Gigg Lane
Bury, Greater Manchester, England
Gigg Lane, Bury, England — opened 1885, 166 rugby league games hosted, home of Bury F.C. (football, 1885-2019 and 2023-present); Swinton (rugby league tenant, from 1992).
Sourcing caveat: Wikipedia's Swinton Lions article states the club's Gigg Lane tenancy ran 1992-2002 ("Swinton were forced out of Gigg Lane by the financial problems of their landlords, Bury F.C."), but Rugby League Project's venue results for Gigg Lane list matches only from 30 August 1992 to 2 July 1997. Both figures are reported rather than reconciled; it is possible the registered tenancy outlasted the run of fixtures actually played there, or one of the two sources is simply inaccurate.
Ground facts
| Opened | 1885 |
| Home club | Bury F.C. (football, 1885-2019 and 2023-present); Swinton (rugby league tenant, from 1992) |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 166 |
| Top recorded crowd | 4,147 |
| Capacity | 11,840 (final all-seater capacity before Bury F.C.'s 2019 expulsion from the Football League); pre-WWII capacity was around 32,000 |
| Floodlights installed | 1953 (permanent pylons switched on for a friendly v Wolverhampton Wanderers, 6 October 1953; experimental Wells Patent floodlighting had briefly been trialled as early as 1889) |
| Surface | Grass |
| Years used | 1992–2002 |
| Location | Bury, Greater Manchester |
Name history
- Gigg Lane — 12 September 1885 - November 2013
- JD Stadium — November 2013 - July 2015, sponsorship name
- Planet-U Energy Stadium — February - August 2019, sponsorship name
- Gigg Lane — restored name, 2022-present
Rugby league history
Gigg Lane has been the home of Bury F.C. since it opened in 1885, but it also had a decade-long life as a rugby league ground: after financial trouble forced the sale of Swinton's own Station Road ground for development in 1992, Swinton (now Swinton Lions) relocated to Gigg Lane as tenants of Bury F.C. Rugby League Project's match database records Swinton fixtures at the ground from 30 August 1992 running into 1997, spanning Second Division, First Division, Regal Trophy, Lancashire Cup and Challenge Cup football, plus one representative fixture: the 1995 Emerging Nations Cup final between Cook Islands and Ireland, the best-attended rugby league match recorded at the ground. Swinton's own club history describes the Gigg Lane tenancy as continuing to 2002, when Bury F.C.'s own financial problems forced them out in turn (see caveat).
Gigg Lane's primary sporting identity, before, during and after its rugby league years, is as the historic home of Bury F.C., a founder member of the Football League Second Division and two-time FA Cup winners (1900, 1903). The ground was vacant of competitive football between Bury's 2019 expulsion from the EFL and the reformed club's return in 2023.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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