The following text is largely based upon the Notts section of "The football grounds of England & Wales" (1983 edition) by Simon Inglis, with additional material - particularly that covering the re-development of Meadow Lane - by myself.

Older than the FA itself, Notts County are the doyens of the Football League. They formed in 1862, and like all sporting clubs of the time were strictly for 'gentlemen only'. The name 'County' signified their genteel leanings.

Park Hollow / Meadows Cricket Ground
Notts first played at Park Hollow which was part of the private park next to Nottingham Castle. For two years the members played games only among themselves, until in December 1864 County finally turned out against another club, in a 20-a-side game on The Meadows Cricket Ground. This open space became their regular pitch until 1877, although for important matches County hired the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, then privately owned.

Beeston / Castle Cricket Ground
Notts moved in October 1877, in keeping with their image, to the home of the Gentlemen of Notts Cricket Club, Beeston. If necessary, they still used Trent Bridge, such as when they played Derbyshire on 30th November 1878 in one of the earliest floodlit games. November 1880 saw them at the Castle Cricket Ground, near the town centre, where they played until 1883. Until that time, Forest had been renting Trent Bridge from its new owners, Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, but they left in 1883 for a new ground in Lenton.

Trent Bridge
Keith Warsop, the Notts County historian, suggests that County's arrival in 1883 at Trent Bridge in place of Forest might have been engineered by the cricket club's secretary, Edwin Browne, who immediately assumed a similar post with Notts County. County's first game as permanent tenants of Trent Bridge was against Walsall Swifts in September 1883. At this ground Notts put aside their former inclinations and turned professional in 1885, becoming founder members of the Football League in 1888. Ten years later a half-time/results scoreboard was built and this first came into use on 3rd December 1898 for a match v. Everton.

Alternate Venues
Cricket still took priority at Trent Bridge and each September and April Notts had to find alternative venues for home fixtures. They made use of the Meadows and the Castle grounds again and also used whatever ground Forest had at the time*. For this reason alone, Trent Bridge was hardly a suitable venue for a League team, although unlike Sheffield's Bramall Lane and Northampton's County Ground, the ground's owners did at least permit County to rest a portable wooden stand on the open touchline. The club had to move this stand occasionally to prevent wear and tear on the turf. A more serious handicap was County's lack of support at Trent Bridge.

*Notts played some matches at The Town Ground between April 1895 and April 1897 and then at The City Ground April 1899 - April 1908.

An all-time low attendance for any normal scheduled League match was recorded at the ground when an estimated crowd of 300 saw Notts v. Crewe Alexandra in the old Division Two, on 17th February 1894. Such a pitiful turn-out is even more surprising in view of the fact that only a month later County won the FA Cup. No less baffling was one of the lowest attendances ever recorded for a top flight match at Trent Bridge, when 1,500 were estimated to have watched Notts v. Preston North End on 27th March 1901. This was near the close of County's highest finish for a decade. As early as 1905 the Football League had made it clear that Notts should find a home they could use all through the season. Apparently certain clubs threatened by relegation had complained that while some teams had had to play Notts at 'home' on Forest's ground (when Trent Bridge was being used by the cricketers) they had had to play their fixture's v. Notts at Trent Bridge. The League agreed this was hardly fair and Notts began a half-hearted search for new premises.

It was not until 1910 that County moved, the final impetus coming from the cricket club who were anxious to see the footballers leave, even though the football pitch barely encroached on the cricket field - it was on the Fox Road Side of the ground, used mainly as a practice area by the cricketers. Perhaps feeling some pressure, Notts decided to sell their ground rights in the 1st Round of the FA Cup, when they were drawn to play Bradford City at Trent Bridge. At last stirred into action, Notts found their future home across the River Trent, not far from where Forest's old Town Ground had been. Their final match at Trent Bridge was on 16th April 1910 v. Aston Villa.

Meadow Lane was opened with a top flight match against Forest on the 3rd September 1910. Amongst the estimated 28,000 who attended was the Lord Mayor's party who were photographed in the centre of the pitch with the Meadow Lane end behind them. The match was drawn 1-1 with Billy Matthews, formerly of Aston Villa, scoring the Notts goal.

