From NORTH; Follow A682 to Town Centre and take first exit at roundabout (Gala bingo)into Yorkshire Street. Follow on under Culvert Bridge and on through traffic lights into Brunshaw road.
From EAST; Follow A646 to A671 then along Todmorden Road towards Town Centre. At second traffic lights (crossroads) turn right into Brunshaw Road.
From WEST/SOUTH; Exit M6 at M65 junction -- signed Blackburn/Burnley. Exit M65 at junction 10. Follow Town Centre/Hospital signs to roundabout in centre. Take third exit(Gala Bingo) then as North.
By Rail:Burnley Central (1/2 a mile away from ground)
Turf Moor became the home of Burnley FC only nine months after the club came into being and the Clarets have played there since February 1883. Only one other club, Preston North End, has been in continuous residence at its home for longer.
Before Burnley moved into their present home, they played matches at Calder Vale, switching to Turf Moor at the invitation of the neighbouring cricket club. The cricket and football clubs went their seperate ways many years ago, but they still operate as close and co-operative neighbours, a fact made evident during the 1990-91 season when the Gawthorpe training ground was snowbound and the footballers trained on the outfield at the cricket club.
First used for a local match against Rawtenstall in February 1883 - a game which Burnley lost 6-3 - Turf Moor has been continually improved, having started life very much as a field at the side of the cricket club.
By September 1884, a grandstand with 800 seats had sprung up and a natural mound had been added to and modified to accomodate a further 2,000 fans. At the same time an uncovered stand running along two sides of the pitch to hold 5,000 people was being built, a development obviously spurred on by the fact that an attendance of 12,000 - three times as many as attended that year's FA Cup Final - had been attracted for a local 'derby' against Padiham in March 1884.
Amongst the many allocades afforded to Turf Moor is the fact that it is believed to have been the first Football League ground ever visited by a member of the Royal Family. That was in October 1886, when Queen Victoria's son, Prince Albert, was amongst a crowd of 9,000 for a match between Burnley and Bolton Wanderers.
The Royal trip to Burnley had not been solely to watch Burnley, for Prince Albert was in town to open a hospital named after his mother. But the 'royal seal of approval' was of double benefit to the club - many people paid an extra guinea just to sit near the Royal party, and for some time afterwards Burnley were nicknamed throughout the football world as the Royalties.
Hectic scheduling meant that the Prince and his party could only watch the first half of the game. Burnley trailed 3-1 at that stage and were finally beaten 4-3 by the Trotters.
Whilst the new century may have dawned without too many changes at Turf Moor, by 1908 two sides of the ground were covered and the Brunshaw Road Stand and the Star Stand had emerged.
The Brunshaw Road Stand remained for many years but the Star Stand, which eventually made way for the Longside Terrace, was subject of many changes and was even moved back at one stage so that an enclosure could be made in front of it for the visit of Manchester United for an FA Cup tie.
Before League football was suspended due to World War One, interest in soccer had become so intense that crowds at Turf Moor were already nudging the 50,000 mark - incedibly, equivalent to the town's population at the time - and considerable improvements were made during that period.
Football fever soon gripped the land again after the war and when Huddersfield Town visited Burnley in February 1924 for an FA Cup tie, the turnstiles were at their busiest. A crowd of 54,755 watched Burnley triumph 1-0 (one man is reported to have died in the crush) and that figure stands as a record to this day.
Two years before that, on 25 March 1922, Huddersfield had met with greater success when Turf Moor was the venue for an FA Cup semi-final. They met Notts County in front of a crowd of 46,323, and won 3-1 and went on to beat Preston North End in the Cup Final at Stamford Bridge.
The year 1927 saw the only full international at Turf Moor. Burnley players Louis Page and Jack Hill were drafted into the England side to try to boost local support. Another in that England line-up for the Turf Moor clash with Wales was George Brown. At the time he was a Huddersfield Town player, but later in his career he became a Claret and scored 24 goals in 35 first team games.
Despite so much 'local knowledge' in the England team, the home side were beaten 2-1. Jack Hill scored an own goal and Turf Moor was never again chosen as the stage of a senior international.
Things did not change very much between the wars but not long after World War Two, the Star Stand had been replaced by the terrace just previously known as the Longside and in 1954 the club invested £20,000 on a new roof.
Three years later, floodlights followed, officially switched on for a friendly against local rivals, Blackburn Rovers. Those floodlights lasted for 18 years and were replaced at a cost of £30,000 in the mid-1970s. The new lights were first used for a Lancashire schoolboys match in February 1975.
Just before that, a new pitch was laid at Turf Moor. Experts in the shape of Cambridge Soil Services Limited were called in to lay a new playing surface in the 1974 close season. The new surface was slightly higher than the old one and eliminated all trace of the slope which once caused problems for players. The new pitch was laid on top of a 'state of the art'drainage system designed to keep water off the playing area at all times.
Heralded as a playing surface to rival even Wembley, the new soil and grass did not do the trick for Burnley. The first time they played on it they were beaten 2-1 by Wolves, and within two seasons they were out of the First Division.
Continued on monday
