The joy of seeing a football stadium for the first time

[Merlin the happy pig]

Good advertising, my copy of Snapshot came through the post Friday, Should keep me occupied tomorrow afternoon.

[Billy Casper]

I chanced across this just now. It looks like Barnsley v Tranmere in 1968-9 though it's not captioned. There's a couple of nice views of the hills as well as the Barnsley Bitter sign on the stand roof. edit: looks like you can't post videos without it showing the whole thing. It starts at about four and a half minutes.

If you keep watching there's some rare footage of Bradford Park Avenue.

It is indeed Barnsley v Tranmere. The 'hills' you mention (to the left of the Brewery Stand as we're looking at it) is actually a muck stack from the Barnsley Main pit. It was about a mile or so away from the ground (so you can imagine the size of it) and must have been removed shortly after as I have no recollection of it whatsoever. There was talk of it on a Barnsley forum recently and no one knows why it was moved and more importantly, where it was taken.

[Ray de Galles]

I know next to nothing about the subject but might they have been moved due to the legislation following the Aberfan disaster?

[Billy Casper]

You could be right about that. I probably know less about the topic than you do it has to be said.

[Satchmo Distel]

It's even clearer in this Cup game at Oakwell v Blackpool in 1949

[Various Artist]

Oh wow, yes at the 0:31 mark and from 0:43 there's really clear views of these great dark mountainous cones looming on the horizon somewhere beyond the stadium. It's like they're playing in Mordor.

That's fantastic that no-one seems to know what actually happened to them. I love that sort of mystery.

[Satchmo Distel]

From a bit of Googling I think the muck stack was from the Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery, which closed in 1966. The stack was landscaped in 1973 and became the Athersley Memorial Park in 1978.

Barnsley MP Roy Mason (future cabinet minister) had been trying to get the muck stacks (formal name "spoil heaps"; slang "slag heaps") removed since the early 50s:

https://www.facebook.com/old.barnsle...1005777259612/

https://wwwapplications.barnsley.gov...px?imageID=520

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1957/may/23/colliery-spoil-heaps

[Various Artist]

I'd never heard the name "muck stack" before, I have to say. I thought it meant something agricultural to start with in Billy's post above, until divining the context. I'd certainly call it a slag heap or, yes, a spoil heap if trying to sound perhaps a little less pejorative.

[ursus arctos]

Muck is very much agricultural in US usage as well.

We would.say slag heap or spoil tip.

[willie1foot]

I'd never heard the name "muck stack" before, I have to say. I thought it meant something agricultural to start with in Billy's post above, until divining the context. I'd certainly call it a slag heap or, yes, a spoil heap if trying to sound perhaps a little less pejorative.

I'm pretty sure we called those bings in Lanarkshire. There were plenty around and great fun for sliding down on a piece of cardboard or a bakery box. We were told they would occasionally open up and swallow children, but that may have been an old wives tale to stop us playing on them...

[Jobi1]

It's even clearer in this Cup game at Oakwell v Blackpool in 1949

Can we also acknowledge (from around 1:30) the referee inexplicably managing to fall into the stand while signalling the Arsenal goal in the next match. Magnificent.

[Billy Casper]

Thanks for the detective work Satchmo, I've never seen that footage before. In the Tranmere clip it looks like there's just a giant mass to the left of the Brewery Stand, here they're much better defined peaks. Did they move everything onto one pile? I feel like the entire Barnsley area must be hollow underneath. One wrong move and the entire town will just disappear. (Try and restrain yourself responding to that GO.) I'm just glad you formed your views on Oakwell recently Jobi. You might have turned around and gone home if you'd first seen the ground back then.

(Most importantly though, why have we got a white square on the back of our shirts? And it looks like a black number sewn on it instead of red. Madness. Wrong thread, sorry.)

[blameless]

They're definitely known as "bings" in Scotland (don't know the etymology of the term), and the most famous of them - Greendykes Bing - is now a protected national monument. There's some good images of Greendykes in this short clip:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/art...atic-landscape

[Capybara]

Can we also acknowledge (from around 1:30) the referee inexplicably managing to fall into the stand while signalling the Arsenal goal in the next match. Magnificent.

Yes, wonderful.

[Jobi1]

I'm just glad you formed your views on Oakwell recently Jobi. You might have turned around and gone home if you'd first seen the ground back then.

My first visit was in the spring of 1990, when we came by car and parked very close by so didn't get the joy of that reveal on the walk from the town centre. But as an excited 9-year-old any ground looked incredible, although I do recall it being about the coldest I'd ever been in my young life.

[danielmak]

My copy arrived today. It looks great. Looking forward to diving into this when I finish the Pearson book in the next couple days. I'm glad you posted about the book here, Ray. I have never read the Scotland thread nor do I have plans to read that thread so probably would have missed this. It's a 197 page books so if you are fan of football photography, certainly worth the money.

[Artificial Hipster]

From a bike ride on Friday. I think this goes here..

[Ray de Galles]

Putting this here rather than on the Scottish fitba thread as I think it will chime with a lot of people and the tone of it reminds me of Daniel Gray's piece in the opening post.

It's beautiful, sad and true :

https://twitter.com/bbcsportscot/status/1355509452175241216?s=21

[Bored Of Education]

Thanks for posting that, it is both wonderful and sad.

[torres]

Seen this on Friday night. One of the best places to watch football in Scotland.

[Ray de Galles]

I've wanted to see Pollok play since we stayed in Shawlands for the fortnight of the 2014 Commonwealth games and walked past Newlandsfield Park quite a few times.

The mate who sent me the film clip above now wants to visit too so hopefully it will form part of a Glasgow weekender (always one of my favourite sporting tourist trips) for a bunch of us when we're able to again.