Mid 1880's, pin points to roughly where our center circle now is.......
[IMG][/IMG]
Looks like Meadow Lane ran between around 15-20 fields, none of it built up, just a country road to connect Sneinton with the Meadows. Chances are, if Rangers played somewhere off that road, it wouldn't have been where Notts play now, although I'd guess the fields at either end of the road would have been the more likely to have been made into some sort of park for locals use whilst the fields either side of the railway line were more wild.
Mid 1880's, pin points to roughly where our center circle now is.......
[IMG][/IMG]
Could this area literally across the road from our 1910 on ground be a candidate? Anyone know what it was? This picture is from 1927
Interesting?
Notts County Rovers?
Notts Olympic?
http://fchd.info/indexn.htm
This report in the Derby Daily Telegraph of 21st April 1890 is of the last Midland League game played by Notts Rangers and clearly states “played at the Meadow-lane Ground, Nottingham.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t help us pinpoint where the ground actually was.
In February 1890 Notts Rangers were suspended for a month by the Midland League for playing a Notts County player under an assumed name!
Notts Rangers only completed 15 of the scheduled 20 fixtures for the season and were expelled from the league at the Midland League’s Annual Meeting in May 1890 for “not carrying out their fixtures duly and properly.”
On 31st May 1890 the Nottingham Evening Post reported “We regret to hear that Notts Rangers have ceased to exist as a club, and that the annals of the game will know them no more.”
It's only 20 years before we moved there. Had the ground been in the same place, or even right next to it, people would have known that another club played there first and I'm sure the fact would have been passed on by word of mouth and eventually written down somewhere. For that reason I reckon the Rangers 'ground' was more likely to have been at the northern end of the road on the edge of Sneinton. If it had no stands, which it probably didn't, there's no reason why it would appear on any map.
For those interested in the football grounds of both Nottingham teams, have a look at this book, complete with history, maps and illustrations:
'Football League Grounds For a Change' by Dave Twydell.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Football-Le...rds=0951332147
I agree.
When Notts decided on the location of their new ground in 1910, it was described as "a piece of Corporation waste land that lay off London Road between Meadow Lane and the Cattle Market, which served as a snow-tip in wintry weather."
Surely if it was the same place, it would have been described as "Notts Rangers old ground", especially as Notts had connections with the defunct club.
Apart from one of the Magpies players being partly responsible for the demise of the Rangers, Notts signed several players from them including two England internationals and members of Notts' cup winning team - goalkeeper George Toone and left-half Alfred Shelton.