I had cause to be in Atherton yesterday and, as I’d not been for several seasons, went by the Atherton Collieries ground to reacquaint myself with it.
I spoke with someone outside who told me that, although crowds are usually only around 300, the car park outside the ground gets full quite early. For those that went to Farsley last week, it looks a very similar set-up and sized car park, maybe a tad smaller.
The chap also mentioned that the residents of the neighbouring streets full of terraced houses can get a bit shirty if anyone parks next to their houses on matchday – so recommended going to the free town centre car parks if the ground car park is full when you get there.
The town centre is very close to the ground – 5 or 6 minutes walk – and is actually a much shorter walk than the drive around the one-way system in the town centre might suggest.
It is only a 7 miles journey for me yet, because of the way the local boundaries run, I start off from where I live in the Borough of Bolton, cross into the City of Salford, go back into the Borough of Bolton and then finally into the Borough of Wigan. A route I travel on very often, as I pass through Atherton on my to Wigan Warriors’ home games.