New Meadow: Shrewsbury Town
Alice Humphreys - transatracurium, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
.jpg){kind=link}
New Meadow was built as a replacement for Gay Meadow, the club’s home from 1910 until 2007. During both the building phase and the club’s first season at the new ground it was known as both Oteley Road Stadium and New Meadow. In 2008 the ground was named after the club’s new kit manufacturer, Prostar. The naming deal was supposed to last four years but in the end was abandoned after just two, with the fans asked to vote on the new name of the ground. The stipulation from the club’s new sponsor was that the name must include the word ‘Greenhous’. There have been a few sponsors since, with Croud taking the naming rights until at least 2025.
The reasons for choosing to move from Gay Meadow were numerous. Access to the ground was poor, for starters. The stadium was also located on the banks of the River Severn so it was quite prone to flooding, most notably in 1998 and 2000 when several matches were postponed after the pitch, the dressing rooms and the club’s offices were flooded. It was also felt by many fans that a new ground offered the club their best chance of staying in the Football League. It wasn’t without controversy, however, with some fans feeling it was an abandonment of the club’s history.
Stats
| New Meadow Stats | |
|---|---|
| Year Opened | 2007 |
| Capacity | 9875 |
| Average Attendance | 6361 |
| Record Attendance | 10210 (Shrewsbury v Chelsea (2014)) |
| Pitch Size | 110 x 75 (8250) |
| Nickname | New Meadow |
| Former Name | Montgomery Waters Meadow, Greenhous Meadow, New Meadow, Oteley Road Stadium, Prostar Stadium |
| Owner | Shrewsbury Town FC |
| Sponsor | Croud |
| Clubs Hosted | Shrewsbury Town |
| First Fixture | Shrewsbury Town v A-Line All Stars (14/07/2007) |
| Shrewsbury Town Stats | |
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 1886 |
| Nickname | Salop, The Blues, The Town, The Shrews |
| Club Mascot | Lenny the Lion |
| Rivals | Walsall, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Hereford United, Chester City, Port Vale |
| Previous Stadiums | Racecourse Ground, Ambler's Field, Sutton Lane, Barrack's Ground, Gay Meadow |
| Kit | Blue (Home) / Red & Blue (Away) |
| Training Ground | Sundorne Castle Training Ground |
| Shirt Sponsor | Morris Property |
| Team Owner | Roland Wycherley |
| Record Goalscorer | Arthur Rowley (152) |
| Record Appearances | Mickey Brown (482) |
New Meadow Photos
By SalopianTank01 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0]
By Leon 82 UK (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0]
New Meadow Seating Plan and Where to Sit
All four of the stands at Croud Meadow are fully seated and covered and they stand apart from each other. The Roland Wycherley East Stand, named after the current chairman, houses the hospitality suites, changing rooms and the club offices and runs along the side of the pitch. Opposite it is the Rybrook Shrewsbury West Stand which is the biggest of the four. Behind one goal is the South Stand, whilst behind the other goal is the North Stand that houses the away supporters.
Shrewsbury Town Ticket Prices
Shrewsbury Town categorise their matches, so you’ll pay more for some games than you will for others. You don’t pay more to sit in different sections of the ground, however, unless you want to sit in hospitality sections. That means that the only other thing that will alter the amount of money you have to pay for your ticket will be your age. Handy hint if you are currently serving or ex forces – there are free tickets available for you.
Here are the cheapest and the most expensive ticket prices for adults and concessions at New Meadow with the cheaper prices being Cat B matches:
- Adult: £20 – £22
- Concession: £15 – £17
How To Get Shrewsbury Town Tickets
You can buy Shrewsbury Town tickets online, over the phone or in person from the ticket office at the stadium.
Where to Buy
Getting To New Meadow
Located in Shropshire, Shrewsbury is a lovely town that is reasonably easy to get to from most places in England. Here are some of the more typical methods you’ll probably consider for your journey:
Train – Shrewsbury Railway Station is about two miles from the ground, so it would take about half an hour or so to walk if that’s what you fancied. It’s around two to three hours away from London with at least one change, normally at Birmingham International.
Bus – There are loads of buses that run from the surrounding regions to the ground, with services 24, 25, 26, 544 and 546 all calling reasonably close to the stadium. There are also Express Bus Services that run on match days.
Car – Get yourself on the A54 and stay on it until you end up on the A5. From there you’ll want to get onto the B4380, also known as Thieves Lane. That leads to Oteley Road, so you’ll see signs for the ground well before that.
