History Of Sincil Bank
An Oasis Of Pleasure

The first ever Lincoln football team, Lindum FC dates back to the early 1860's but was a separate club from Lincoln City FC. The present day club can trace its origins to 1871 when a worker's side called Lincoln Recreation FC were formed. Both Lindum FC and Lincoln Recreation FC successfully coexisted until 1884, even though rivalry was fierce. 1884 saw the formation of the current Lincoln City FC with the members of Lincoln Recreation disbanding to concentrate their efforts on the new club.

Lincoln Recreation FC originally played their matches on the Cowpaddle so called because cows grazed on the fields, they later moved to John O'Gaunts which was not much better since horses rather than cows grazed there. Lindum FC became worried at the idea of the Lincoln City FC club so set about effectively killing the new club before it became established. Their plan was to hire a field opposite John O'Gaunts as Lincoln City had taken the lease over from the disbanded Lincoln Recreation. Lindum's new pitch was closer to the Sincil Drain but slightly northwards from today's Sincil Bank, however it is still the origin of the present day ground.

Despite John O'Gaunts staging one of the earliest floodlit matches in 1888, the ground was substandard for League football. In 1892 Lincoln City become founder members of the English 2nd Division and this was the point when Lindum FC admitted defeat and reverted to amateur status, moving further north in Lincoln away from Lincoln City. Lindum's move left their pitch and land near Sincil Drain vacant and in 1894 Lincoln City began building the present day Sincil Bank.

Sincil Bank takes its name because the west side of the ground was literally a bank to the Sincil Drain. Despite being called a drain the Sincil Drain is in fact an overflow from the River Witham. The ground was not suitable for League football and Lincoln City had to rely on its supporters for help, a precedent which remains. Supporters provided the labour to build stands, transport the main grandstand from John O'Gaunts to Sincil Bank and erected earth barriers to stop the Sincil Drain from flooding the pitch.

The original stands were used until just after World War I when in 1924 Sincil Bank caught fire, fortunately the ground was empty at the time. The fire completely destroyed the South Park Stand so in 1925 a new South Park Stand was constructed remaining until the early 1990's despite a near tragedy in 1975 when a wall collapsed, though part of this stand was never used again.

To increase capacity another stand was built at the railway end in the 1920's but this demolished and replaced with terracing in 1948 when Lincoln gained promotion to the old Second Division. The extra capacity gained from the terracing lead to a still record average crowd of over 16,500 being achieved in the 1952/52 season.

Sincil Bank has been an early leader in the redevelopment of grounds following the Bradford City Fire and Hillsborough, mainly because Lincoln City were Bradford's opponents on that tragic 11th May 1985. Among those dead were two Lincoln supporters Bill Stacey and Jim West and it is in their memory that the Stacey-West Stand is named.

The St. Andrews Stand, on the east side of the ground was the first stand to be redeveloped at a time when Lincoln's fortunes on the pitch were suffering. Relegation into non-league football in 1987 had cast a familiar financial shadow over the club resulting in the plans for the new stand being dramatically cut. Hence the St. Andrews Stand only runs for half the length of the pitch, straddling the centre of the pitch with gaps at either side. Whilst the St. Andrews Stand has never been extended a smaller family stand was added in 1994 to plug some of the gap between the St. Andrews and the new South Park Stand.

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