Poplar Side

[Peter Newman]

Perhaps it needs its own thread again. I am of a generation that remember those poplar trees hence the name.
I still find it difficult how the name "popular side" could have arisen unless it was people mishearing the original description.

[2weirdtown]

There must be a sponsorship opportunity here going to waste. Something along the lines of 'The XYZ IT Solutions Poplar Side'

[Manchester Romans]

Many football grounds have a stand named the Popular Side. In our league, for instance, Torquay’s singers stand in the Pop(ular) Side, and i’m pretty sure there were never any poplar trees around Plainmoor.

[OliverH]

Maybe we could plant some as part of the redevelopment

[LB]

I bow to Peter’s superior knowledge.

Having said that, I have supported the club for nearly as long as him and it seems to me that it is only relatively recently that ‘Poplar Side’ has come to prominence. As far as I was concerned it was the Popular Side (I had always assumed because people preferred to watch from there than the grandstand side!) and I recall that back in the 70s there was a regular correspondent to the Chronicle who signed himself ‘Popular Sider’.

[kermit]

First came down to TP in 1974 when I moved down from Wembley. I always knew it as the Poplar Side because that was what I was told it was called.
I have regularly heard folks call it the 'Popular Side' over the years but assumed they have got it wrong.
Perhaps we could rename it the 'Manda Rigby is Popular Terrace'......err, sorry. I'll get my coat.
Going back to Les's rant...can I add anyone who starts a sentence with 'So', and anyone who has to add 'like' every 3rd word to whatever they say.
OK, I am getting old, but whatever happened to grammar, or is that grandma.
Looking forward to good old fashioned English language on the Vauxhall Road terraces tomorrow!

[Dodgycarpet]

The truth is if course round these parts popular can be pronounced poplar.... Hence the confusion?

[LB]

The truth is if course round these parts popular can be pronounced poplar.... Hence the confusion?

I did wonder that myself.

[Corstonian]

My two penn'th on this debate - I first went to a City game in 1966 after the World Cup win as like many kids at that time I was completely obsessed with football and desperate to watch a real match. I remember my Dad agreeing to take me and saying we'd need to get there early so I could get a good place on the wall at the front of the Popular side. "Why is it called the Popular Side?" said I . He replied that it was because it was the most popular place in the ground to stand - higher position above the pitch, proper concrete terracing under your feet as opposed to grass and/or mud at each end, the sun never shining in your eyes, cover from the rain (for the middle part of the terrace only at that time) and plenty of space to move around. Seemed logical enough to me then and now. I think the tree thing is a mispronunciation, as already mentioned.

[tovid]

The truth is if course round these parts popular can be pronounced poplar.... Hence the confusion?

Yes I think this debate is the result of the curse of the West Country accent. Popular and Poplar being to all intents and purposes indistinguishable in a Bathonian lilt.
I was once advised to get some cortina for my walls. I wondered how a Ford vehicle would help but it turned out that it was a product called Coatina which was a thin polystyrene sheet to line the walls.

[Kelston Koppite]

My two penn'th on this debate - I first went to a City game in 1966 after the World Cup win as like many kids at that time I was completely obsessed with football and desperate to watch a real match. I remember my Dad agreeing to take me and saying we'd need to get there early so I could get a good place on the wall at the front of the Popular side. "Why is it called the Popular Side?" said I . He replied that it was because it was the most popular place in the ground to stand - higher position above the pitch, proper concrete terracing under your feet as opposed to grass and/or mud at each end, the sun never shining in your eyes, cover from the rain (for the middle part of the terrace only at that time) and plenty of space to move around. Seemed logical enough to me then and now. I think the tree thing is a mispronunciation, as already mentioned.

I am totally with Corstonian on this one. I first went to Twerton Park around the same time (the January 1967 5-0 FA Cup defeat to Brighton) and stood with my dad on what was then known as the 'Popular Side'. As far as I am concerned it was the 'Popular Side' then, and still is today. But, then again, I may well have been wrong for 52 years.

[comrade powell]

Good to see that the 'Popularists' are fighting back and my dad (a very, very long time supporter) and his son agree with them!

