Visitors to Whitchurch Alport can now enjoy the benefits of new seats if they want to watch the game from the Gordon Ellison stand at Yockings Park.
The club has just replaced seats in the stand with new ones, which were used during the 2012 London Olympics in the aquatics centre.
However, the club has also been able to gain an added benefit by selling the old seats to a furniture restoration company, as they came originally from Stoke City’s old Victoria Ground, which was their home before they moved to their present stadium.
The company restores the seats, assembles them in pairs on an oak base with an extra back rail to make them more sturdy, and then sells them on to collectors.
Alport’s Press Officer Martin Wild explained:
“Stoke City played at the Victoria Ground until 1997 when they moved a few miles to the swanky new Britannia (now Bet 365) Stadium.
“The Boothen End was the popular terrace at the Victoria Ground, and Whitchurch Alport had a number of seats taken from there donated by a local farmer, who had bought them when the ground closed nearly 20 years ago.
“The seats served the club well and were an important factor when they were granted a place in the Hallmark Security League last year.
"But Whitchurch are a club very much on the up these days, on and off the pitch, and the sale of these seats - 96 in total - will help towards the upkeep of Yockings Park, as well as stadium improvements, which has seen upgraded floodlighting and a complete refurb of the clubhouse”.
