Excellent thread... Just a few comments..... Hull City was Chris Chilton's first league team - he was signed from Bilton around 1960. In 1963, City acquired Ron Rafferty from Grimsby Town to pair with Chilton. It was a huge deal, with expectations similar to that of the acquisition of Waggy a year later. Rafferty had been a goal machine at Grimsby much like Waggy had been at Mansfield. But I was at Rafferty's first game for City in which, after looking quiet impressive, he broke his ankle - a huge disappointment for everyone including of course Rafferty himself. He never really recovered while at City, making only 16 appearances. In 1964, City then acquired Waggy, quickly followed by Houghton & Butler - each for GB40K.
I've got a blown up picture of the Ogdens Cigarettes framed in pride of place on our wall. The wife moans at what she describes as tacky modern day city merchandise but I got away with this as she says it retro and not too in your face? ( womens minds???)
summat for you ****s http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Hull_City/Hull_City.htm http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Hull_City/Hull_City.htm
HCST guest writer Darren Norton revisits a place we all know so well – Boothferry Park… “Re-visit graveyards Pubs and clubs But don’t go back To a place you love They quickly turn To distant shores No longer yours, no longer mine, no longer our’s” The above are lyrics from a song by Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott off their latest album. The song refers to a time of industry and factories, vibrant workplaces that were sadly lost. It also refers to the social aspect of such places and the impact of the closures when the various places were closed for good. Well that’s my take on it anyway. The beauty of Heaton’s writing is that his take on things can so easily be placed into most aspects of life, and in turn are open to interpretation. Who knows, he may well have been talking about lost football grounds when he wrote the above? When I first heard it that’s exactly where my mind went. As an ex-Hull City fan of a certain age I can remember Boothferry Park. Home to The Tigers for fifty years or so, twenty of which I was present, to me it was simply beautiful. There was no better sight or smell or sound to an excited youngster than walking to the ground on a cold winter’s evening, busy hustling along with several hundred others from the maze of side streets. The glint of the floodlight pylons high in the dark night’s sky. The sound of conversation on what we were about to witness, team news buzzing along like Chinese whispers. All against the backdrop of hurried steps as kick off fast approached. The smell was a combination of burger vans and trepidation. After all this was the early 80’s, and frankly we were rubbish, a million miles away from todays polished Premier League product. But it was our rubbish, not some millionaire egotist’s or foreign investor. But I digress. Once you had navigated the assembled throng outside and joined the queue to hand over a fiver to gain admission, the dark concrete concourse greeted you. The clunking of turnstiles could be heard above anything else, as thousands of feet pounded the well-worn steps. Emerging on a half deserted terrace brought far more satisfaction than walking into today’s high-tech seated version. The sense of knowing you’d made it on time – that you’d done your bit by simply attending when, at the time, many didn’t bother. My early memories are of crowds barely above a couple of thousand and yet most games you were seemingly surrounded by the same faces huddled together. From different walks of life, even towns in my case, but with a shared cause and love for what brought us here – the love of our team. Knowing nods given to people you didn’t know but for ninety minutes you would share a friendship that didn’t need introductions. Stood together on the crumbling terrace propped up against the amber painted crush-barrier if you were lucky enough to bag a space. For the next hour and a half this place was home. Like a favourite comfy chair at home, here we had our favourite vantage point surrounded by friends and like-minded souls. We laughed, we sang, we cheered, we moaned, we complained. We loved and invariably we lost. Hull City AFC left Boothferry Park in 2002. That year a little bit of several thousand people died. Like the loss of someone or something special, knowing you’d never set foot in the place again. We’d seen padlocks on the gates before, during various financial disputes, but this time it was for good. No more dilapidated terrace or broken seats. No more the surge of a crowd or delirium of a goal. We would never go back to the place we loved. 3pm on a Saturday afternoon would never be the same again. Demolition started in 2008, more than five years after the last game was played there. It would be a further three years before the imposing floodlights were obliterated from the West Hull skyline. A brand new housing estate now stands where my memories and childhood once were. A street called The Halfway Line the only giveaway as to what once stood there. I didn’t follow Heaton’s advice. I went back to the place I loved. Over a decade since I last visited. Not being from that side of the City I had no need to go. But I did for one last time. As I stood staring at the lavish new town houses I closed my eyes. The sights, sounds and smells all came back to me. For those few moments Boothferry Park stood there again, the corrugated amber-painted shrine was alive in my mind. Those impressive floodlights illuminating the centre of my universe. The perfect green grass. I opened my eyes and it was gone, forever confined to my own memories. It was no longer mine, no longer yours, no longer ours. http://hullcitysupporterstrust.com/memoriesofboothferrypark/
Thankyou OLM for bringing back memories of BP. For me as a young lad in the dark days after WWII it was indeed home away from home. I could get lost in the roar of crowds of 40,000 (those were the days eh!!). And after a win and watching the magic of the great ones, Carter, Franklin, Wilf Mannion, etc those long bus rides back to Beverley didnt seem so long for a lonely teenager.
