Remembering Arthur Bellamy

[ClaretTony]

Arthur Bellamy passed away four years ago last month and I still miss chatting to him every time I go down to Gawthorpe. I knew they were doing this but I was delighted this morning when I walked in to see the wording having gone up on his old bunglow.

Arthur Bellamy Media Centre.jpg (87.51 KiB) Viewed 3384 times

[JimmyMac'sMate]

So it my self this morning great touch from the club utc

[Claret Till I Die]

I think that's a great gesture. Well done Burnley FC.

[ClaretTony]

I think that's a great gesture. Well done Burnley FC.

It was the security man who told me a few months ago that they were going to do this. He didn't know Arthur or anything about him, just that he was a former player. I hadn't forgotten about it but had begun to think it might not happen.

Really thrilled to see it this morning and he told me that one of his sons had been down to see it and I think the club are going to invite his wife Maureen down.

It's not the first time something has been given his name at Gawthorpe. When the youth department built a filming platform over the old youth pitch dug outs with the money we'd donated, they always jokingly referred to it as the Arthur Bellamy Stand. I think Arthur was quite impressed with that.

Wonderful sense of humour. I went down to watch a youth game one day and got talking to him and he asked me if I'd been to the away game on the previous Saturday. We chatted about that and he said he could have gone to Ewood that day, he'd received an invite from former Claret Mick Buxton who works for the Premier League and had a box that day.

It had got to Thursday and Maureen asked him: "Are we going Arthur?" to which he replied: "I don't think so. I don't like going there and, in any case, Buxton's a right boring old fart."

Arthur and Mick Buxton were the very best of friends though.

[mkmel]

What a great touch from the club

[KeighleyClaret]

Great memories and a superb gesture by the club.

[warksclaret]

Remember his silky skills-played No 10. One of our unsung heroes . Just like Sammy Todd. Thanks Tony for the update

[elwaclaret]

Too young to remember his playing days but on the few occasions I spoke to him at the ground always found him a really warm and genuine guy. Glad the club have done this in his honour. Good to see we still remember our own.

[CleggHall]

A very clever if slight inside forward. Never really held down a regular spot but contributed to the team over many years despite the heavy grounds. Elegant comes to mind and it's nice to see him remembered in this way, Burnley is a family club and Arthur was an important member of that family.

[ebby]

He used to come up to St Teds occasionally and help train a couple of teams on the all weather pitch. This was whilst he was playing in the first team. Nice guy.

[Bin Ont Turf]

Great stuff.

He was part of the furniture here for many years, and his name will now remain so for many more years.

[Targetman]

He used to come up to St Teds occasionally and help train a couple of teams on the all weather pitch. This was whilst he was playing in the first team. Nice guy.

Thats quite correct, he used to coach the under 15 team at St Teds when I played with them.

Whats the weather like in Perth ebby? Bet its a bit warmer than Lancashire!

[SlidingTackle]

Excellent to see this, and I very much hope that Maureen, Craig and Andrew see this as what it is, an excellent tribute to an excellent 'Burnley' man.

He, arguably, was the reason I became a Burnley fan.

I am the son of parents from Bolton, and through my father's work I was born in Coventry (where I lived between 1960 and 1963), before we moved to Exeter, (where I lived between 1963 and 1970). Now, although my Dad (a Bolton Wanderers fan) took me to Exeter City v. Wrexham Town in the mid / late-1960s there was no future in that, and, partly as my older cousin was a Liverpool fan, and Everton were a good team in the late 1960s, I admit, I dabbled with supporting Everton.

But this all changed immediately when we moved to Burnley when I was just about 10. We moved to the Brownside estate in Worsthorne, and our house was directly opposite that of Arthur and Maureen Bellamy. Maureen sent Arthur across the road with a tray of sandwiches and a pot of tea to help us move in.... .

Soon afterwards, Arthur arranged for complimentary tickets for my Dad and I to sit in the Cricketfield Stand (then a state of the art stand!) for each and every home game.

All we had to do was go to the players entrance before each home game and ask the 'commissionaire' there whether there were any tickets for us. Memorably, he would very guardedly look at the clutch of envelopes in the inside pocket of his overcoat as ne'er do wells had taken to reading the names of the envelopes and asking 'Are there any tickets for .......?'.

