Theobalds Lane

The original Cheshunt Football Club played at the Recreation Ground on Albury Ride, a ground owned by Cheshunt Cricket Club. The modern club initially played at the Gothic sports ground, before moving to College Road for their second season. In 1949 they moved to the Cheshunt Stadium on Theobalds Lane. Originally a gravel pit, by the 1930s the site had become the local rubbish tip, but between February and October 1949, it was cleared, levelled and a pitch was laid. Two Nissen huts were assembled, where the main gates are today, for changing rooms (with no power, telephone line or hot water), leaving the players with a long walk uphill to the pitch. The ground was opened on 29 October 1949, with the club recording their record home win (11–1 against Hastings United) in the ground's first fixture. Drainage problems forced the club to abandon the stadium before the 1949–50 season had ended and move to a new ground on Brookfield Lane. However, they returned to the Cheshunt Stadium in 1952–53 but again left after a season, due to the poor playing surface, to return to Brookfield Lane though this time as the tenants of Tottenham Hotspur, who were using it as their training ground. At the end of the 1957–58 season Cheshunt were asked to leave and so returned to the Cheshunt Stadium. Chairman Les Noble and vice-chair Frank Davis moved quickly to secure a 21-year lease on the stadium (which was about to be used by a new club, Waltham Cross FC) and spent £2,500 getting bulldozers in to level space for the present stand and Clubhouse (then the changing rooms too) to be built and clearing the banking to make way for a running track around the pitch (which was removed in the 1980s). The clubhouse and pitch were ready for the opening game of the 1957–58 season against Wingate. A year later the main stand was built by the groundsman Albert Prior, his son Maurice and chairman Frank Davis in their spare time. It held 400 spectators on bench seats and had a door in the centre to the changing rooms. A covered terrace was built on the other side of the pitch in 1963, although located 20 yards back from the pitch. Floodlights came in 1964, the current function hall three years later. In 1977 the current changing rooms were built, enabling the conversion of the old changing rooms to the clubhouse. In 1982 proper seating was installed for the first time, with the oak seats in the directors box were taken from White Hart Lane's old west stand (which was being demolished) and the plywood seating to the north end of the stand was taken from the relatively new north-west corner of White Hart Lane. In the 2002–03 season, the section of terracing south of the main stand was covered and named in honour of defender Kirtis Townsend who had died whilst travelling to an away game the previous season and seats originally from the East Stand at Stamford Bridge were installed on the covered terrace. The main stand, the Kirtis Townsend stand and the floodlights were all replaced in the summer of 2015. A new main stand seating 250 was built on the halfway line closer to the touchline while two small covered standing areas were positioned behind each goal.