Crabble Athletic Ground
The view towards the Town End in 2009
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| Full name | Crabble Athletic Ground |
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| Location | River, England |
| Owner | Dover District Council |
| Operator | Dover Athletic F.C. |
| Capacity | 5,745 (1,010 seats) |
| Field size | Unknown |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1931 |
| Opened | 1931 |
| Tenants | |
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Dover United F.C. (1931–1933) Dover F.C. (1934–1947) Dover F.C. (1947–1983) Dover Athletic F.C. (1983–present) Margate F.C. (2002–2004) |
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The Crabble Athletic Ground, also known as The Crabble or simply Crabble, is a football stadium located in the northern Dover suburb of River, Kent, England. It was the home of the various incarnations of Dover F.C. from 1931 until the club folded in 1983. Since then it has been the home of Dover Athletic F.C., and it was also the temporary home of Margate F.C. between 2002 and 2004, when the club's Hartsdown Park stadium was being redeveloped. The stadium has two seated stands and two covered terraces and holds a total of 5,745 fans (including 1,010 seats and 3,642 covered terracing), although in the past, crowds larger than that figure could be accommodated. It also has a clubhouse, which the club completely redeveloped in 2008.
In 1896, a syndicate of local businessmen began a project to create a sports complex at the site known as Crabble Meadows on the outskirts of Dover. The word Crabble, which is also found in the name of a local corn mill, derives from the Old English crabba hol, meaning a hole in which crabs are found. The project was an extremely costly one but was completed in 1897, and football was first played on the Crabble site in the same year. In 1902, the original owners of the site, beset by financial problems, contemplated selling the land for redevelopment but eventually sold the site to the town council for £5,500. The pitch was shared by the town's cricket and football teams, with the cricketers being given priority, which meant that the football team was forced to begin and end its season either with a long run of consecutive away matches or by playing matches at other, less satisfactory, venues in the town. To resolve the issue, the council opted to lay out a new football pitch further up the hillside, behind the lower pitch's pavilion. The first match played on the "upper pitch" took place in September 1931, with a small stand being constructed the following year. The football club then used the upper pitch whenever the lower pitch was unavailable due to cricket commitments.
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