Birch Lane
| Location | Bradford |
|---|---|
| Record attendance | 10,807 for Bradford Northern v Dewsbury, 16 February 1924 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | Before 1886 |
| Renovated | 1929 |
| Expanded | 1908, 1913 |
| Closed | After 1934 |
| Tenants | |
|
Bradford Northern Bradford F.C. |
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Birch Lane was a rugby league ground in Bradford, England. It was the first long term home of Bradford Northern Rugby League Football Club, who played there for 26 years from 1908 to 1934 before moving to Odsal Stadium. For a short while it was also home to Bradford F.C. in their first incarnation as a football club. Birch Lane was described as "notorious" and a "poverty-stricken place" and was never popular either with Northern or Bradford F.C. for the short period they were there.
There is also a cricket ground at Birch Lane which adjoins the site of the rugby ground, home to Bowling Old Lane Cricket Club. This predates the rugby ground and continues in existence to this day.
The four acre field at Birch Lane which was to become the rugby and football ground was originally leased by the Bowling Old Lane Cricket Club. The plot, which adjoined the cricket ground, was taken on at the start of the 1886/87 season as a home for their counterpart rugby club.
Bradford F.C., the city's senior association football team at the time, spent a season at Birch Lane in 1898/99, when it was banished from its home at Park Avenue. At that time, the ground was generally referred to as Bowling Old Lane. The arrangement did not last. Birch Lane had poor transport connections and no shelter for supporters. Bradford played their last game at Birch Lane on 8 April 1899 when they beat Hunslet 2–1. In 1906, the Bowling Old Lane rugby club switched over to soccer.
Bradford Northern first approached the club to rent the ground shortly after their formation in 1907. However, the offer of £50 rent was refused at an AGM on 31 May of that year and the club based itself at Greenfield Athletic Ground instead. The following year, the Bowling Old Lane club relented and offered the field to Northern at a rent of £30. Despite having spent £302 on ground improvements at Greenfield, Northern accepted and approved the move at their AGM of June 1908.
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