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Forgotten Grounds: The Imps and Loakes Park, Wycombe

A ground on which Lincoln City only played once in their long history was Loakes Park, the original home of Wycombe Wanderers, writes Malcolm Johnson.

Wycombe Wanderers FC was founded at a meeting held at the Steam Engine public house in Station Road, High Wycombe in 1887 by a group of young chair factory workers (hence the club’s nickname of The Chairboys) who had started a team to play matches. It is highly likely the club was named Wanderers after the winners of the first FA Cup in 1872.

The club initially played friendly matches on common land known as The Rye, before moving to a ground at Spring Meadow in 1893. In 1895, after Spring Meadow was sold in order to make way for a new railway line the club agreed the rental of open ground at Loakes Park with Lord Carrington, owner of the surrounding estate.

The ground was located next to Wycombe General Hospital in the centre of the town and the first match there took place on 7 September 1895 with Wycombe’s first ever game in the FA Cup against Park Grove.

In 1897 the club began work on levelling what was a stony, sloping pitch…