Prince Charles opens Villa Park's new Trinity Road Stand

Prince Charles has officially opened the new Trinity Road Stand at Villa Park, 77 years after his grandfather opened the stand it replaces.

The opening in November marks the completion of one of the most significant developments at Aston Villa's home in decades.

Replacing a masterpiece

The old Trinity Road Stand was one of the most celebrated football stands in Britain. Construction began in April 1922, and it was officially opened on 26 January 1924 by the Duke of York, later King George VI, who remarked that he had "no idea that a ground so finely equipped in every way - and devoted to football - existed".

On completion it was considered one of the grandest stands in the country, with stained glass windows, Italian mosaics, Dutch gables in the style of Aston Hall and a sweeping staircase. Its Oak Room was the first restaurant at a British football ground. A Sunday Times reporter once described it as the "St Pancras of football".

The stand's final cost, with associated ground developments, came to £89,000, a sum that so angered the club's directors that they ordered an investigation, and in 1925 forced the resignation of director Frederick Rinder, whose plans had driven the development.

A ground with history

Aston Villa moved to the site in 1897, when it was the Aston Lower Grounds, a sports ground in a Victorian amusement park in the grounds of Aston Hall.

After winning the league in 1899, record crowds allowed the club to invest in the ground, and in 1911 Villa bought the freehold. Rinder's ambitious plans would eventually raise the ground's capacity to more than 100,000.

A modern stadium

Since the Taylor Report following the Hillsborough disaster, Villa Park has been converted to an all-seater stadium, with each of its stands rebuilt or modernised. The new Trinity Road Stand completes that transformation.

A royal link

The opening by Prince Charles continues a royal connection with the stand that stretches back to its predecessor, and gives the club a centrepiece for its home for decades to come.

For Villa supporters, the new stand is a sign of the club's ambitions as it competes in the Premier League and in Europe, having qualified for this season's UEFA Cup by winning the Intertoto Cup in August.

The old stand was designed by Archibald Leitch, and several commentators, including the football ground historian Simon Inglis, have described it as his masterpiece. Villa had first been able to invest in the ground after winning the league in 1899, when the club recorded a then-record average crowd of 21,000.