Our Ground in the 1930s

[Suffolk Blue]

Always preferred Matties to Hollands. The latter had a big jar of pickled eggs on the counter. Terrified me as a child. Matties was a ritual. Every Saturday lunchtime. So always closely linked with the football club in my mind.

[Jonty]

Whilst we are on chippy’s - F-i-L now in his mid 80’s is from Ainslie St area and said there was another chippy on West View Rd called Threlfall’s. Said it had a coal fired frying range so that would have gone back a bit. Anyone else remember it ?

[pjdaly]

Whilst we are on chippy’s - F-i-L now in his mid 80’s is from Ainslie St area and said there was another chippy on West View Rd called Threlfall’s. Said it had a coal fired frying range so that would have gone back a bit. Anyone else remember it ?

Threlfall's was I think on the corner, but the entrance to the chippy was actually on Settle Street. If you were to walk down Settle Street today you would be able to easily see where the entrance to the chippy has been bricked up as the newer bricks stand out clearly from the surrounding ones. I'm not at all sure, but I feel confident it was there as a chippy till the 1970's. It can't have been closed that long because I remember going in there and I'm only quite young.

[snowdog71]

The Parade Ground was the home of Barrow AFC (1889) until their demise in 1894, after which, junior sides Our Boys and Barrow United played at the ground until it was demolished in 1896 to make way for housing.
When plans commenced to form what is now Barrow AFC (1901), John Hind unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a deal with the Barrow Athletic Association to use the central pitch around the running track at Cavendish Park, only to be repeatedly informed that the pitch was unsuitable for association football, despite having been the home of Furness AFC for the previous two seasons. After turning down the opportunity to use the old Racecourse (which is now the site of Furness Cricket Club and the Lakeland petrol station on the corner of Hawcoat Lane and Abbey Road), the directors agreed a four-year deal to rent a new ground on Strawberry fields at a cost of £41 5s per season. Despite a successful first season, crowds soon fell to less than 1000 and after much deliberation, the directors decided to seek a cheaper, more central location and were offered several sites by the Furness Railway Company before deciding to rent a plot of land between The British Griffin Steelworks and West View Road for a sum of only £15 per season.
Due to the site’s close proximity to Ainslie Street, the site soon became known as the “Ainslie Street Ground” and during the summer of 1904, the shipyard volunteers spent many long evenings to prepare the ground for the forthcoming season.
The length of the pitch ran parallel to Abbey Road, with the goals being situated at the Ainslie Street and Barrow Central Station ends but despite a good start, the dreadful weather conditions soon began to affect both the attendances and the quality of the playing surface, with crowds dropping below the 500-mark by the end of the year. After several complaints regarding the poor state of the pitch from visiting sides, In March 1905, the Lancashire Combination issued the club with an ultimatum to either move grounds or leave the league, and with the next game against Padiham only a matter of days away, the club moved the match to Little Park in Roose, where a season’s best crowd of 2000 witnessed a 2-0 victory. Barrow enjoyed a good start to life at Little Park, winning promotion at the end of the 1904-05 season, playing in front of 3000-4000 crowds on a regular basis, which led to the directors signing a long-term rental agreement of £30 per season to continue playing at Roose but relegation in 1908 brought a dip in attendances and with it, financial problems, which forced the directors to seek another home for the club. The directors sought a more central location for the long-term future of the club and once again, the Furness Railway Company were on-hand to offer a site at the top of Holker Street situated between the Steel Hoop & Wire Works and the Hindpool Brick & Tile Works. The site had recently been the home of Hindpool Athletic AFC, and the directors agreed a deal to rent the site for £25 6d for the 1909-10 season.
The site had once been used as a refuse tip and during the summer of 1909, the directors, players and the shipyard volunteers spent many long evenings removing all of the bricks, glass and debris from the site, so that it could be levelled and grassed.
Despite it’s convenient location, life at Holker Street was far from easy, with several matches being played in dreadful weather conditions, which affected not only the attendance but also the financial state of the club and in February 1910, the directors were forced to hold a meeting with several creditors to agree a repayment plan to secure the future of the club.
Fortunately, a deal was agreed for the club to repay 5s in the £ to it’s creditors, otherwise the club would have folded and the entire course of history changed with it.
With a repayment plant in place, the directors looked to improve the Holker Street Ground by providing suitable cover for supporters in a bid to improve attendances and during the early part of the 1910-11 season, a covered shelter was built on what is now the popular side of the ground to accommodate 1500 spectators. The new stand was officially opened on 3rd December 1910 for the visit of Haslingden and it became an instant success with the supporters, being full for most of the remaining matches, with crowds regularly reaching 4000 regardless of the weather.
After winning promotion back to the First Division in 1911, the directors decided to build a seated stand on the opposite side of the ground, to accommodate 500 supporters, which was first used for the visit of Haslingden on 9th September 1911 and like the first stand, the new seated stand became an instant hit with the supporters and a crowd of 5500 generated gate receipts of £115 on the day.
The stand was officially opened the following weekend for the visit of Accrington Stanley and once again, it was completely packed, and another 5500 crowd swelled the coffers with receipts of just over £113.
During the following summer, the covered stand on the popular side was extended to accommodate 2000 supporters and the seated stand now included changing rooms, bathrooms and a comfortable seating area for the press.
During the 1912-13 season, the club enjoyed regular attendances of 4000-5000 and thanks to a cup run that resulted in a £650 payday courtesy of Bradford Park Avenue, the club managed to complete the payments of both stands and all of its outstanding creditors to guarantee the long-term future. The extension of both stands and the banking of the goal ends increased the capacity of Holker Street to around 10,000-12,000 and the 1913-14 season brought regular 4000 attendances and a best-ever runners-up spot in the Lancashire Combination First Division but the halcyon days were brought to an abrupt end with the outbreak of war in August 1914.
The club survived through the war years and peacetime brought with it the resumption of combination football and the crowds eventually returned to Holker Street, with a record 8000 witnessing the match with Accrington Stanley on 26th March 1921 during the title winning season of 1920-21. During the title winning season, the covered stand on the popular side was rebuilt and extended once again to accommodate 4000 spectators, with the old materials being used to build a new covered stand behind the Steelworks goal to accommodate 1500 spectators.
The seated grandstand was extended at both ends to accommodate 1500 spectators, leaving the Holker Street end as being the only side of the ground without any cover.
The ground provided covered accommodation for up to 7000 spectators, with an estimated overall capacity of 10,000, as the club prepared to start it’s first season as founder members of Division Three North for the 1921-22 season.