From a contemporary report at the time......
"There were some rousing scenes on Saturday in connection with the County Ground in Meadow Lane, the admirably equipped and splendidly compact new home of the Notts. F.C. Spectators rolled up in numbers which had no parallel in the club's long history, and on all hands was to be found evidence of the interest and enthusiasm which the launching of the new undertaking had aroused. Moreover the good wishes of the powers that be in the football world, of the city fathers, who stand in position of landlords to the club, and of friends and rivals alike, found hearty expression at a function which the directors could not have had more convincing testimony of the wisdom of their decision to acquire headquarters of their own. In honour of the day, flags and bunting were freely employed around the ground. The old club flag floated proudly from a lofty mast at the Meadow Lane end, and in the opposite comer, a brand new emblem, mounted on a flagstaff of Ruddington oak, presented by Major Ashworth, offered its mute welcome to the thousands of spectators who came to witness the first match."

The Army took over Meadow Lane for much of the First World War, and this gap, together with some unlucky draws in the FA Cup, meant that County did not play a Cup tie at their new ground until January 1920, ten years after moving there.

The County Road Stand
Shortly after Meadow Lane first opened for business, a roof was added to the Sneinton Side. However, in 1925 the club replaced it with a new stand, which was actually on top of the banking, over the Tinkers Brook. It later became known after a new road that ran behind it - County Road. The terracing under the roof was wooden, and the stand sported a simple triangular gable, a loveable feature of Meadow Lane ever since. This was the chevron shirts period, when Notts included the England full back Bill Ashurst who, along with fellow full back Horace Cope, became renowned for use of the "offside trap". Sadly the offside rules were changed for 1925/26 and in what became goalkeeper Albert Iremonger's final season, Notts were relegated (and they would not regain elite status for another 55 years). 1925/26 was also the first season in which accurate gate figures were required by the Football league - Notts registered an average of just under 15,000 with gates of over 30,000 for the visits of Leicester City, Fulham and Arsenal.

Main Stand Bombed
In 1941, despite or because of a machine gun emplacement on the open Kop, Adolf Hitler's bombs destroyed the northern wing of the Main Stand and cratered the pitch so badly that County had to withdraw from wartime League competition. Then during the winter of 1946-47, when prisoners of war were used to clear the pitch of snow, the Trent submerged Meadow Lane only marginally less than the City Ground. Being further from the river banks and slightly higher, Meadow Lane drained more quickly and suffered less than Forest's ground and for a time the clubs again shared their facilities. This happened once more in 1968, when Forest's Main Stand was gutted by fire.

Tommy Lawton Attracts Big Crowds
Although Meadow Lane had staged top flight football in its' early days (and would later go on to do so again) the ground's golden age was unquestionably a five year period shortly after the end of the 2nd world war. The signing of England centre forward Tommy Lawton for a record British transfer fee brought crowds flocking to see the 3rd Division South club and by 1949/50 average gates were approaching 35,000, this being the season that Notts finally sealed promotion with a home win against Nottingham Forest on 22nd April 1950 in front of 46,000 (the Kop area had now been extended to help accommodate the bigger crowds). The following season would be the last (to date) in which Notts would be in a higher division than the Reds. The occasion of Meadow Lane's highest attendance of all was not a happy one as 47,310 watched York City of the 3rd tier beat Notts in the Quarter finals of the FA Cup on 12th March 1955. Lawton had left by then, though he returned as Manager in 1957 for one season, this was followed by the longest period Notts have ever spent in the lower divisions.

