The UK’s Most ‘Old School’ Stadium? Castleford’s ICONIC Jungle | Stadium Tour 2024

Join me for a tour of Castleford Tigers home stadium ‘The Jungle!’ Where we talk about the history of this iconic rugby ground and manage to get a mini stadium tour from the lovely staff!

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hello and welcome to tour obscure and if you didn’t read the title of this video you’d think I was next to some abandon Warehouse somewhere but this believe it or not is a top level Rugby League Stadium it’s a Super League Stadium it’s the home of Castleford Tigers so we’ve come today to have a little look around what I believe is one of the most old school stadiums out there whichever sport you’re talking about football rugby this is as old school as you get so join me to have a little tour around this [Music] [Music] place so we’ve just arrived at the stadium and this is the wford road stand and as you saw it it just looks like a a bit of a warehouse It’s a you wouldn’t even believe it were a stadium but it is as I said a Super League Stadium now CLE for Tigers were formed in 1926 and they spent a year playing at somewhere called sandy desert which is just down that way over the river uh I believe that is now home to Castleford lock Lane rby Club so it’s still active but but it’s essentially just a field but as I said in 1926 they spent a year playing at Sandy Desert and then after only a year they moved to this place now this place was already here because it was home to Castleford Town Football Club it was originally a football stadium and I believe that Castleford tigers or Castleford rlfc as they was known at the time they got an 800 loan to uh improve the facilities at this place which doesn’t seem a lot but in today’s money is so you can do quite a bit with that especially in that time and these turn styles are very very old school look at the size of these how thin are they you don’t usually get to see that these days and then we’ve got some signage up here stating who plays here obviously so let’s talk about the name of this place now Welden road is the Stadium’s name but it’s commonly known as the jungle and you would think that that’s in reference to the club’s name the Castleford Tigers but it’s not really it was sponsored I believe in 2005 uh by a company and that’s how it got its jungle name but the name was very popular uh unlike a lot of sponsorship names you’ll see what just unpopular with the fans and they don’t really stick but this one stuck and ever since it’s uh been commonly known as the jungle and been accepted by fans so that’s another unique point of this Stadium now just whilst I’m here I would like to appeal on behalf of a very good friend of mine called Glenn he’s supporting a very good cause by by cycling the entire length of the United Kingdom all the way from Jonah grz to Land’s End it’s a mammoth challenge but he’s doing it for a great great cause which is very close to his art I know so if you can follow the link what’s in the description and donate anything you can he’s got a target of 500 but come on let’s really really uh back him here let’s get to that, pound Mark and uh support Glenn in his challenge in supporting a great cause good luck Lynn now another element of this club what I really really like is you’ll see the club badge just behind me now I would have guessed but that would uh have been designed in the mid90s when the Super League era started uh but you’ll see but it’s not very symmetrical um it looks very old school it reminds me of the old Hall City badge uh which I’ll put on your screen now but obviously they moved on they modernized their badge like a lot of other clubs did but they’ve kept this one here which is fantastic uh it gives that old school feel so we’ve got an old school stadium and an old school badge as well what’s not to like so we’ve got a little Gap in the wall there we might be able to get a little Glimpse inside this Stadium we can indeed and that is the Princess Street stand I believe just had new seats in store by the looks of it so when you get off the train in Castleford I uh I knew it would quite a distance away from the train station but I thought it might have been a bit more built up in the area surrounding but it’s uh it’s on a road what is obviously leading out of the Town there’s not a lot surrounding it to be fair there’s a couple of hours as I believe that is probably the match Day pub what fans like to go in obviously having a bit of work done at the moment but with an eye on the future I have noticed this now at first I thought it was another new stadium plan for Castle for Tigers quite a few years ago they had plans for a new stadium in glasson I believe and I think that fell through so I thought this was a new stadium plan at first but having a look that looks like the uh open Way End which is located at this stadium so I believe it’s just a new standard building here at the jungle so casford Tiger’s record attendance at this place is about 25,000 and that was way back in 1926 was it 1926 or 1935 I can’t remember my memory fails me it’s one of them two dates I’ll put it on the screen now but it’s one of them two dates either when it first opened or when the main stand was first first built so it’s one of them too but we’ve just arrived at the club shop so we’re going to have a little look in there and see if they might let us in to have a look let’s go and try us look fingers crossed and I absolutely love that stained glass on there it’s fantastic yeah thank you very much it’s uh it’s not something you often get