[MisterPleasant]

That's tremendous detail there, snowdog71, thanks very much.

[snowdog71]

Some more from Sankey archive….



IMG_8709.jpeg

Barrow AFC 1908 photo -
Back row: J Fletcher (Match Secretary), W Mellor, J White, C Wilson, J Lightfoot, E Hewitt, W Clements, R Forrester.
Third Row: A Craig (Chairman), H Maskell, A McBeath, G Doig, J Crellin, W Mackintosh, J Biddulph, J Preston Phillips (Secretary), T Kendall (Director), R Angus (Director). Second Row: J Bell (Asst Trainer), B Gallagher, T Carr, D Johnson, J Kimm, E Jones, J Bamber, G Ogilvie.
Front Row: S Turner, R Smith, J Cornfield, T Corrin (Captain), W Riley (Trainer).

[pjdaly]

Thanks very much, Snowdog 71, you're a bit of hero for unearthing all that information. The net is now closing in on the precise location of the Ainslie Street ground though there is still a bit of manoeuvering room before it can be pinned down exactly. The information tells us that the ground was between the Griffin and West View Road . . . I have a map of Barrow in 1904 (that's just before the ground would have been set up) and it's very clear that West View Road is only very partially constructed at the Abbey Road end and there's acres of empty space because none of those other streets in that area below Ainslie Street even existed back then. We mustn't make the mistake of thinking West View Road ran all the way to the very edge of the Griffin estate as it does today because back then West View Road didn't even extend as far as Settle Street. So when it is stated that the plot of land was between the Griffin and West View Road there's scope to think about an area stretching to as far across as Settle Street (at least).

I am thinking the ground might have been in the rectangle of land which nowadays is framed by Ainslie Street, Hibbert Road, Settle Street and Dorset Street (which is on the edge of the old Griffin estate). If I had the techno skills I'd stick a map on here with an overlay to show the possible site. This would fit with the clue in the old newspapers that the ground had a "considerable slope"; imagine trying to play up what is now Settle Street or Rutland Street. Your finding that the length of the pitch ran parallel to Abbey Road helps to create this image. I suppose there's still a bit of wriggle room for pinning it down, in so far as we can still ask how far across to the Dorset Street side the ground was or how far across to the Settle Street side.

Apologies - - - the AFC history geek in me is getting carried away here but we are very close to the answer now, probably as close as it will ever be possible to get. Only a tardis would enable me to go back and find out the exact location so if anyone can lend me one I'd be grateful.

[snowdog71]

I have also studied the 1904 OS Map and have managed to pin the ground location within a few yards tolerance.
If you go past the Harrogate Street level of Ainslie Street, the slope levels off quite a bit and it seems logical that the ground was located around this area.
I have the match reports from the 1904-05 season and they describe the location of the goal ends and the close proximity to the end of West View Road at that time but the exact location of the ground will never be known due to the fact that the club only used the ground from September 1904 until February 1905.

[Richard Ingham]

Snowdog has asked me to post this on his behalf .

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