Kettering housing development's street name nod to Poppies stadium past

The president of Kettering Town FC says new street names at the housing development site of their former stadium are a ‘great tribute’.

A total of 49 homes are being built at Britannia Park, on the land which was the Poppies’ Rockingham Road stadium for more than 100 years.

In a nod to the site’s history, Burton Latimer-based developers Seagrave Developments Ltd have named the main road into the site ‘Poppies Road’.

Another road has been named ‘Lawton Drive’ after England legend Tommy Lawton, who signed as the Poppies’ player-manager in 1956 and won the Southern League title the following season.

And a third road is called ‘Reed Close’ in a nod to Michael Reed, a former Poppies centre-half and now-retired partner and solicitor at Lamb & Holmes, who acted for the developers when they acquired the site.

Poppies president Ken Samuel said: "It’s great to have the names acknowledged and it’s a great tribute.”

John Harmon, director at Seagrave Developments Ltd, said the past use of the site was at the forefront of their minds when they decided on street names.

He said: “The site is currently undergoing construction with 26 of the 49 properties sold and eight having already moved in.

"We hope the owners will be extremely happy in their new homes on this development which enjoys such rich history.”

The Poppies played at Rockingham Road from 1897 until 2011, with the stadium demolished in 2017. After leaving Kettering the club briefly played at Nene Park in Irthlingborough and Corby’s Steel Park before moving to Latimer Park in Burton Latimer, where they remain.

In 2018 the Poppies announced they hoped to be home in five years after agreeing a deal with the now-defunct Kettering Borough Council to buy a piece of land known as French’s Field, just off Scott Road, with the deal then given the green light by the Government. There has been no further progress in recent years.

Poppies president Mr Samuel added: "It (leaving Rockingham Road) was a great loss to the club itself and the community to lose a football ground.

"Everybody says it was a proper old-school ground and clubs that we continue to visit always talk of Rockingham Road.”