GPW Recruitment Stadium
St Helens (Eccleston), Merseyside, England
GPW Recruitment Stadium, St Helens (Eccleston), England — opened 1890 (Knowsley Road, the historic ground), 2,224 rugby league games hosted, home of St Helens (historically, at Knowsley Road).
Sourcing caveat: This entry name is taken directly from our source venues export, which labels it "GPW Recruitment Stadium (formerly Knowsley Road)" with games recorded through 2026 — implying continuous current use. Independent research could NOT confirm this: every other source (Wikipedia, BBC News) agrees Knowsley Road closed permanently in 2010 and was demolished in 2011, and that St Helens' actual current ground (opened 2012, a different site) is Langtree Park, renamed Totally Wicked Stadium (2017-2025) and now BrewDog Stadium (2025-present) — with no independent source confirming a "GPW Recruitment Stadium" name for any current professional rugby league ground. This is published with the discrepancy stated plainly rather than silently picking one version; treat the current-venue naming here as unverified pending a direct check against St Helens RFC or a current news source. The historical Knowsley Road facts above are independently well-documented and reliable.
Ground facts
| Opened | 1890 (Knowsley Road, the historic ground) |
| Home club | St Helens (historically, at Knowsley Road) |
| Closed | 2010 |
| Demolished | 2011 |
| Site today | Housing (sources differ on exact naming: Wikipedia says "Cunningham Grange"; another account names streets after club legends — Newlove Avenue, Wellens Walk, Sculthorpe Close, Coslett Drive, Cunningham Court) |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 2,224 |
| Top recorded crowd | 29,156 |
| Capacity | 17,500 (final years) |
| Test matches hosted | 1 |
| Floodlights installed | 1965 (opened by Sir Harry Pilkington, 27 January 1965) |
| Surface | Grass |
| First rugby league match | St Helens v Manchester Rangers (St Helens won), 6 September 1890 (score not identified in sources found) |
| Last rugby league match | St Helens 42-22 Huddersfield Giants, 24 September 2010 (Super League play-off semi-final; Keiron Cunningham scored the ground's final try) |
| Years used | 1895–2010 |
| Location | St Helens (Eccleston), Merseyside |
Name history
- Knowsley Road — 1890-2010, St Helens' home for 120 years
Rugby league history
Knowsley Road set a ground attendance record of 35,695 for St Helens vs Wigan on Boxing Day 1949, and hosted international Tests including Great Britain vs New Zealand in 2006. The last match there was 24 September 2010; the ground was demolished in 2011 and the site is now housing.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 27 June 2006 — Great Britain 46-14 New Zealand, attendance 10,103
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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