Owned by the Corporation, Portman Road took its name from the ancient office of Portman in the Borough of Ipswich and was first used by the football team in 1884. The soccer club, which was formed in 1878, chose the name Ipswich AFC, and the rugby club were known as Ipswich FC. In September 1888, the AFC and FC amalgamated under the new title of Ipswich Town and for the next nineteen years played on what is now the training pitch behind the Britannia Stand. Then it was a cricket pitch, used in summer by the east Suffolk Cricket Club.
Although there was little in the way of ground improvements, Town were one of the first to use goal nets in 1890. Three sides of the ground were bordered by fields and trees and the fourth was overshadowed by the construction, in 1901 , of a tobacco processing plant belonging to the Churchman brothers. It was claimed that because the club were tenants, they were not allowed to build stands and instead boards were laid along the touchlines.
However, the club's pride and joy, as it is now, was the playing surface. The cricketers shared that view and to avoid damaging the cricket square it was suggested that Town might prefer their own pitch beyond the cricket boundary. However, it was a number of years before Town began planning their sideways move and although the Corporation did not object, they refused to share the costs.
It was 1905 when the Ipswich Cricket, Football and Athletics Ground Company was formed with a share capital of £ 2,000 and Town granted a twenty one year lease. There were still no barriers separating the football pitch from the cricket square but there was fencing around the ground and a wooden stand on the Portman Road side, built at a cost of £ 230.
In 1911, the roof blew off the stand in a gale. Worse damage was caused during the First World War when the army ruined the club's immaculate playing surface. When the hostilities ended, the club tried whippet racing as an extra source of income and a new groundsman Walter Wollard kept chickens, goats and sheep in the stand.
With the club still clinging on to its amateur status, Ipswich was the largest town in the country not to have a professional team. It was only in May 1936 when the club's seniority was being threatened by the proposed formation of a team to be called Ipswich United at the Suffolk Greyhound Stadium that the Town committee bowed to public demand.
However, there was still only one stand at Portman Road and all that separated the football pitch and the cricket square was a row of wooden bleachers. During the summer of 1936, iron railings were put up around the playing surface and the first bank of terracing was built up at the North End.
After the club won the Southern League Championship in 1936-37 a terrace similar to the North Stand was built at the Churchmans End, while in the East Stand Ipswich installed 650 seats purchased from Arsenal's recently demolished stand. In 1938, after only two years at professional level, the club was elected to the Football League. Extra terracing was laid and both the East and Churchmans Stands were extended after a gift of £500 from the Supporters Association. Also around this time the ground company went into liquidation and the club became tenants of the Corporation.
The Supporter's Association virtually funded every improvement at the Portman Road ground in the years after the war. In 1952, and at the cost of £ 3,000, concrete terracing replaced the wooden bleachers. Two years later they found another £ 3,000 to re-terrace the North Stand. In 1957, the association raised an astonishing £ 30,500 towards the building of a new West Stand and two years later £ 15,000 for the Portman Road floodlights.
In 1971 the East Stand was dismantled and a two tier propped cantilever construction called the Portman Stand built in its place. Two years later the Churchmans Stand was re-terraced at a cost of £ 300,000 and in 1978, after the club had won the FA Cup , executive boxes were added on to the Portman Stand paddock. The terracing in front was converted to seats and around £ 400,000 spent on safety measures following the introduction of the Safety of Sports Ground Act.
In 1982, the West Stand was extended. This involved removing the 1957 roof and adding a third tier of 4,800 seats behind, with a new cantilever roof. The project cost £ 1.4 million but the club recouped part of their outlay by naming the stand Pioneer after their sponsors. In 1990, £105,000 was spent on converting the Pioneer Stand paddock to seating and two years later both ends were converted at a cost of £ 550,000 to make Portman Road an all-seater stadium with a capacity of 22,600.
Portman Road in the mid 1980s
In 1999 further improvements were made to the Britannia Stand when more of the voids at the rear of the stand where developed to provide much needed office accommodation, a new Boardroom and a Media Centre which is the envy of most other clubs and a favourite amongst visiting members of the media. It was at this time that the Executive Boxes were built in the Britannia Stand providing first-class corporate facilities.
The stand known to generations of supporters as 'Churchmans' was totally rebuilt in 2000 and now consists of a two-tier stand providing an additional 4,000 seats. Additionally, incorporated within the new 'Greene King Stand' are 'The Legends Bar' capable of accommodating 600 supporters on match days and the 'Galleria' restaurant which can provide 180 covers and is now regarded as a major venue in Ipswich on non-match days.
The following year saw the demolition of the North Stand which, strangely, did not stand square to the pitch. For most of the season this end of the ground was devoid of fans and there have been assertions that the lack of the 'North Stand Roar' was partially responsible for our relegation from the Premiership at the end of that season. With another 4,000 seats added as a result of this development, Ipswich could boast an all-seater stadium of 30,300. The combined cost of these two developments was in the region of £22m.
With these facilities, together with new floodlighting and an on-site superstore, the infrastructure at Ipswich Town Football Club is one of which we can all be proud.