a place like this you just get a funny look and know you to go and ask someone else or email or pre-arrange so I actually can’t believe my luck here um absolutely lovely fell in the club shop has uh allowed me into the stadium and this place really really don’t disappoint I’ve got a massive smile on my face because I’ve wanted to come here since I about 14 I’ve always looked at pictures of this place thinking how old school it is and uh you know a lot of times you go to place and they just a bit underwhelming and not as they see my pictures but honestly this place is fantastic like yeah I’ve not even got words it’s uh it’s really really good uh I’ve just been speaking to the gentleman and unfortunately the main stand behind me which dates from around 1935 potentially even earlier that is getting uh knocked down in around a year’s time to make way for that new stand we saw outside which is very very sad um but the club has to move forward with making it financially sustainable all year round not just when the uh season’s on um but yeah this place is as old school as you get the stand behind me uh they’ve just had some new seats put in so the club are really pushing forward we investment putting it into this place uh so it obviously seems but the new stadium plans are dead in the water and they are planning on staying here for the long term now it’s just little things like this the uh Terrace in at the side of the main stand and I can imagine this place when it’s full is absolutely rocking and I would urge you absolutely 100% if you’ve never been to this place even if you’re not a rugby league fan get yourself down here watch a game cu I imagine the atmosphere is absolutely amazing and it’s the kind of environment where you can’t really watch professional sports in anymore everything’s all corporate white wash walls and corporate boxes this is the working man’s game right here and it’s still here in 2024 but times are changing so get to move on so the the stand’s going to be in this area here all way down dring facilities all way down here so all this will be and then a multipurpose training p on the the other side wow like I said it’s sad but you have to move on but this place is uh especially this stand just the uh little PPC Shields there I I love out like that it’s fantastic it does AB the bed’s history it’s uh it’s gry bit in a good way what he like to see what a lovely gentlemen what a gent so uh yeah he’s just let me in the stadium um wow I’ve not I’ve not I’ve not felt like that for a while you know when you walk into a stadium and I know it’s only a small stadium in Grand schema things uh but it’s like that first time when you enter a football stadium when you’re when you’re a kid going see your team and you just stand there and you’re like wow I think the last time I actually experienced that was uh when I first went to Wembley the new Wembley in uh 2012 and I uh obviously just come up the steps and saw and just for 10 seconds you just stood there and you’re like Jesus yeah this place is really special the fellow was just explaining to me um but the club has only got 40,000 people in Castleford to try and attract to this stadium for game days and they manage 8,000 and it’s a 10,000 capacity stadium is so they do very well in terms of crowds and we were speaking about rugby league in general about how Huddersfield and Wigan have got big stadiums but they just don’t fill him so it’s not the same experience and he said you know you rather have a smaller stadium and fill it to a 90% full than have a a massive stadium and only get you know 20 30 40% of the capacity on game days but this place is really really special I love it absolutely love it now you see the unique thing about this place being old school as I keep mentioning but the unique point about it is this isn’t a luten town where they’ve got an old unique Stadium and they’ve just managed to get up into the Premier League and they’ve still got that Stadium they’ve not moved to their new stadium yet it’s not one of them off chance things Castleford have been a staple in the Super League for a very long time bar a few seasons where they’ve dropped down to the championship and they’ve done quite well you know in 2017 they had a very good year I believe they actually finished top of the super league and uh just missed out on the Super League Grand Final as well so it’s not one of them unique situation where they’ve just managed to get up into the top division by luck you know they’ve been a staple of this uh Super League since its Inception in 1996 it’s funny but I’m in Castleford as well because uh when I was toying with the idea of this Channel and trying to come up with names uh a good friend of mine called Holly hi Holly um I was uh working with her at the time and uh I’m sure I put the name to her and and she was one of the few what said yeah that’s a good one that everyone else seemed to pick the other option what I had but the name tour obscure I’m pretty sure she were one of the few what actually liked the name so poly from Castleford contributed to this Channel and that’s it from Castleford and the home of Castleford Tigers if you do enjoy what we do please press that like button and the Subscribe button if you’re feeling a little bit more generous and you really really enjoyed it you can press the thanks button any donations from that go back into the channel for travel expenses and stuff like that as you know rail fars are absolutely extortionate so thank you very much for joining me and until next time I’ll see you later [Music] [Music] n [Music]