![]() ![]() The markers and the end blocks were nailed to some sturdy-looking wooden floorboards that had been laid over wooden sleepers set into the valley…” The seats themselves were effectively claret-painted planks of wood, suspended and supported by blocks of wood at either end and divided up by steel markers into individual bench seats. There were only two small gaps… so unless you were at the bottom of the stairwells between blocks E and F, or blocks B and C, you’d have to come back up each stairwell to get out again. It can’t have been more than four feet across, bordered on the far side by a claret wooden wall, too high for a kid to see over… Each block’s stairwell cut a path down through the seats into what were effectively partitioned-off boxes. It was as narrow as a pavement, running the length of the stand. “Once through the turnstiles of the Main Stand you found yourself in a low, dark, concrete corridor. In his book, “56: The Story of the Bradford Fire”, Martin Fletcher described the stadium as it was in the eighties: ![]() The Midland Road stand was redeveloped in the fifties and sixties, but the Main Stand was essentially untouched. It was originally built as a rugby ground, and redesigned for Bradford City in 1908, and it hadn’t changed a great deal since then. Throughout this period, they played their home games at the Valley Parade stadium, which got its name from the way it was built into the side of a valley. They enjoyed an unbroken run of thirteen winning games, and secured the club’s first championship title since 1929. This allowed Bradford City to start a new league campaign, which led up to their successful 1984-85 season. It was bought by Stafford Heginbotham, a former chairman of the club, and Jack Tordoff, a former board member. ![]() In 1983, things got so bad that the receivers were called in, the club was put up for sale, and supporters contributed to a fund to save it. After relegation in 1922, they wound up drifting between the third and fourth tiers of the league, and suffered severe financial hardships to boot.īradford City football team, 1903-1904. They were promoted in 1908 and won the FA Cup in 1911- however, that was the peak of their success. ![]() As such, there’s often fierce loyalty to local teams, even when they aren’t doing that well.Bradford City football club was founded in 1903, starting off in the Football League’s Second Division. The footage they captured would go on to make headlines – but not because of any sporting achievement.įootball – or soccer, for any Americans listening – is widely said to be Britain’s national sport. There were also TV cameras there that day. It was the first trophy the team had won in over fifty years, and it brought more than eleven thousand people to the stands and terraces. Most of the spectators had turned up for the presentation that came first Bradford City football club had enjoyed such success that season that they had already secured the Football League Third Division trophy. It wasn’t really the match itself that was the main attraction at the Valley Parade stadium on the 11th of May, 1985. ![]()
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