FOR a brief moment it might have been an intriguing mystery – why was a stash of mostly intact clay smoking pipes uncovered from beneath the turf at Ninian Park?
But far from being evidence of an early gangster’s haunt or a gentleman’s club, it has emerged that Cardiff City’s former ground was built on the site of a former household rubbish dump.
Nevertheless, the small find of pipes and bottles, dug up during the ongoing demolition of Ninian Park, casts an interesting light on the ground’s birth 99 years ago.
“The ground was built on the site of the corporation rubbish tip,” said Cardiff City historian Richard Shepherd.
“But the Ordnance Survey map of 1900 shows the area as allotment gardens so it may have turned into a rubbish tip after that. Or it may have been a combination.
“I don’t know how big the tip was but the allotment gardens stretched from where the bus garage is now on Sloper Road up to the railway station.
“There were no houses there until 1930, when the houses at either end of Ninian Park on Sloper Road were built.”
Ninian’s once hallowed turf has now entirely disappeared, leaving only an unsightly mixture of mud, gravel, litter and seats torn from its stands.
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Within three weeks, new owners Redrow Homes, which formally took ownership of the stadium site on Thursday, will start knocking down the famous stands, starting with the Canton Stand.
The housing firm hopes to have its first show homes in place by spring, opening another chapter in the site’s history exactly 100 years after Cardiff City Football Club turned professional.
“The club turned professional in 1910 on the basis that if they could find an enclosed ground to play on they would be admitted to the second division of the Southern League,” said Mr Shepherd.
“Secretary Bartley Wilson looked at certain areas, including where the new stadium is now, but was put to this land where Ninian Park is built.
“It wasn’t level ground at the time. It sloped up towards the railway line and they had to level it out.”
The club negotiated a lease with the local authority but needed five guarantors for its annual rent.
After one guarantor pulled out, they secured the help of Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, the middle son of the third Marquis of Bute, after whom the ground was named.