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1885: Hyde Football Club form and play on a field close to the Bankfield Hotel, which may well have been where Ewen Fields is today.
1898: Hyde FC move to Townend Street and the club set up a headquarters at the Gardeners Arms.
1906: Hyde FC merge with Hyde St George’s and play once again at Ewen Fields.
1917: The club fold in the midst of the first world war, with Ewen Fields becoming a vegetable patch.
1919: With the first world war over, Ewen Fields is earmarked for housing. A new club, Hyde United, form and play at Townend Street.
1920: The housing plans for Ewen Fields come to nothing and Hyde United move into Ewen Fields. Dressing rooms and offices are soon put in place.
1922: Tons of ash is spread around the pitch to make it less muddy. Not long afterwards the first stand is erected on the Walker Lane side of the ground.
1928: Another stand is built with a capacity of 400 and at a cost of £575.
1930: Railway sleepers are put down for terracing and the Mottram Road end is banked, bringing the estimated capacity to 10,000.
1950s: 2 covered areas are erected at the Tinker’s Passage end.
1952: 7,600 spectators watch Hyde United play Nelson at Ewen Fields – still a record attendance to this day.
1966: A new social club is built.
1968: A game against Manchester City officially opens the new £4,000 floodlights.
1986: The supporters’ club sell Ewen Fields to Tameside Council who convert the stadium into a sport and leisure facility for the whole community and install artificial turf. The ground sees major improvements – the old wooden main stand is replaced and terracing is built on the Leigh Street side.
Photo: Hyde Cheshire blog
1989: Ewen Fields hosts Manchester Spartans’ American football matches during a surge of popularity for the game in the UK.
Photo: Peter Moore
1994: Hyde host Darlington at Ewen Fields in first round of the FA Cup, the last match in non-qualifying rounds of the competition to be played on artificial turf.
1995: The artificial turf is replaced by grass.
2000: The main stand is extended to increase the capacity in order to meet Conference ground grading criteria. The extension includes new changing rooms and the new Peter O’Brien sponsors’ lounge.
2010: The ground undergoes a complete makeover as part of a partnership with Manchester City, which sees the Premier League club paint the ground blue and refurbish many of its aging facilities. The club also change their name to Hyde FC as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations.
2010: Just 72 spectators watch Hyde play Oldham Borough in a Manchester Premier Cup tie at Ewen Fields, one of the stadium’s lowest attendances in modern times.
2011: FC Barcelona’s world-famous youth team visit Ewen Fields for a NextGen Series fixture against Manchester City.
2011: 1,868 spectators watch the traditional Boxing Day fixture against Stalybridge Celtic, Hyde’s biggest attendance since 1996.
Trivia
- A rugby league Super League fixture between Oldham Bears and Sheffield Eagles was held at Ewen Fields in 1997.
- World Cup, European Championships, UEFA Champions League, Premier League and La Liga winner Gerard Piqué is one of the most decorated players to have played at Ewen Fields, where he regularly represented Manchester United reserves.
- Carlos Tevez, Craig Bellamy, Wayne Bridge, Michael Carrick, Robbie Fowler, Shay Given, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Robbie Keane, Harry Kewell, Steve McManaman, Gary Neville, Paul Robinson, Chris Waddle and Shaun Wright-Phillips are among the dozens of other big name players to have played at Ewen Fields.