A sense of place and the experience of atmosphere can be, along with smell, sound and sight, things that can trigger long forgotten memories and suddenly transport you back decades to where and when you were a different person. Nostalgia - it is what it used to be. Boothferry Park, or at least my memories of it, remain strongly etched on my psyche. A little boy sitting with old men, not understanding their talk, sucking on sweets taken from a quarter of Yorkshire mixture. Alone in the Well, trusted to attend on my own for the first time. Bunkers and Kempton pretending (and no doubt failing) to be a dead hard 15 year old. Entering through the ratchety turnstiles, climbing the bank, tinny pop tunes playing, spotting your mates, going over, messing on, getting a good place. Crowd surges, pitch invasion - 'come on then! screamed towards a hardcore of 100 Millwall, led by the iconic Harry the Dog. Don't run! Don't run! Stand ya ground. Stanley's gonna get ya. Yer, right. Best kecks, star jumper, wedges- taking a lass. 10 number six. Walk 6 miles there, the banter, the joking, the hope. Nick a pint of milk from the milkfloat on Bricknall. It's gone now. But so much remains within me. There was nowt special about Boothferry Park. But it was mine. I owned it because it forged part of my soul.
Top post, that brought back quite a few memories, although I was living in Scunthorpe by the age of 13 so remember seeing the floodlights as I traveled on the number 6 bus across the humber bridge, all my pocket money too! I remember when we did occasionally score people would get crushed against a barrier by people jumping around so much, wicked.
I started supporting City in the early 60s and it was a fantastic place for a youngster. It would take ages to walk up to the top corner of Bunkers. When the South Stand was built there was a fantastic atmosphere. Later there was Kempton. But to be honest in the later years it was a wreck. I'll never have a great love of the KC. Maybe because I'm a lot older but mostly because I prefer a ground that is designed for the noisy fans as well as the quieter fans and corporates.
I first went to Boothferry Park in 1957. I lived near Sutton and caught a bus into town and walked from the bus station to the ground. Admission was 1/6d (7.5p). I can still remember most of the team from that era: Bly, Harrison, Durham, Collinson, Feasey, Bulless(?), Clarke, Stephens,Bradbury. Smith, Cripsey; Manager Bob Brocklebank ... no doubt some of my fellow veterans can correct me. There are so many highlights I recall such as beating Oldham Athletic 9-0 when every one of the forwards scored. I also remember Harold Needler giving Hull City shares in Hoveringham Gravel and the incredible floodlights that were installed as a result of that gift. It heralded the dawn of the Wagstaff Chilton Houghton Butler era. We were the only club to have our own railway station and as I got more pocket money, it was a choice of getting the train or buying a programme. I won't bore anyone with further dreams of yesterday but the passing of Boothferry Park was the passing of an era.
Agreed. The nod and a wink shared with people at games now, that you recognise from then, but don't know gives a flashback to times that just can't be bought.
Leaving Boothferry park was very sad, although there was also excitement going to a brand new stadium. I've got so many memories getting the bus from Bransholme straight to the ground, sometimes into town and catching the train, seeing so many games in the lower leagues, going with my Dad, then my mates, then often going home and saying never again but there I was at the next match. Games what stand out for me were Blackburn when the fog came down, both Liverpool games, West ham in the cup losing to Scunthorpe even losing to a non league team. All these times which made me the passionate fan I am now. When they KC was been built I went every Sunday morning and videoed it, one morning Adam Pearson was stood there next to me and said " its looking good isn't it?" I replied yes. At which he said, "If we don't win promotion here I think I will pack it all in because we will never have a better chance". My goodness, who would have thought in such a short time the promotions, relegation and cup run we would have. I've got to say I have had some great times following City in both stadiums but the early days at Boothferry park made me the fan I am today but I am sure when I finally look back at my times following the Tigers I will look at the KC with equal fondness
My fav game from years ago (or at least one that sticks in my mind), back in 84 or 85, night game against Shrewsbury, we were losing (I think 3-1) and we came back to win 4-3, anyone else go?