[Dodgycarpet]

i am with you and grew up calling it popular - but the fact there were poplars just keeps nagging at me after I was corrected by an old boy who was probably as old as the poplars....

[Dave]

Meh, times change. I remember people 15 years ago getting upset at us being called the Romans, now it's widely embraced. Popular it is, Poplar it was.

[2weirdtown]

Meh, times change. I remember people 15 years ago getting upset at us being called the Romans, now it's widely embraced. Popular it is, Poplar it was.

And I can remember Charlie's/Randalls originally being the 'Penguin Club' in a 1970s rebrand attempt. Come on you guins.

[Micawber]

Is the small area of terracing in front of the main stand still called " The Enclosure " ? I seem to remember back in the early 60s you had to pay extra to stand there.

[Marc Monitor]

Meh, times change. I remember people 15 years ago getting upset at us being called the Romans, now it's widely embraced. Popular it is, Poplar it was.

What was the nickname before - the boring 'Stripes'?

Not that it adds to either debate but I loved the fact, when I first started watching Bath City, that that side appeared to be called the Popular Side. When I first came to Twerton Park, it reminded me of a miniature version of the then still standing Ninian Park and my favourite part there was the Bob Bank which was originally called the Popular Bank. It was in the same part of the ground and the Pop(u)lar side and there were a fair few comparisons between both. It was called the Bob Bank latterly as it cost a bob to get in.

"The Enclosure" is literally something I have only heard it called since we have been talking about the new stand. Not saying that it hasn't been known as that before but had to work out - when it's been mentioned recently - where it was.

[Corstonian]

Is the small area of terracing in front of the main stand still called " The Enclosure " ? I seem to remember back in the early 60s you had to pay extra to stand there.

I believe you're right - I'm sure that at one time the price to stand there was higher than the Popular Side - which might well account for the popularity of the latter. It always seemed strange that you'd pay more to stand on an uncovered terrace but, if memory serves, that's how it was.

[yuffie]

Meh, times change. I remember people 15 years ago getting upset at us being called the Romans, now it's widely embraced. Popular it is, Poplar it was.

And I can remember Charlie's/Randalls originally being the 'Penguin Club' in a 1970s rebrand attempt.  Come on you guins.

Prior to the Charlie's/Randall's rename wasn't it know as the The Sportsman?

[Peter Newman]

Don't think we will ever resolve this. Unfortunately I seem to have deleted a photo  from my phone that had a picture of a  hand written message on a board  before the Exeter FA cup match saying " Would Poplar side supporter please use the Innox Park entrance".
This was a few years before my parents owned a Ford Poplar or was it Popular.

[kermit]

Don't think we will ever resolve this. Unfortunately I seem to have deleted a photo  from my phone that had a picture of a  hand written message on a board  before the Exeter FA cup match saying " Would Poplar side supporter please use the Innox Park entrance".
This was a few years before my parents owned a Ford Poplar or was it Popular.

Blimey Peter, that must be an old phone......but years before its time as it had a camera!!

[Peter Newman]

The phone was the I Phone 127 Brownie!

[Marc Monitor]

Is Inbox Park what I know as Brickfields? Did there used to be an exit in that corner?

[stillmanjunior]

Don't think that's the same area, think Brickfields is near the two tunnels cycle route.

There used to be, and still is, an exit by the toilets alongside the Pop(u)lar (I think it's that) Side. I remember exiting via it in my first few years of going, dad used to park around there. Probably been closed about twenty years now and presumably just overgrown, I haven't paid attention to it for years.

I also think the bars were the Sportsman and the Sheridan Suite. Weren't used for about two years, we had a voluntary tidy up one weekend around the year 2000.

[LB]

Is the small area of terracing in front of the main stand still called " The Enclosure " ? I seem to remember back in the early 60s you had to pay extra to stand there.

I believe you're right - I'm sure that at one time the price to stand there was higher than the Popular Side - which might well account for the popularity of the latter. It always seemed strange that you'd pay more to stand on an uncovered terrace but, if memory serves, that's how it was.

I am pretty sure that in the late 60s it cost sixpence (in old money!) to get into the Enclosure from the ground but I don’t remember when that stopped being so. Thinking back it does seem slightly odd that you would pay more to stand in the uncovered part of the ground.

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