Proctor Cars Stadium

Proctor Cars Stadium sits on Causeway Lane in Matlock, where the ground was first laid down sometime before the 1910–11 season. It is a shared facility, with the cricket club occupying the same patch of Derbyshire earth. The original wooden stand, erected in 1920 and later renamed the Cyril Harrison Stand, gave way to a second tier in 1959, while floodlights arrived in 1970 and a concrete terrace followed two years later.

What distinguishes the place is the thoroughness of the 2010 overhaul. Funded by the Football Foundation and Derbyshire County Council, the work stripped out asbestos and replaced the old terracing with the all-seater Twigg Stand, named for local steel supplier William Twigg, alongside a new social club. The redevelopment shifted the capacity—figures for the current ground hover between 2,300 and 2,757—but secured the structure for the future. Before that, the name changed repeatedly: The Geoquip Stadium, Reynolds Stadium, Autoworld Arena, and DCJ Group Insurance Arena preceded The Proctor Cars Stadium, a title agreed in June 2022.

There is a single moment that defines the stadium’s history. In the 1974–75 season Matlock Town captured the FA Trophy, defeating Scarborough 4–0 in the final, and the following year carried that momentum into the FA Cup Third Round. The record attendance of 5,123 arrived later, in 1975, for an FA Trophy semi-final against Burton Albion. The club still plays on natural grass in the Northern Premier League Division One East, sharing the field with the cricket team and the memory of the Gladiators’ one great cup run.