On the Pitch: 125 years of Molineux Part 1

It used to be known as a pleasure ground and has been the arena for plenty of happiness and every other emotion since.

Molineux, Wolves' home for 125 years, has become one of the most iconic grounds in British football.

From humble beginnings when the club rented it for £50 in 1889, it has become an instantly recognisable name in sport and the spiritual home for thousands of Wolves fans for whose dreams are built and shattered in the space of 90 minutes every fortnight.

There can be few football grounds so synonymous with its adjacent town, now city.

Such is the link between Wolves, Molineux and Wolverhampton that it's difficult to see them separated, their fortunes entwined.

From bans because of crowd trouble – in 1919-20 – a stand roof blowing down in a gale, and becoming an ammunitions dump during the Second World War, Molineux had its fair share of ups and downs in its first 65 years.

But its prestige as a marquee venue is reflected in it hosting nine FA Cup semi-finals and three full England internationals during that period.

And its diversity is seen in its multiple use prior to Wolves moving in.

Named after the Molineux family who took up residence there, by the 1860s the grounds boasted a bandstand, boating lake and an ice rink, and hosted galas, fetes and croquet, as well as cycling and athletics events courtesy of its quality track.

In more recent decades, several non-sporting events have been held there, including fireworks displays, Jehovah's Witness conventions and even a Bon Jovi concert.

But it's as Wolves' home that it is most synonymous. And if the club undoubtedly put Wolverhampton on the map, then Molineux became the jewel from which its most famous export – Wolves – shone.

From the towering South Bank to the Molineux Street Stand and its much-loved eye-catching multi-span gabled roof, Molineux has always been distinctive.

And in becoming one of the first football grounds to erect floodlights in 1953, it was seen to be innovative.

Those themes were reflected on the pitch too. Through the experimental Major Frank Buckley in the pre-war years to the glory of the all-conquering Stan Cullis era, Molineux witnessed plenty of highlights in its first six-and-a-half decades.

Wolves' first Football League title came in 1954 but, later that year, came Molineux's most famous match when the mighty Honved were beaten.

By the end of the 1930s when Wolves twice finished runners-up in the League, they were attracting crowds of 50,000 and more and the record attendance of 61,315 was set for the visit of Liverpool in the FA Cup fifth round in February 1939.

But there were even better times to come. At the end of its 65th year, Molineux became the nerve centre of a nation glued and gripped to their TV sets watching grainy footage of a game that has gone down as a landmark moment in British football history.

Wolves toppled the crack Hungarian side 3-2 and were declared 'champions of the world.'

By then, pre-War favourites such as Tom Phillipson, Billy Hartill, Dennis Westcott and Cullis himself as a player had given way to Bert Williams, Bill Slater, Billy Wright, Ron Flowers, Johnny Hancocks, Peter Broadbent and Jimmy Mullen.

They would become household names for whom Molineux was their theatre where they would produce their glorious deeds to the delight of their adoring fans.