The Polam Lane End.

Also around this time the Town End terrace (later known as the ‘Tin Shed’) was built which allowed fans to change ends at half time so they could always stand behind the goal towards which Darlington were attacking.

The ‘Tin Shed’ in all it’s glory.

One of the more unusual features of the ground were the Twin Towers above the main entrance to the stadium which were built in 1913. Similar to the more famous Twin Towers at Wembley they became a popular feature of the ground and still remain to this day at the entrance to the cricket ground.

The ‘Twin Towers’ entrance to Feethams.

Another unusual aspect of the stadium was that fans had to walk around the cricket pitch to get to the ground which made it a far from an idea place to visit in bad weather causing many complaints from disgruntled away fans.

Walking past the cricket pitch was the only way into the stadium.

In 1920 the club were elected as founder members of the Football League Division Three North and as a result they built offices and changing rooms under the East Stand as well as putting a roof on the stand. However these were the last major improvements made to the stadium until the late 1950’s when the Supporters Club then raised £20,000 for a roof to be built at the Town End of the ground and for floodlights to be erected.

These were first used on 19th September 1960 although disaster struck that night when an electrical fault saw the West Stand burnt down and while no one was seriously injured the club had to rebuild the stand exactly as it was before due to problems with the insurance.

The rebuilt West Stand.

The ground enjoyed it’s heyday in the 1960’s as a record crowd of 21,023 squeezed into the stadium for a League Cup tie against Bolton Wanderers in November 1960, while another 20,000 were in attendance for the visit of Arsenal in the FA Cup five years later.

No further improvements were made to the ground until it was decided to rebuild the East Stand in 1997. The new all seater stand gave the ground a far more modern look but the cost of the work crippled the club financially and they were only saved by local businessman George Reynolds who finally took over as chairman in 2000.

The new East Stand built in 1997.

One of his first decisions was to start construction of an ambitious new 25,000 capacity stadium on the edge of the town and this marked the beginning of the end for Feethams.

Despite most fans being against the move, fearing financial meltdown for the club, the new stadium was built and opened in the summer of 2003 at a cost of £27million. The aim was to use the stadium for other sporting events and pop concerts but the local Council put a stop to that and an Elton John concert in June 2008 has so far been the only other event held there.

The last match played at Feethams was against Leyton Orient in May 2003 and in front of a capacity crowd of 8,000 the team fought back from 0-2 down to grab a 2-2 draw and give the famous old stadium a fitting send off.

The fans get a final taste of the Feethams experience in May 2003.

The site then stood derelict until February 2006 when it was finally demolished after an arson attack and it could now become a housing estate after the project was finally given the go-ahead by Darlington Council in November 2009 after many years of delays.

The only part of the ground remaining to remind visitors that a football club once played there is the ‘Tin Shed’ stand which is still used by the cricket club as a sightscreen, despite talk of it being moved to Redcar Greyhound Stadium.

The Feethams site as it looks now with the ‘Tin Shed’ stand still in evidence.

Away from football Feethams was also the venue for Durham County Cricket Club’s first ever home win in the County Championship against Somerset in June 1992. That match also saw the biggest ever sightscreen in first class cricket when the rear of the ‘Tin Shed’ was painted light blue to give the batsmen a better view of the ball.

Unfortunately the move to the Darlington Arena, currently sponsored by The Northern Echo, has not been good for the club. With capacity limited to 10,000 for safety reasons and an average gate that has dropped from 4,000 at Feethams to less then 2,000 now the clubs financial problems have mounted and they find themselves on the brink of relegation out of the League for the first time since 1989.

With the very future of the club hanging in the balance fans are now campaigning for them to sell the new stadium, rebuild the site at Feethams and move back to their old home so maybe we have not seen the end of this famous old stadium after all…