Floodlights / Financial Crisis / Rock Festival
Floodlights had been installed at Meadow Lane in 1953, long before Forest's, and first switched on for a friendly v. Derby County on the 23rd March. They were too basic for modern usage however, and in 1962 Notts installed a set of new lights mounted on taller pylons, these were first officially put to use on 11th October 1962 for a match v. Port Vale.
Attendance's slumped to under 4,000 towards the end of 1963/64 as Notts were relegated to the 4th Division. In April 1965 manager Eddie Lowe was sacked and the players were then called to a meeting and told by a director; "In two or three seasons this club has almost collapsed. Another season like the present one would finish us completely."  By the end of the year it was decided that the financial situation had become so bad that the club could not continue, thankfully local businessman Bill Hopcroft stepped in and saved Notts with an injection of cash, but County's performances on the pitch failed to improve and the club narrowly avoided the indignity of having to apply for re-election with a series of woeful campaigns in the late 1960's. It was during this period that a new scoreboard was erected on top of the kop replacing the old scoreboard which had sat in the corner of the County Road/Meadow Lane end*.
On May 10th 1969 scarves and bobble hats gave way to beads and kaftans as Meadow Lane hosted Nottingham's 11-hour 1969 Pop & Blues festival presented by Radio One DJ's John Peel and Ed Stewart, amongst the acts on the bill were Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, The Move & Status Quo.

*The kop scoreboard was certainly in use by the end of season 1969/70. A selection of half-time and full-time scores would be placed up against a series of windows (these being bold white figures on black boards), the games would be identified by a corresponding letter (A-W) printed in the matchday programme. The window in the top left corner of the scoreboard always displayed the current score at Meadow Lane, whilst the bottom left corner would show the shirt numbers of whoever had scored the latest goal for both Notts and their opponents. There was also a very small clock (this simply told the standard time, not a 45 minute countdown as seen at many other grounds) and a set of loud-speakers were attached to relay tannoy announcements.

Revival in the 1970's
With Notts rock bottom of Division Four, Labour MP and ex-Brentford chairman Jack Dunnett took over the club in September 1968, he appointed his former Brentford employee Jimmy Sirrel as manager in November 1969 and this marked a great turning point in the club's fortunes. Sirrel's midfield "jewel" Don Masson (with Brian Stubbs & David Needham behind him and Les Bradd to aim for) helped steer Notts back into the 2nd tier with two promotions in three seasons and gates rose to a respectable average of around 11,500 (with 30,000 plus turning up for some matches) as County jostled with Forest to be the first to bring top flight football back to Nottingham. Notts appeared to be well on course to do just that with a table topping start to the 1975/76 season, yet - frustrated with the lack of financial support - Jimmy Sirrel was lured away to Sheffield United and Notts finished the season 5 points short of a promotion place.

Meadow Lane End Demolished / Meadow Club
After four seasons together in the old 2nd Division, it was Forest who snatched promotion on the very last day of season 1976/77. Jimmy Sirrel returned as Notts manager in October 1977, but with County next to bottom of the 2nd tier and facing a battle against relegation, attendances once again began to decline as Forest rose to the very top of English football and went on to conquer Europe.
It was then decided that the old wooden stand on the Meadow Lane End had to be demolished, although many supporters felt it might have gone in a more dignified way, it was after all probably the oldest stand in the League. In its place arose a huge, blank, brick wall, the back of an £800,000 sports complex named the Meadow Club. The complex was built as the club finally won promotion to the top flight in 1981, but in the shadow of Brian Clough's outrageous success with Forest, average gates failed to rise above 12,000 and with the much needed percentage of away gate money suddenly scrapped, the income generated by the sports complex became essential. With such low gates, Notts decided that extra accommodation behind the Meadow Lane End goal would not be necessary and so left a void between the goal and the wall. The sports centre also had changing rooms installed, taking them out of the antiquated Main Stand. An uglier solution could not have been found, for now the ground was effectively three-sided, although there could be no doubt about the standard of sporting facilities housed beyond that blank wall. A less dramatic change had occurred in the County Road Stand, where a small section of seats were bolted onto the wooden terrace in the centre. The ground therefore had 4,000 seats, in a capacity of 23,680.

