An old snowy Turf Moor view

[Claretforever]

A couple of shots from the Bee Hole End of a snowy Turf Moor with the Brunshaw Road Stand being demolished in the background.

I’ve seen mention of a 2-2 with Everton, which would date it as 9th January 1971. Can anybody confirm as I thought the Brunshaw Road stand has been demolished by this time?



can you get full coverage on a salvage title

[Pstotto]

It had gone by 71. I think it might have been demolished by 69.

[Claretforever]

The CFS opened in 1969, so I was assuming it had gone within a few months of that?

[Royboyclaret]

Interesting pics Claretforever.

Some key dates :-
1) Last game for Cricket Field terracing - v. Everton 30.Dec '67
2) Last game for old Brunshaw Road stand - v. Sunderland 23. Apr.'69
3) New Cricket Field stand opened by Lord Rhodes for pre-season friendly v. 'Boro Aug. '69.
4) Bob Lord stand opened v. Aston Villa 16. Feb. '74, then officially opened by Edward Heath v. Leeds 14. Sep. '74.

Difficult to date the game in the two pics exactly, but certainly the game v. Everton Jan.'71 is more than likely. At that time only Everton and Arsenal wore that yellow ochre shirt / blue shorts as a second strip so an Everton game seems a realistic suggestion. We played Arsenal at home in September of that season so unlikely to have been snow on the ground!

[Royboyclaret]

We did also play Everton at home on 7th March '70, so I suppose snow might still have been on the ground by then!

[Claretforever]

Yeah, the snow got me down to the two games if it was Everton. I wasn’t sure it definitely was Everton, but your comments suggest it could well be. The person who took these images suggested he went to this match because a game at spotland was postponed.

[Royboyclaret]

One aspect of all the ground changes at that time that I still find remarkable is that we went almost five full seasons without any spectators on the Brunshaw Road side. Two in Division One, two in Division Two and over half of the '73/'74 season back in Division One.

Originally there was the Enclosure in front of the old Brunshaw Road stand which itself held over 6,000 fans so, with the closure of the stand also, capacity would have been reduced by almost 10,000 for almost five seasons.

[TheFamilyCat]

Nearly five years to build the BLS. Makes progress on the new corner stands seem almost express.

[tim_noone]

Nearly five years to build the BLS. Makes progress on the new corner stands seem almost express.

Steady on.... They're not up yet.

[Silkyskills1]

We did also play Everton at home on 7th March '70, so I suppose snow might still have been on the ground by then!

Remember that game. Everton fans singing their praises of Colin Harvey in a 2-1 win for them and there was no snow around for that game. Everton were champions that season weren't they?

[Royboyclaret]

Nearly five years to build the BLS. Makes progress on the new corner stands seem almost express.

I've often wondered if the Brunshaw Road stand (built in 1908) was actually condemned as unsafe and had to be closed in April '69 long before Bob Lord had the finance available to construct the new BLS. I suppose it had stood there for over 60 years and Lord may have had the hard word that it had to come down.

[Royboyclaret]

Remember that game. Everton fans singing their praises of Colin Harvey in a 2-1 win for them and there was no snow around for that game. Everton were champions that season weren't they?

Cheers for that Silky, remember Steve Kindon scored our goal.

[TheFamilyCat]

I know nothing about construction and even less about construction in the '60's & '70's but five years to knock one stand down and build a new one seems a hell of a long time.

[Buxtonclaret]

We seemed to play 'Forever' with just three sides.
Always remember being very underwhelmed by the BL.
Selling Dobbo probably had something to do with that too.

[Royboyclaret]

We seemed to play 'Forever' with just three sides.
Always remember being very underwhelmed by the BL.
Selling Dobbo probably had something to do with that too.

Absolutely right, Buxton, in fact I recall it being called the 'Martin Dobson' stand for some years.

No coincidence that the stand cost £450,000 and that was the amount we received for Dobo from Everton in August'74.

[Claretforever]

We seemed to play 'Forever' with just three sides.
Always remember being very underwhelmed by the BL.
Selling Dobbo probably had something to do with that too.

The original plans were for an 8,000 capacity single tier stand to replace the Brunshaw Road stand. Recession, relegation, conveyor belt of players slowing down etc put paid to that.

[Buxtonclaret]

The original plans were for an 8,000 capacity single tier stand to replace the Brunshaw Road stand. Recession, relegation, conveyor belt of players slowing down etc put paid to that.

Think I remember reading it should have been bigger.
But whatever.
Dobbo was worth 3, 4 or more stands like that!


Oh, and they're great pics!

[Silkyskills1]

Cheers for that Silky, remember Steve Kindon scored our goal.

There was a song in the charts at the time, a one hit wonder by a group called 'Steam'. The song title was Na na hey hey,kiss him goodbye and the Everton fans adapted this song to support Colin Harvey. Funny, the things we remember. I watched the game from the Longside where both Burnley fans and Everton fans were congregated.It was a bit lively but no major problems as was the case generally at Turf Moor

Edit Just checked attendances around the fixture. We were getting about 13/14 thousand in previous games but for Everton it was 21,000 plus which would suggest at least 7,000 Evertonians. Perhaps it was a bit more lively than I recall.

[Royboyclaret]

The original plans were for an 8,000 capacity single tier stand to replace the Brunshaw Road stand. Recession, relegation, conveyor belt of players slowing down etc put paid to that.

It's interesting to study the second photo in Claretforever's OP and note that, at that date, just half of the old stand had been demolished.

We know that the last game for fans in there was 23rd April 1969, so if the game in the OP was dated 9th January 1971 (as the OP suggests) then it was 21 months before half the structure was demolished.

