell through the roof of the ageing Longside terrace as he tried to retrieve a football during training. The author Simon Inglis noted that the Longside "symbolised how far Turf Moor, once deemed to be so modern, had fallen behind".

Conversion to all-seater

Following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, in which a human crush on the terraces of the Hillsborough Stadium resulted in 97 fatalities, the Taylor Report was published. It recommended the introduction of all-seater stadiums in the top two divisions of English football by the start of 1994–95. Burnley competed in the second tier during the 1994–95 season but were relegated to the third tier at the end of the campaign. As a result of their season at the second level, Burnley were granted £2.25 million (the equivalent of £ as of) by the Football Trust in April 1995 to convert Turf Moor into an all-seater stadium, which had to be spent within 12 months. The club contracted the Lincolnshire-based Linpave company in September 1995 to build two stands in place of the Longside and the Bee Hole End terraces at a total cost of £5.2 million (the equivalent of £ as of). The last match in front of the Longside was played on 16 September—Burnley won 2–1 against Hull City. The two-tiered North Stand was built in its place and was opened in April 1996 for the visit of Bristol Rovers. It was later renamed the James Hargreaves Stand following a sponsorship agreement. A day after the North Stand had opened, demolition of the Bee Hole End started. The Jimmy McIlroy Stand, named in honour of the former Burnley player, was completed in September 1996 and took the stadium's capacity to 22,619.

Source and attribution

Adapted from “Turf Moor” by English Wikipedia contributors. Main paragraphs and sections are retained; tables, reference markers and technical markup are omitted. This is an encyclopedic adaptation, not a personal review. Original revision and contributor history ↗. Text is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗. Check current visitor access, tickets and transport with the relevant operator.