Despite its name, Meadow Lane is about as rural as the Boleyn Ground is Tudor. The ground is surrounded on all sides by light industry, Tinkers Brook has been concreted over, and the Trent is hidden from view by factory buildings.
Main Stand
The main entrance is in Meadow Lane, by the new sports centre and offices, behind which runs the Main Stand at a right angle. With the possible exception of Swansea's Main Stand, a less imposing stand, belonging to a top club would be hard to find, yet County's is not entirely without character. It has a barrel roof, angled slightly towards the centre. The metal work is black and white, like the rest of the ground, but the seats are for some reason blue, some of them being bench seats. In the centre of the roof a television camera gantry has been built. Notice at the Kop End of the stand, the roof panelling reveals where bomb damage was inflicted during the War .In front is an uncovered paddock. Outdated it most certainly is, but other clubs have proved how refurbishing can make even the most dilapidated look new.
Spion Kop (Also known as the Cattle Market end)
From here, to the left is the uncovered Spion Kop, topped by a lovely half-time scoreboard with a clock, glass panelled front, and loudspeaker hailers on each side. New black barriers against the light concrete give this bank a neat appearance. From the summit, Forest's ground is clearly visible straight ahead, but otherwise the view is dominated by industry. Behind are two five-a-side pitches, and beyond them is Iremonger Road, named after County's long serving goalkeeper, Albert Iremonger, who made a record total of 602 appearances between 1905-26.
County Road
Opposite the Main Stand is the County Road Stand, with the familiar pointed gable proudly announcing the club's name, 'established 1862'. Many visitors assume the stand must be as old, but it dates back only to the 1920s. It lies at the back of an uncovered terrace, built up on stilts above what used to be the open brook. All the terracing under the sloping roof is wooden, with an impromptu metal framework in the centre supporting a few hundred seats. Underneath this charming stand is a small prefab hut used by the supporters' club. From County Road itself, the stand looks remarkably like a chicken house, with wooden shutters along its rear wall. In the Meadow Lane comer, where the scoreboard used to stand, is a tall flagpole.
Meadow Lane end
And so we come to the 'wall'; a brown and grey sheer cliff a few yards behind the Meadow Lane goal. Blue-clad dressing room extensions with slanting roofs abut against the wall; a sign of future intentions to cover them with a terrace? Unlike the supermarket developments at Selhurst and Booth ferry Parks, there are not even a few token steps of terracing behind the goal. The only consolation is that when the Kop sings, the sound apparently bounces off the wall.
Notts were used to playing on three-sided grounds in their early days, and now they have made Meadow Lane the same. Along the top of the wall is a line of executive boxes. It would be unfair not to add that the Meadow Club has four squash courts, a multi-purpose sports hall and social facilities, and compared with many clubs is not expensive to use. Finally, notice how odd are Meadow Lane's goals. The stanchions are L-shaped, so that the posts and net form a large rectangular box. Overall, Notts' Ground has little beauty and is mostly under-developed, and in places even un-kempt. The perimeter track, for example, is particularly untidy. Furthermore, it is hard to envisage the ground changing in future years, unless sufficient funds are found to smarten up both stands and construct some form of terracing in front of the sports centre.

Junior Magpies Enclosure
Poor home attendance figures could not prevent Notts from enjoying three season's in the top flight as the likes of Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur were all beaten at Meadow Lane. The ground also hosted an FA Cup Quarter-final v. Everton in 1984 by which time a small token concrete terrace had been erected at the Meadow Lane end - Initially for the exclusive use of the Junior Magpies (and their guardians), it was only about 5 steps tall, looked distinctly non-league and the 'stand' did not even span the whole width - mostly being constructed towards the Main stand side, although spectators could wander further along and stand against the perimeter wall towards County Road.
Relegation from the top flight was largely accepted as inevitable, but a successive drop to the 3rd tier saw the majority of Notts' home gates of 1985/86 gates dip below 4,000 which once again brought about a financial crisis. County introduced a "Lifeline" scheme that helped keep the club afloat until Jack Dunnett sold Notts to former Forest director Derek Pavis in the summer of 1987.

