Castleford Sports Stadium
Castleford, West Yorkshire, England
Castleford Sports Stadium, Castleford, England — opened Not confirmed (rugby football played on the site by 1888; the modern Castleford Sports Stadium/Hicksons Arena facility on the same Lock Lane site dates from a 1995 redevelopment), 129 rugby league games hosted, home of Castleford Lock Lane ARLFC (amateur, current); originally home to the pre-Wheldon Road Castleford rugby league club.
Sourcing caveat: Not to be confused with OneBore Stadium (Wheldon Road), the Castleford Tigers' main ground, covered separately by another agent this round. The venue's own history spans two very different eras on the same Lock Lane site - late-1890s/early-1900s professional Northern Union football played by the original Castleford club, and a present-day amateur ground used by Castleford Lock Lane ARLFC since 1995 - and no source found ties these two eras together into one continuous stadium history, so both are described rather than merged into a single false narrative.
Ground facts
| Opened | Not confirmed (rugby football played on the site by 1888; the modern Castleford Sports Stadium/Hicksons Arena facility on the same Lock Lane site dates from a 1995 redevelopment) (No single confirmed opening date covers the venue as it exists today. Wikipedia's article on Castleford Sports Stadium documents an early rugby match on the Lock Lane site in 1888 and describes a chain of later uses (Castleford Town F.C. football from 1907, a greyhound track c.1939-c.1950, demolition, and redevelopment as a sports ground by 1960); separately, Castleford Lock Lane ARLFC's own history says the club relocated to its present Lock Lane facility (also called Hicksons Arena, part of Castleford Sports Stadium) in 1995. These read as the same physical site across a long and disjointed history rather than one continuously-opened stadium.) |
| Home club | Castleford Lock Lane ARLFC (amateur, current); originally home to the pre-Wheldon Road Castleford rugby league club |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 129 |
| Top recorded crowd | 0 |
| First rugby league match | Castleford v Brighouse Rangers, 4 September 1897, Yorkshire Senior Competition 1897-98, per Rugby League Project's results page for this venue |
| Years used | 1897–1906 |
| Location | Castleford, West Yorkshire |
Name history
- Lock Lane ground — in use by 1888-c.1906
- Castleford Sports Stadium / Hicksons Arena (Lock Lane Sports Centre) — modern name, current facility since 1995 redevelopment
Rugby league history
This is a distinct, and much less prominent, ground from OneBore Stadium (Wheldon Road), the Castleford Tigers' long-standing main home on the opposite side of Lock Lane. Rugby League Project's results for 'Castleford Sports Stadium' begin in 1897, when Castleford's original club (the ancestor of today's Tigers) played its Northern Union fixtures on this Lock Lane site, before moving across the lane to Wheldon Road around 1906. The site later passed through spells as a football ground (Castleford Town F.C., from 1907) and a greyhound-racing stadium (roughly 1939-1950) before being redeveloped as a general sports ground; Castleford Lock Lane ARLFC, an amateur club formed in 1938, made the present-day facility (Hicksons Arena, within the Lock Lane Sports Centre) its home following a 1995 relocation, and still plays there. The 'Castleford Sports Stadium' name appears to be applied by Rugby League Project as a single umbrella label covering both the 1890s-1900s professional-era matches and the modern amateur ground on the same site, rather than one continuously-run stadium - flagged below rather than smoothed over.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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