Abbey Stadium

The ground at the eastern end of Newmarket Road exists because one man bought the land and handed it over. Henry Francis, then president of Cambridge United, purchased the site in 1931, put up a stand and a set of dressing rooms, and gave the lot to the club. The official opening followed on 31 August 1932, and the club has played there ever since.

Building work had been going on in stages since 1923. Who did it is another matter: the names of the architects and contractors never made it into the record.

The Abbey Stadium only acquired that name in 1961; before then it had no official one at all. What followed was a long run of sponsors' names layered over it. Trade Recruitment Stadium from May 2008, R Costings Abbey Stadium from June 2009, and Cambs Glass Stadium among the earlier variants. Since 2024 the sponsor has been Cledara, making it the Cledara Abbey Stadium on paperwork, though the older name has barely moved in ordinary use.

The south stand carried its own separate deals, changing hands from the Mead Plant & Grab Stand to the Marston's Smooth Stand to the Heritage Conservatories Stand.

The playing surface is grass and has stayed grass; no artificial pitch has been laid. The ground sits in Abbey Ward, south of Newmarket Road, in a corner of the city whose administrative boundaries have not been redrawn since the stadium went up.