Anyway, as a result, it's all Arthur's fault.

How could it be any other way when, as a 10 year old you are watching First Division football with your Dad courtesy of a First Division footballer?

A top top man. And a really lovely family.

He was a very quiet, self-effacing man, (and as such I am a little struck by the incongruity of the media centre being named after him) but a really wonderful gesture by the club.

[CaptJohn]

Very talented footballer and pretty handy with a short pronged fork
Last time I saw him it was at Gawthorpe and he was loading his car up outside his house. I said hello and said I was surprised that he wasn't away with the team. (This was in the summer after out promotion with Coyle) From his response I gathered that he was none too pleased at not getting an invite. I think the team were in the US or some other overseas location.
One of the Clarets unsung heroes and I'm so pleased he has had some recognition at last.

[onewillieirvine]

I remember the hat trick he scored against Orient in 1971, one of our unsung heroes of the 1960's. Never let us down when he played.

[ClaretTony]

Very talented footballer and pretty handy with a short pronged fork
Last time I saw him it was at Gawthorpe and he was loading his car up outside his house. I said hello and said I was surprised that he wasn't away with the team. (This was in the summer after out promotion with Coyle) From his response I gathered that he was none too pleased at not getting an invite. I think the team were in the US or some other overseas location.
One of the Clarets unsung heroes and I'm so pleased he has had some recognition at last.

Arthur had been groundsman for some number of years by then so he would not have been going on any trip to America. In any case, he was already quite ill by then.

[ClaretTony]

Excellent to see this, and I very much hope that Maureen, Craig and Andrew see this as what it is, an excellent tribute to an excellent 'Burnley' man.

He, arguably, was the reason I became a Burnley fan.

I am the son of parents from Bolton, and through my father's work I was born in Coventry (where I lived between 1960 and 1963), before we moved to Exeter, (where I lived between 1963 and 1970). Now, although my Dad (a Bolton Wanderers fan) took me to Exeter City v. Wrexham Town in the mid / late-1960s there was no future in that, and, partly as my older cousin was a Liverpool fan, and Everton were a good team in the late 1960s, I admit, I dabbled with supporting Everton.

But this all changed immediately when we moved to Burnley when I was just about 10. We moved to the Brownside estate in Worsthorne, and our house was directly opposite that of Arthur and Maureen Bellamy. Maureen sent Arthur across the road with a tray of sandwiches and a pot of tea to help us move in.... .

Soon afterwards, Arthur arranged for complimentary tickets for my Dad and I to sit in the Cricketfield Stand (then a state of the art stand!) for each and every home game.

All we had to do was go to the players entrance before each home game and ask the 'commissionaire' there whether there were any tickets for us. Memorably, he would very guardedly look at the clutch of envelopes in the inside pocket of his overcoat as ne'er do wells had taken to reading the names of the envelopes and asking 'Are there any tickets for .......?'.

Anyway, as a result, it's all Arthur's fault.

How could it be any other way when, as a 10 year old you are watching First Division football with your Dad courtesy of a First Division footballer?

A top top man. And a really lovely family.

He was a very quiet, self-effacing man, (and as such I am a little struck by the incongruity of the media centre being named after him) but a really wonderful gesture by the club.

Everything you have written about Arthur and Maureen rings true to me. In some ways naming a media centre in his name is probably a bit strange but it’s been done because it was Arthur’s home for many years.

[Silkyskills1]

Another hat-trick at Goodison Park in 1963, all in the first half where we led 4-1. Game finished 4-3 and ended a very long run of games where Everton had remained undefeated at home.

[ClaretTony]

Another hat-trick at Goodison Park in 1963, all in the first half where we led 4-1. Game finished 4-3 and ended a very long run of games where Everton had remained undefeated at home.

I think Miller got the other and it ended an unbeaten home record of about two years standing.

[Oshkoshclaret]

This is great to see, nice work CT.

[longhair]

Looks like the wood hut chippy he ran for a fee years in burnlry

[ants_g]

Looks like the wood hut chippy he ran for a fee years in burnlry

Yes he had Lane Head chippy for a while. About 40 years ago that.