Transformation in the 1990's
There was an idea in the 1970's to build a new sports stadium on Colwick Park Racecourse, nearer the City Ground across the River Trent for use by both Notts and Forest. A similar proposal around 1990 to build a stadium at Wilford was met with no shortage of enthusiasm from Notts' then chairman Derek Pavis, but the Forest supremo Brian Clough effectively vetoed the venture. Instead Notts were forced to redevelop Meadow Lane.
Following the Hillsborough tragedy of April 1989, Lord Justice Taylor's government commissioned report recommended all-seater stadiums, the clubs in the top two divisions were given a deadline in which to satisfy these requirements, Notts successful return to elite status at this juncture demanded, yet also made possible, such changes.
Despite the cushion of a reasonable time-frame in which to adapt to the new football landscape, Pavis was eager to press ahead with his new vision for Notts, immediately putting into gear plans to construct three new stands in one single summer. On the back of achieving an incredible double promotion via successive Wembley play off finals, the level of expectation on the terraces was such that few, if any, questioned Pavis' wisdom, but it was soon evident that the transformation of Meadow Lane would come at the expense of the team. In January 1992, with Notts above the relegation zone and on course to become founder members of the breakaway Premier League, the Magpies sold striker Paul Rideout to Glasgow Rangers - much to the chagrin of the Manager Neil Warnock who was not even consulted - and then, two months later, fellow striker/terrace hero Tommy Johnson was sold to Derby County.

Re-Building
In April 1992, with a demoralized Notts now all but relegated, work began on a new set of steps at the Meadow Lane End, this time they would meet the back of the Sports hall (below the executive boxes) and a roof and seats would be added to restore the ground to four proper sides. The shallow steps at the opposite end meant that this stand would have to be completely re-built, as was the case with the mainly wooden County Road, these decaying landmarks of a golden age witnessed their final match v. Luton Town on 2nd May 1992, a match that Notts won to ensure the Hatters joined County in missing out on the inaugural Premiership.

The Cattle Market/Kop End and County Road stands were demolished during the close season to make way for the much taller and imposing all-seater Kop (unimaginatively left unnamed) and what would eventually become known as The Jimmy Sirrel Stand - onto which, at the suggestion of supporters, a reproduction of the familiar triangular gable was fixed. A new set of floodlights, said at the time to be the brightest in Europe, were mounted on hydraulic masts and Notts first electronic scoreboard, positioned at the front of the Meadow Lane End roof, was switched on for the official opening of the new stands on November 14th 1992 by Tommy Lawton, although the new stands had in fact opened for business in time for Notts first home fixture of the 1992/93 season v. Leicester City on August 22nd.
Just weeks into the 1992/93 season another star player, Craig Short, followed Tommy Johnson to Derby County, Notts narrowly avoided a successive relegation but not before Manager Neil Warnock became another victim of the new Pavis vision.
Half of the newly built Kop was initially used as a home supporters zone for most matches (the half closest to the Main stand), yet by the end of the season it had become "Visiting supporters only" and away fans continued to exclusively enjoy the benefits of it's superior acoustic qualities for the next 15 years.

The Derek Pavis Stand
Now on borrowed time, the old Main stand hosted one final moment of delirious glory as Notts defeated Nottingham Forest with a late winner in February 1994, but as the 1993/94 season drew to a close Notts strong push for the play offs was virtually extinguished by an own goal at Derby's old Baseball Ground. Forest went on to win promotion whilst the old Main stand was seen off, along with any hope of Premiership football, by a defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers on 16th April 1994. For that season's last remaining home fixture v. Charlton Athletic, most home spectators were packed into The Jimmy Sirrel Stand looking across to find half of the 82 year old Main stand had already been dismantled. From this point on, there was to be no more standing room at Notts County.

The artist's impression of the Derek Pavis Stand as unveiled in the Nottingham Evening Post in March 1994 can be found here.

The new 'Derek Pavis stand' was ready in time for the first home game of the 1994/95 season (against the same team who had contested the final match played out in front of its' predecessor), the Wolves fixture was broadcast live by the Midlands ITV station Central on Sunday 21st August 1994 and the vast banks of empty seats immediately made it apparent that Notts were going to have great difficulty filling the new construction, matters made only worse by a disastrous period that saw Notts relegated with arguably their poorest season ever, only to be followed two years later by one even worse which saw County sink into the 4th tier.