By Air – Birmingham International is the biggest airport near to the stadium, with trains to Shrewsbury running regularly from the airport and likely to take about an hour and a quarter or so.
Taxi – A taxi from the train station to the ground will take roughly ten minutes and should cost you just under £15.
Parking Near New Meadow
There is limited parking at the stadium itself costing £10, with a number of park and ride or park and walk options available around and about the place instead. Parking shouldn’t be a problem provided you plan ahead.
Useful Resources
- Parking - Just Park
New Meadow Hotels
Shrewsbury is a lovely little town with plenty of hidden nooks and crannies that are well worth exploring. Here are some of our favourite hotels that you’ll want to consider if you’re going to stay in the Shropshire town before or after you’ve watched a match:
The Coaching Barns - £50+
Cromwell's Tap House - £77+
Holiday Inn Express Shrewsbury - £100+
Pubs and Bars Near New Meadow
Shrewsbury is full of personality and has a number of charming, fun watering holes. Here are some of our favourite pre-match locations. Because the ground itself is essentially in a retail park you need to go slightly further afield to find a decent pub, mind.
The Charles Darwin
Belle Vue Tavern
Albion Vaults
Facilities
There are food and drink kiosks in all stands at Croud Meadow, with nice clean concourses available for your use as well as places you can stick a bet on before a ball has even been kicked.
Prices
- Programme: £3
- Pie: £3.4
- Cup of tea: £2
- Beer: £3.5
Hospitality
Croud Meadow boasts five function rooms and seven executive boxes, so there are a number of hospitality options available to you on a match day. The club promises packages that will suite both private individuals and businesses alike, with a warm welcome followed up with a three-course meal and half-time refreshments, depending on the package you choose. There is also an option to go on a stadium tour and see all of the areas not usually available to the public if you’re feeling nosy.
Private Hire
Venue 1886 is the name of the club’s separate arm for private hire purposes. They have a dedicated team that can cope with most demands, whether you’re hoping to host a small business meeting with breakout rooms, an exhibition or even a wedding. They even do 3 course Sunday lunch’s every week, on Sunday, obviously.
Stadium Tours & Museum
As things currently stand you can’t do a tour of Croud Meadow Stadium unless you buy the right hospitality package (more below), but if anything changes on that front then you’ll be the first to know.
About Shrewsbury Town
The Shrews were formed in 1886, though they didn’t get elected to the Football League until 1950. Apart from the 2003-2004 season, when the club played their football in the Conference, Shrewsbury have spent every season since 1950 in the bottom three divisions of the Football League. The club was originally formed after the demise of local teams Shropshire Wanderers and Castle Blues. The Blues particularly were a somewhat notorious team, being disbanded after several matches were spoiled because of violent incidents. It was hoped the new team in Shrewsbury could have success without similar notoriety.
The club has enjoyed a modicum of success during its history, perhaps most notably because of the bizarre claim to fame of having won The Welsh Cup more than any other English team – six times. They reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in both 1979 and 1982 as well as the semi-finals of the League Cup in 1961. They have never won the Football League Trophy, though they were runners-up in 1996. Their promotion from the third tier of English football in 1979 came as league champions, as did their promotion from the fourth tier in 1994.
New Meadow History
Shrewsbury Town’s formative years were spent bouncing from one ground to another, with three years at the Racecourse Ground followed by four years at Ambler’s Field, two years at Sutton Lane and five years at Barrack’s Ground. It wasn’t until 1910 that they found somewhere they could call a permanent home when they moved into Gay Meadow. Croud Meadow, or New Meadow as it’s often called, is young enough to mean that most of its history is still to be written.
The ground is a UEFA Category 4 stadium, which means it’s allowed to host fancy dress parties and Sepp Blatter can sleep on the pitch. Ok, that might not be true, but it’s a rare accolade for a lower league team’s ground to have such a standing. Within the locale of the stadium are training facilities, conference facilities and a 5-a-side complex run by the company Powerleague. So far England’s under-17s, under-19s, under-20s, under 21s and the England Women’s team have all played matches in the ground.
Future Developments
The most likely development of the ground in the future will be the addition of corner stands, joining the main stands together. When Shrewsbury Town played Chelsea in 2014 two temporary stands were erected in said corners, boosting the capacity to 10,361. Aside from this a Lidl (you read that correctly, a Lidl) was added to the stadium in 2017 and more interestingly, they were the first ground to be granted permission to turn a section of their South stand into a Safe Standing area also in 2017.