[Claretforever]

There was a song in the charts at the time, a one hit wonder by a group called 'Steam'. The song title was Na na hey hey,kiss him goodbye and the Everton fans adapted this song to support Colin Harvey. Funny, the things we remember. I watched the game from the Longside where both Burnley fans and Everton fans were congregated.It was a bit lively but no major problems as was the case generally at Turf Moor

Edit Just checked attendances around the fixture. We were getting about 13/14 thousand in previous games but for Everton it was 21,000 plus which would suggest at least 7,000 Evertonians. Perhaps it was a bit more lively than I recall.

That’s a good assumption, but it doesn’t take into account the extra Burnley fans for certain big games. Eg, we know that we have circa 18,500 home fans buying tickets nowadays, although I’m sure 1,000 on average don’t show up. For the big games though, you know that we sell out weeks before and could possibly have 25,000 home fans or more some games.

I’d imagine a couple of thousand extra home fans for a Lancashire derby against a top side at the time?

[ClaretTony]

Nearly five years to build the BLS. Makes progress on the new corner stands seem almost express.

Ha ha - had we not won promotion in 1973 it would have been even longer. We closed it, demolished it and were then relegated so it was just left with nothing there until we won promotion again. That led to the new stand being built.

[ClaretTony]

It's interesting to study the second photo in Claretforever's OP and note that, at that date, just half of the old stand had been demolished.

We know that the last game for fans in there was 23rd April 1969, so if the game in the OP was dated 9th January 1971 (as the OP suggests) then it was 21 months before half the structure was demolished.

You can also see that the old houses on Brunshaw Road were still there. When were they demolished?

[RammyClaret61]

It’s before the start of the 70/71 season. My first ever game at Turf Moor was September 1970 and it was just boarding along that side. The stand had gone.

[Silkyskills1]

This must surely rate as a classic example of investigative 'posting'. Great stuff.

[Buxtonclaret]

This must surely rate as a classic example of investigative 'posting'. Great stuff.

It is, Silky.
Frustrating too, though.
Remember being on with my dad and only half the Brunshaw Rd stand being left up. But not with snow on the ground.
CT asking too, about the terraced houses still being there behind. I thought they were still there when Jimmy Adamson had gone.

[Silkyskills1]

It is, Silky.
Frustrating too, though.
Remember being on with my dad and only half the Brunshaw Rd stand being left up. But not with snow on the ground.
CT asking too, about the terraced houses still being there behind. I thought they were still there when Jimmy Adamson had gone.

Some of my earliest memories of going to Turf Moor involved queueing up on Brunshaw Rd. with my dad to collect tickets from behind an old 'sash-tyoe window of one of the houses that served as a ticket office.

[Dark Cloud]

Me too. Some of my very earliest memories are of sitting in that old Brunshaw Road stand with my dad circa 1963 and despite the amazing array of talent on show in claret and blue, being absolutely bored witless and running around with my brother annoying everybody! We were just too young to appreciate it back then!

[Hipper]

Playing on a snowbound pitch - those were the days.

There would have been the orange ball. I went to one game where the penalty area was cleared of snow and the rest of the snow was rolled then painted with turquoise lines.

[Atticus62]

What about Southampton ? Seem to remember they played in yellow with blue shorts away too ...

[ElectroClaret]

Talking about the terraced houses, on the bottom picture,
I think you can just make out a gap in the terrace at the end of the stand. Think that might have been Ann Street, because im sure the Cricketers pub was there. Or maybe it was further down towards the Wellington junction.

[houseboy]

The CFS opened in 1969, so I was assuming it had gone within a few months of that?

My first visit to the Turf was around 68/69 (January 3rd round FA cup). It was there then and after that first visit I had a couple of goes in the enclosure in front of it. The enclosure had a nice feel to it, never went in the stand though.

[Silkyskills1]

Got relegated at end of 70-71 season.

[houseboy]

Got relegated at end of 70-71 season.

Was it not '72? Two years down and back in 74? Pretty sure the Deepdale game where we won the Championship ahead of QPR was '74. Two years back up and down again in 76 never to be seen again for far too long.

[Claretforever]

Was it not '72? Two years down and back in 74? Pretty sure the Deepdale game where we won the Championship ahead of QPR was '74. Two years back up and down again in 76 never to be seen again for far too long.

We won the title at Deepdale in ‘73.

[houseboy]

We sure did. My mind playing tricks. Apologies.

[Stan Tastic]

This will enable us to proceed with the demolition of the Brunshaw Road main stand, and in its place will be erected one of the most modern cantilever stands in the country.”

The new stand, he confirmed, would hold about 8,000 spectators, would also be heated throughout and would include private boxes.

“The timetable for all this is two years,” Mr Lord confirmed. “And by 1970 Turf Moor should rank with the best in league football. Further to that, we have plans going ahead for developing entertainments and should we not be successful in being able to buy further land adjoining Turf Moor we can still manage a dance hall and a large club room.

We ended up with a stand that wasn't cantilever and with less than half the capacity. I've never liked that stand.

[Dark Cloud]

If only he'd held out and built to the original plans. Would have been miles better. He'd just have to have charged Everton a bit more for Dobbo!!

[Hipper]

One aspect of all the ground changes at that time that I still find remarkable is that we went almost five full seasons without any spectators on the Brunshaw Road side. Two in Division One, two in Division Two and over half of the '73/'74 season back in Division One.

Originally there was the Enclosure in front of the old Brunshaw Road stand which itself held over 6,000 fans so, with the closure of the stand also, capacity would have been reduced by almost 10,000 for almost five seasons.

Perhaps that's why we won our first league game back up in 1973 at Bramall Lane, because they only had three sides as it was also used as a cricket ground.

http://www.stadiumguide.com/bramalllane/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;