Grundy Hill

{{Short description|Former association football stadium}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}

Grundy Hill was the former home stadium of Horwich RMI association football club in Horwich, Greater Manchester, England, near the Horwich Leisure Centre.

Image:Grundy Hill.JPG

The ground had a capacity of approximately 5,000 spectators, with 500 being seated. The terraces were covered on three sides and featured railings.{{cite web| last =Menu Publications Ltd.| title =Horwich R.M.I.| publisher =All Sports International| url =http://www.allsportsinternational.co.uk/horwich.html| access-date =2007-10-08| url-status =dead| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20061014110114/http://www.allsportsinternational.co.uk/horwich.html| archive-date =14 October 2006}}

Grundy Hill's pitch famously sloped both downwards and also side-to-side, and was reputed to have its own microclimate. "Grundy Hill sloped {{convert|16|feet}} from top diagonal to bottom diagonal and had the contours of corrugated iron, but until the new footballing nanny state prohibited such extreme drops, the ground was Horwich's prime asset."{{cite news |last=Longmore |first=Andrew |title=Football: Bring on the aristocrats |work=The Independent |location=London |date=8 November 1998 |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-bring-on-the-aristocrats-1183558.html |access-date=8 October 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160306220955/http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-bring-on-the-aristocrats-1183558.html |archive-date=6 March 2016}} One fan recalled that, as a boy, it was his impression "that the base of the corner flag was level with the top of the crossbar — on the same goal line."{{cite web

|last = PaulC

|title = Sloping Pitches

|publisher = Football Ground Guide

|date = 2007-04-26

|url = http://footballgroundguide.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=14117

|access-date = 2007-10-08

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110726062213/http://footballgroundguide.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=14117

|archive-date = 26 July 2011

}} From the stands, fans had views over the field's slopes to Rivington Pike.{{cite web

| last = Latham

| first = Mike

| title = Traveler's Tale No. 58

| publisher = Football Grounds in Focus

| date = 2006-11-02

| url = http://footballgroundsinfocus.com/TT67058.htm

| access-date = 2007-10-08 }}

In 1994, the football club sold Grundy Hill to a housing developer, and moved several miles south to Leigh's Hilton Park in time for the 1995–96 season. The move also led to the club renaming itself Leigh RMI after its new home town, although the club would subsequently change its name to Leigh Genesis F.C. The University of Bolton stadium, the current home of Bolton Wanderers, is located near Horwich, within sight of the old location of Grundy Hill.{{cite web

| title = Leigh RMI Club Profile

| publisher = Ciderspace: The Independent Yeovil Town FC Website

| url = http://www.ciderspace.co.uk/ASP/opposition/leighrmi.asp

| access-date = 2007-10-08

| url-status = dead

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160718154627/http://www.ciderspace.co.uk/ASP/opposition/leighrmi.asp

| archive-date = 18 July 2016}} The stadium was subsequently leveled, and a residential housing development now sits on the former site of Grundy Hill.