Going Under
Image shows Meadow Lane submerged in the great flood of November 2000, Notts were unable to play a home match for 7 weeks.
With Notts continuing to struggle in the lower divisions, Pavis became increasingly frustrated. During his final five years as chairman, the 20,000 all seater stadium (built to stage Premiership football) only entertained five-figure crowds on just two occasions. A protracted and damaging 18 month process saw the club sold to an American, Albert Scardino - a director at Notts since September 2000 who had previously failed in an attempt to buy Nottingham Forest and also happened to have an interest in the City Council's plans to redevelop the area surrounding Meadow Lane (of which the artist's "Riverside development" impression didn't include a Notts County football ground!). Scardino had actually been handed control of Notts from the moment he arrived and Pavis was publicly exonerated from County's now dire financial situation.
 

Administration
In June 2002, Scardino called in the administrators the very same day that a deal was announced that would re-name the ground in honour of a controversial sponsorship deal, yet the sponsor in question (an Estate Agent!) went out of business before the new season began. Mid-way through 2002/03, two stands (The Meadow Lane End and The Jimmy Sirrel Stand) were sponsored instead.
As the team continued to hover above the relegation trapdoor for another season, County's off the field problems went from bad to worse to the point where the Football League began to threaten their oldest member with expulsion. A meeting of the club's creditors could have seen Notts put into liquidation, instead it was agreed that County should be re-sold. A generous new lease on the Meadow Lane site agreed by the Council attracted three serious offers, however - the preferred bidders, selected in June 2003, ultimately failed to secure the necessary funds in time to satisfy the Administrators. With the situation now absolutely desperate, a consortium led by former local directors was hastily put together and with help from one anonymous supporter in particular (who all but single handedly funded the deal)* the club was finally saved just 6 days short of the Football League's 'FINAL' deadline of December 9th 2003.

*Eventually revealed to be Haydn Green who sadly died less than 4 years later. The Family Stand was re-named in his honour from 2008/09.

Scoreboard break-down
County had avoided expulsion but their League status was now to be brought into question by matters on the pitch. Following a relegation that was directly attributed to the administration period, Notts were then involved in successive battles to avoid a drop to 'non-league', this was a period symbolically embodied by the breakdown of the electronic scoreboard which remained out of action for some 18 months until a replacement was finally switched on for a never to be forgotten final day of the season fixture v. Bury on May 6th 2006, this being a match that Notts had to win to guarantee their safety, the Magpies only managed a draw but results elsewhere proved favourable enough to ensure Notts survived their lowest ever league finish, 89th in the 92.

Rugby Union / The Kop for home fans
Season 2006/07 saw Jeff Moore installed as the new chairman and Rugby Union regularly played at Meadow Lane after Nottingham RFC's new premises in West Bridgeford were deemed unsuitable for first team games. Moore and three other board members stepped down shortly after the start of the following season, making suggestions to the press that the Supporters Trust (who were now the majority shareholders) had scuppered a potentially benign takeover. Trust head John Armstrong-Holmes was named the new Chairman and one of his first tasks was to appoint County's 8th new manager in as many season's, but as attendance's continued to slump, the lack of atmosphere in the ground - since re-building had been completed in 1994 - became an ever more convincing argument as to why the Magpies' home form had been so generally poor for so long. With Notts again becoming dangerously entwined in another battle to avoid demotion to non-league, it was finally agreed to hand over the Kop to home supporters for the match v. Accrington Stanley on 12th April 2008, the change inspired the team to a rare home victory and the experiment was repeated for the penultimate game of the season, which was also won to ensure that Notts stayed up, they again finished 21st - equalling the club's lowest final position suffered two years earlier.

A future elsewhere?
Rumours still intermittently persist that Notts will, by choice or by force, ultimately leave Meadow Lane and that either Notts and Forest will share a new all-purpose super stadium, or that Notts will build a new ground of their own on the out-skirts, but happily County's current home now looks set to celebrate its' Centenary in 2010.