Holte End v South Bank (Molineux)

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

I stood on that big side terracing at Charlton to watch The Who in 1976. Very big, very full, very loud.

Not an end, but the sheer scale of the terracing at the old Hampden Park when I went to a Scotland v England game in 1974 was impressive.
Hampden holds the British attendance record (150k) and still got crowds well in excess of 100k into the 1970s.

[Allan C]

Biggest terrace was Charlton, but that was a side terrace. I think at various times the Holte, South Bank and Kop at Sheffield Wednesday had spells as the biggest. There was very little between the 3 until they squared off the Kop and South Bank fell into ruin. Then the Holte reigned supreme.

I went to Old Trafford with a mate in 1976 and was surprised how small the Stretford end was. Not only that, it wasn’t all terrace but had seating at the back.

[ChicagoLion]

Bertie Mee says toBill Shankley.

[Rico]

Villa Park's old Holte End was historically the largest of all Kop ends, closely followed by the old South Bank at Molineux, both once regularly holding crowds in excess of 30,000.[3]

Wikipedia says it's true, so it must be.
Holte End wins.

[olaftab]

The East Terrace at Charlton was reckoned to be 40-44k capacity.

The home e d at Elland Road holds 45000, so there.

[PeterWithesShin]

There will never be a definitive answer as at their peak the capacities for all 3 stands were estimates. Ground capacities as a whole were estimates back then.

[BC Villain]

Can someone definitively answer this:
Which was bigger? Wolves fans are always saying that their end was bigger, but I always understood that the Holte End was the largest single bank of terracing in English football.

The only large thing about Wolves is their opinion of themselves

[Rory]

Can someone definitively answer this:
Which was bigger? Wolves fans are always saying that their end was bigger, but I always understood that the Holte End was the largest single bank of terracing in English football.

The only large thing about Wolves is their opinion of themselves

Nice - and accurate.

[ADVILLAFAN]

No one outside of Wolverhampton has ever heard or the South Bank, so we win

[Axl Rose]

No one outside of Wolverhampton has ever heard or the South Bank, so we win

I always think of London and the skate park thingy, there.

[Chico Hamilton III]

The Holte was much more of a building, (rather than an earthen bank) than the other two (the Kop and the South Bank), or the Valley for that matter.

That’s because the Holte was Archibald Leitch-designed.

[JD]

You can still see some of the old terrace at The Valley, behind one of the newer stands.  It’s absolutely massive.

Wasn't The Valley in the 70's and 80's the largest club ground in England? I'm sure it once held around 75,000 at that time.

[eamonn]

There will never be a definitive answer as at their peak the capacities for all 3 stands were estimates. Ground capacities as a whole were estimates back then.

And some chairmen fiddled the gates.

[castlefields_villan]

All 3 were very impressive back in the day and shit all over the North Bank, Stretford, Anfield Kop etc.







And the Charlton East terrace

Seeing that picture of the old South Bank brought back memories of going there in the 1970s and 1980s - anyone remember that time in October 1981 when we beat them 3 times in 3 weeks - 3-2 in the League Cup (Villa Park First Leg - Andy Gray sent off) then 3-0 at theirs in the league followed by another win - 2-1 I think the following Tuesday in the League Cup 2nd leg.  At 3-0 in the league game we were singing "we'll be back on Tuesday night" - happy days and even better that they were relegated that year.

[aj2k77]

Imagine trying to boast about having a huge stand whilst getting crowds as low as 2,500.