Words by Brian Wright
Photos courtesy of West Dunbartonshire Council Arts & Heritage Services
A local building demolished some 45 years ago continues to demand attention on social media platforms to this day.
Sadly, however, the reason for this continuing interest is generally one of derision.
It is a completely unwarranted assessment, yet one which prompts the casual observer towards ridicule rather than consider there may be a deeper truth.
For 121 years, Dumbarton FC played out of Boghead Park on the edge of town.
Until their closure in May 2000 those football grounds had the historical significance of being Scotland’s oldest in continuous use.
My own father worked in various prominent positions with the Club at Boghead Park from 1972 until 1990 and is included in the Club’s Hall of Fame.
I am currently authoring an online project on the early history of Scotland’s football grounds; something which has attracted considerable academic interest.
One thing this project has achieved, is to crystallise a long-standing frustration over how this one derided aspect of Boghead Park was generally regarded.
I’m referring to its “Hen House”.
I use that term reluctantly, because it encapsulates my very irritation.
It was initially coined by media as a supposedly light-hearted, yet deep-down demeaning, reference to the football club’s principal building.
Over the years, that use (together with another, “The Post Box”) became so common that even home supporters accepted it; albeit, blinding themselves to the slur.
Ironically, the Dumbarton crest contains an elephant.
Ironically, because this is where Dumbarton’s “elephant in the room” (or, should I say, Elephant in the Hen House) comes into play.
No-one was ever prepared to question the term and its tone or, moreover, its total lack of understanding.
Not even an otherwise reflective Club History.
Very similar structures at Airdrieonians’ old Broomfield Park and Third Lanark’s Cathkin Park were nationally viewed with an affection never considered for Boghead.
Why should that be?
And, I find it particularly frustrating that the Airdrie example continues to enjoy a parallel online presence to Dumbarton’s whilst retaining a very, non-parallel, positive response.
These two buildings varied a little in scale and design, however their purpose and use was essentially the same, as anyone with experience of both would testify.
As I spend time gathering knowledge and understanding with my historical project, social media continues to regurgitate that long-standing pattern of ridicule.
“The smallest main stand ever in Scottish football history?”
“An 80-seat curio!”
“No wonder they call this the Hen House!”
I have been quick to answer these and support my response with extensive evidence.
Yet even today it resurfaced on Facebook.
More disappointingly, however, I have had to respond to similar posts on the football club’s own social media outlets.
So, here is the truth, and with it an appeal for a much more appreciative understanding of the building’s place in Scottish football history.
Until around 1930, the standard Scottish football ground consisted of three elements: a public grandstand of covered seating (with first-come paid access on matchday), extensive terraced slopes for the standing spectator and, significantly a 2-storey detached private clubhouse.
This stand-alone clubhouse generally consisted of changing facilities on the ground floor; with a directors’ room, small kitchen, office, and external balcony seating on an upper level often
accessed by an external staircase.
Its seating was exclusively for club officials and ticketed guests, equivalent to the modern-day Directors’ Box because that is essentially what it was.
And, whilst there may have been a small number of seats made available for interested businessmen there was absolutely no payable public access on matchdays.
In 1920, following a resurgence in fortunes, Dumbarton FC updated to such a “modern” two-tiered style.
A prior series of cabin-style clubhouses had existed next to the entrance at the north corner of the grounds.
However, a 1913 rotation of playing area meant the need to access the field via a lengthy pathway cutting unsatisfactorily through the spectating terrace.
The new clubhouse was therefore relocated much more conveniently at pitch-side.
Newspaper reports of its opening against Rangers in October 1920 described the building as Boghead’s “new pavilion stand”.
Directly across the playing field sat the grounds’ 500-seat public-access grandstand.
Those improved playing fortunes were unfortunately short-lived, and Dumbarton was relegated in 1922.
Whilst a majority of Scotland’s prominent clubs began to evolve their grounds throughout the 1920s to incorporate both public seating and clubhouse facilities into a single integrated grandstand, relegated Dumbarton had neither the need, nor the means, to make such a change until regaining its top-division status during the 1970s.
Thus, the removal in 1979 of a lingering example of Scottish football history.
If Boghead’s 1920 Clubhouse is to continue in the public eye, then I hope it will become appreciated for what it was, and no longer be unreasonably disparaged.
As it happens, there is an example of the two-tier football clubhouse which continues to flourish in full use to this day.
Fulham FC’s 1905 Craven Cottage.
With ground-floor changing rooms and external staircase leading to office, hospitality suite and balcony seating, its format was exactly as at Boghead.
So I ask: would anyone dare refer to Craven Cottage as a “Hen House”?