The Raikes Hall ground was located in Raikes Hall Park, a
pleasure ground. It consisted of a covered seated stand on the northern touchline, but the remainder of the ground was undeveloped as the pitch was also used for cricket. Blackpool moved to the ground in 1888, and were elected to the
Football League Second Division in 1896. The first League match at the ground was a 5–0 win against
Burton Wanderers on 19 September 1896, in the
1896–97 season, with 3,000 spectators present. The record League crowd of 5,000 was set for a game against
Newton Heath on 17 October 1896, and equalled for games against
Grimsby Town on 1 January 1897 and
Darwen on 16 April in the same year. Blackpool were voted out of the Football League at the end of the 1898–99 season. Later in 1899 the club merged with
South Shore and moved to their
Bloomfield Road ground. After playing their first home game of the
1900–01 season at Bloomfield Road, Blackpool played the remainder of their home fixtures back at Raikes Hall. They would have played the opening home fixture there too, were it not for the fact that the Pleasure Gardens was still hosting holiday-makers at the tail end of the summer season. The entire Raikes Hall Park was later turned into housing. Leicester and Longton Roads are located on the original pitch. The Raikes Hall public house, on Liverpool Road, preserves the name. ==References==