In 1896, a syndicate of local businessmen began a project to create a sports complex at the site known as Crabble Meadows on the outskirts of Dover.

[8] The ground was originally laid out on an 8 acres (3.2 ha) plateau "carved out of the side of the hill"[7] and was originally laid out to cater for cricket and football, with an athletics track and 640 yards (590 m) international standard cycling track around the edge of the playing surfaces.

[7] The pitch was shared by the town's cricket and football teams, with the cricketers being given priority, which meant that the football team was forced to begin and end its season either with a long run of consecutive away matches or by playing matches at other, less satisfactory, venues in the town.

applied for permission to build a grandstand on the southern side of the "upper pitch" in 1947, but the application was rejected.

Three years later, the club was permitted to extend the existing small stand on the opposite side and in 1951, Dover F.C.

moved to the upper pitch on a permanent basis, initially paying the council rent of £300 a year.

When the team won the Southern League championship in 1990, however, promotion to the Football Conference was refused on the grounds that the stadium did not meet the standard required by the higher division.

played home fixtures at the stadium while redevelopment work took place at their own Hartsdown Park ground.

[11] What was originally intended to be a short-term arrangement ended up lasting for two years as the redevelopment work stalled.

[17] In 2008 the club launched a project to replace the existing clubhouse with a new £200,000 building featuring a larger bar, better audio-visual facilities and a high quality kitchen.

The Main Stand, which has been in place since 1951, occupies the length of one side of the pitch and has a roof supported by numerous columns, which obscure the view for some fans.

[19] The stadium is approximately 1.5 miles (2 km) from Kearsney railway station, which lies on Southeastern's Chatham Main Line from London Victoria to Dover Priory.

[1] Current club Dover Athletic's record home attendance is the crowd of 5,645 for the match against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup on 4 January 2015.

[24][25] The experiment, with Gloucestershire providing the opposition, was successful and from 1908 the ground was given a cricket week by the county club, with two first-class matches played in almost every season until the end of the 1960s.

[23] The cycling track remains, and the ground and original cricket pavilion are used by Dover RFC for rugby union matches.