Oakwell 1952

It was already concreted over in 87 when I first started going, so I'm guessing that must have happened late 60's / early 70's?

 

I'm imagining the bogs I went to at a "motorway" service station in Cambodia, minus the mosquitos and the snake lurking in the dark.

 

Two things I get from that.......

1) Credit to the ground staff as the playing surface looks really good.

2) Imagine living in one of those properties behind the east stand where we now have the fanzone.

 

I think it was 3-0 with hundreds of MU supporters on the Ponty End cheering us on, having bagged a ticket for the cup tie. The remarkable crowd was over 17,000, much bigger than the usual of course.

 

By the time I started watching in 1968, the roof on the paddock stretched all the way along the length of the pitch.

 

I think that's beevor hall? Unless that was demolished before 1952.
It was a bleachworks or a mill in the 1800s and during the first world war it housed refugees. It was also a hospital in it's latter years

 

My first match, as a 6 year old, was the opening game of the 1955-6 season v Leeds, which we won 2-1. It was our first game back in the 2nd Division, after a 2 year stint in 3rd North. I stood with my elder brother by the wall at the front of the Terrace, north side.

 

I remember all of that. The Man United game in the 5th round of the FA Cup was indeed in 1964 and, as you say, we could buy tickets at the Wrexham match, one or two weeks earlier. We bought the Cup ticket as we went through the turnstile for the Wrexham match, a clever way of raising extra revenue from the league game.

 

I rseem to remember the steps from which we watched the match were made of wood.

 

We got our first floodlights in 1962. The first game played under the lights was a friendly against Bolton, who were in the 1st Division then. The recently retired great Tom Finney guested for us.

 

I played both football and cricket on that. I remember playing cricket on one occasion with a couple of pals, one of them being the son of the former landlord of the Mount Osborne, as it was known in those days, when Big Winnie came out, with two or three other players, for a bit of extra pre-season training.

 

Sounds pretty safe, especially with people dropping their woodbines directly onto them!

 

I noticed those, and wondered whether they were residential properties or something else? I'm sure someone on here knows what they were.

 

I remember watching a div 4 promotion game against the blunts, which I think we drew which was enough - @biglil will know. I was in the terrace, the bit that's closed now and could see a small fire in the brewery stand opposite. No one seemed to take much notice, don't think it lasted long.

Edit, must have been div 3 31-mar-1981

 

Not old enough to have attended at the time the photo was taken but when the Paddock/Brewery Stand was extended, the bottom half was concrete steps, there was then a flat walkway a few feet wide then the top part had wooden flooring, with a few barriers and a corrugated metal roof and back. Underneath the stand at the back about half way down was a small tea bar.

At the bottom of the rear steps was a free standing toilet block open to the elements. Might have been urinals only - can’t remember. At times of high demand, those who couldn’t get into the bogs went against the perimeter wall or on the shale/muck under the rear of the stand structure.

And you try telling the young people of today that - they won’t believe yer.

 

The idea of a small fire just being ignored would have been quite humorous, were it not for the tragic events at Bradford a few years later. The idea of ever being able to smoke in a wooden football stadium is absolutely mind-boggling, but it was completely normal within my living memory, so relatively recently on the grand scale of things.

 

The fire was probably something being burnt on the concrete bit, so not potentially serious really.

 

If I'm not mistaken there was a Wilson &longbottom bobbin works and the brewery down there

 

As far as I recall the pilings were obviously concreted in, and there were concrete/brick steps down the banking at intervals, but for the most part it was basically a pit muckstack under there, and it was common for people to relieve themselves there.

 

Ditto, same year as me also regarding the coop ground during the august & early september of a season there used to be a cricket match going on which often was more entertaining , although watching Duncan Sharpe taking no prisoners was worth the entrance money !