Sheffield United's stadium began as a cricket ground and staged a Test
Bramall Lane opened for cricket in 1855 and became the birthplace of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, yet it is now the oldest major stadium still hosting professional football. It staged the first floodlit football match, an FA Cup Final and a single England Test, lost partly to factory smoke.
The road took its name from the Bramall family, who made files and gravers. Michael Ellison leased the land from the Duke of Norfolk for 70 pounds a year, choosing a spot then clear of the city's industrial smoke, and the ground opened on 30 April 1855 with six local cricket clubs, among them the Wednesday Cricket Club that later spawned Sheffield Wednesday. Ellison's idea of a formal county club, partly to shore up the ground's finances, produced Yorkshire County Cricket Club in 1863, and Bramall Lane stayed its headquarters until the move to Headingley in 1893.
The cricket records are rich. In 1897 Jack Brown and John Tunnicliffe opened with a stand of 378 against Sussex, still the ground record, with Brown making 311. The Australian leg spinner Clarrie Grimmett took all ten wickets for 37 in 1930, and Derbyshire's 20 all out in 1939 remains the lowest total. The only Test, against Australia in 1902, ended in defeat by 143 runs, blamed on gloomy light from factory chimneys; crowds were thin and the experiment was never repeated. Yorkshire's final match there was a draw with Lancashire in August 1973, after which the South Stand was built over the old square.
Football arrived on 29 December 1862 with a goalless charity game between Sheffield and Hallam during the cotton famine. The ground hosted the final of the Youdan Cup in 1867, the world's first football tournament, and the first match between the Sheffield and London associations in 1871, one of a series that helped unify their rules. On 14 October 1878 more than 20,000 people watched the world's first floodlit match. A week after an 1889 FA Cup semi-final drew 22,688 paying fans, the owners decided to form a home team, Sheffield United, named after the cricket club.
The record crowd of 68,287 came for an FA Cup tie against Leeds United in 1936. Today it holds 32,050, all seated, and has hosted the 1912 FA Cup Final replay, a Euro 2022 semi-final between England and Sweden, and a Bruce Springsteen concert.
Source: Bramall Lane
