The sports ground is first depicted on the 1976 OS map. It replaced fields with regular boundaries indicative of parliamentary enclosure. They were probably created as part of the Wadsley & Loxley Chase enclosure award of 1789. The name 'Loxley Chase' persists and recalls the former use as a hunting ground for the De Wadsley family. It was probably created from moorland at the same time that the sub manor of Wadsley was created, in the late 13th century. Legibility of the earlier landscape is invisible.