Exeter City

Not to be confused with the home of Newcastle United which has the same name, St. James Park has been Exeter City’s stadium since it was built in 1904. The site on which the ground was built has an interesting history dating back as far as 1654 when it was owned by Lady Anne Clifford. She rented it as a place to fatten pigs, with the money made from this enterprise put towards the apprenticeship of a child from the nearby parish of St. Stephen ‘yearly to the world’s end’. Even prior to the stadium being built in 1904 pigs were still resident on the ground and it was only when Exeter City, then called St. Sidwell’s United, leased the area of land that the pigs’ time was up. The lease for the land specified that ‘no menageries, shows, circuses or steam roundabouts’ be allowed onto it. Some Exeter fans have argued that a circus or two has performed there over the years, however… and as for the pigs, they were unceremoniously evicted and made to fend for themselves.