Craven Park (Hull, Old)
Hull (Kingston upon Hull), East Riding of Yorkshire, England
Craven Park (Hull, Old), Hull (Kingston upon Hull), England — opened 1922, 1,296 rugby league games hosted, home of Hull Kingston Rovers (1922-1989; demolished).
Sourcing caveat: Sources disagree on the exact date of Hull KR's last match at this ground: Wikipedia's "Old Craven Park" article gives 9 April 1989 as the final rugby league fixture, while Hull KR's own official club-history page states the club "played their final match at the Holderness Road location in March 1989" without a specific date. Both are reported here rather than silently picking one. Separately, a preliminary fetch of Rugby League Project's results page for this venue appeared to show a match as early as October 1905, which contradicts the 1922 opening date given consistently by every other source (including RLP's own venue-summary page, which states "Year Built/Opened: 1922"); that 1905 figure looks like a fetch/summarization error rather than a genuine fact and is not used anywhere in this write-up.
Ground facts
| Opened | 1922 |
| Home club | Hull Kingston Rovers (1922-1989; demolished) |
| Closed | 1989 |
| Demolished | 1989 (site cleared shortly after closure) |
| Site today | A Morrisons supermarket (previously Leo's, then Co-op) on Holderness Road |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 1,296 |
| Top recorded crowd | 20,000 |
| Test matches hosted | 1 |
| Surface | Grass |
| First rugby league match | Craven Park 0-3 Wakefield Trinity, 2 September 1922 |
| Last rugby league match | Hull KR's final match at the ground, 1989 (exact calendar date disputed between sources: 9 April 1989 vs. "March 1989" — see caveat) |
| Years used | 1905–1989 |
| Location | Hull (Kingston upon Hull), East Riding of Yorkshire |
Name history
- Craven Park — 1922-1989, no sponsor-name changes recorded
Rugby league history
Hull Kingston Rovers' home for 67 years, purchased for £18,281 and opened with a 3-0 defeat to Wakefield Trinity on 2 September 1922. The club won its first-ever Championship in 1923 and beat local rivals Hull FC 10-5 in the 1980 Challenge Cup Final replay-season, though that final itself was played at Wembley — Craven Park's most celebrated day came instead from the club's title and Cup form built there, including Roger Millward's era as captain. Rovers sold the ground to developers and bought it back during the 1970s, but rising maintenance costs and post-Bradford-fire safety-certification requirements in the 1980s made the ageing ground unsustainable. The club moved to a new stadium, also named Craven Park, on Preston Road in 1989/90 — that current ground ("Sewell Group Craven Park") is a separate entry in this directory. This older ground was demolished soon after closure; a Morrisons supermarket now stands on the site.
The site later hosted greyhound racing into 1989 before being cleared for redevelopment.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 5 October 1929 — Great Britain v Australia (Ashes), attendance 20,000
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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