Have they forgotten bolton?

Sports Historian

Volumn 18, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 120-151

  Baker, Norman ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO   (United States)

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EID: 85011458731     PISSN: 13515462     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/17460269809444773     Document Type: Article

References (119)

1. Command 6846, Sessional Papers 1945-46, Vol. X, pp. 1-12
2. hereafter referred to as Report. Justice Hughes, (1897-1955).
3. Daily Herald, 29 August 1946.
4. Bolton Evening News, 16 March 1946.
5. Given the circumstances it is not surprising that estimates vary as to the numbers who came to see the game. Some such ran as high as 90, 000. Bolton Evening News, 29 March 1946.
6. For this and other details see the attached diagram. Bolton Public Library, Local Archives Centre, ABZ/43/3/2.1 have used capitalization to distinguish the Railway Embankment, the terraced enclosure at the north end of Burnden Park, from the railway embankment behind it which carried a working line.
7. Times, 11 March 1946, Daily Herald, 11 March 1946, Bolton Evening News, 11 March 1946.
8. Hansard, 1945-46, vol. 420, cols. 774-76, 11 March 1946. Daily Herald, 12 March 1946.
9. Hansard, 1945-46, vol. 420, col. 2008, 21 March 1946.
10. Bolton Evening News, 11 March 1946.
11. There had in fact been earlier incidents involving crowd incursions from the railway line at the top of the Embankmentbut it was still left to the railway police to patrol this area. Bolton Evening News, 28 March 1946.
12. Bolton Evening News, 28 March 1946. Football Association Reference Minute 83(a), May 1946.
13. Report, p.9.
14. PRO/CAB 132/9, 9 April 1948, p.6, item 6. Report, p.l.
15. Though the context differs, such attitudes are illustrated in my “Going to the Dogs - Hostility to Greyhound Racing in Britain: Puritanism, Socialism and Pragmatism,” in Journal of Sport Histoiy, vol.23, No.2, 1996, pp.97-119.
16. Report, p.3.
17. In the 1945-46 season, each round was decided by aggregate scores of home and away matches.
18. Bolton Evening News, 7 January 1946.
19. Bolton Evening News, 28 January 1946.
20. Bolton Evening News, 11 February 1946.
21. The regular league schedule was still operating mainly within the regional limitations applicable during the war and experienced a mixed reception.
22. Daily Herald, 16 January 1946. Evening Standard, 29 January 1946.
23. Daily Herald, 17 January 1946. All-ticket arrangements were unpopular with many regular followers because they were alleged to favour the casual spectator drawn only to the big games. Furthermore, they involved the clubs in additional costs and administrative complexities. As the number of tickets to be sold was often set below ground capacity, a potential loss of revenues was also involved.
24. Daily Herald, 29 January 1946. He also warned against “the highly dangerous practise of rolling people down from the rear of the terraces over the packed heads of spectators.”
25. Bolton Evening News, 11, 13 and 14 February 1946. It is not clear if the microphone was part of a loudspeaker system or merely a hand-held megaphone. The latter is the more likely.
26. Bolton Evening News, 2 March 1946.
27. Bolton Evening News, 5 March 1946. It is not possible to deduce whether the primary motive behind this request was a concern with more space in the interest of safety, or more ticketed seats from which to generate more revenue. A mix of the two is of course a possibility.
28. Bolton Evening News, 6 March 1946. Here the club was treading a fine line, stressing the attractiveness of the fixture while trying not to frighten potential spectators away with prospects of overcrowding or not being able to get into the game at all. This was not a wholly uncommon quandary.
29. Bolton Evening News, 8 March 1946.
30. Dunning, E., Murphy, P. and Williams, J., The Roots of Football Hooliganism: An Historical and Sociological Study, (London, Routledge, Kegan Paul, 1988), pp. 5758.
31. Times, 11 March 1946.
32. Bolton Evening News, 11 March 1946.
33. Bolton Evening News, 28 March 1946.
34. Bolton Evening News, 28 March 1946.
35. Report, p.4.
36. Bolton Evening News, 30 March 1946.
37. Report, p.8.
38. Bolton Evening News, 16 April 1946.
39. Bolton Evening News, 28 March 1946.
40. Bolton Evening News, 11 March 1946.
41. This estimate of Bolton police presence does not include the unspecified number of railway police assigned to the line behind the Embankment. As was to be the case at Hillsborough in 1989, the precise allocation of responsibilities for crowd control and crowd safety between police and club was a contentious issue, largely because it was based on vague assumptions held by both parties.
42. Loudspeakers were installed for the 1946-47 season. Bolton Evening News, 8 October 1946.
43. Bolton Evening News, 28 March and 2 April 1946.
44. Bolton Public Library, Local Archives, ABZ/42/3/2.
45. Bolton Evening News, 15 March 1946.
46. At most grounds concrete terracing was a thing of the future. Most steps were formed by driving a wooden facing into the earth banking.
47. Bolton Evening News, 9 March 1946.
48. Bolton Evening News, 29 March 1946.
49. Bolton Evening News, 11 March 1946.
50. For a broad treatment of the culture of the terraces, see, Ingham, R., Hall, S., Clarke, J., Marsh, P. and Donovan, J., ‘Football Hooliganism ‘ the wider context, (London, Inter-Action Inprint, 1978), pp. 40-44.
51. Bolton Evening News, 16 March 1946. Corner terracing was often considered to provide the best view of a match, and in this case also afforded quickest access to the exit gates at the end of the match. Here there is a hint that ‘territoriality’ was a factor in crowd behaviour well before it became a pronounced feature of the ‘hooligan era.’
52. Bolton Evening News, 28 March 1946.
53. Bolton Evening News, 28 March 1946.
54. Bolton Evening News, 1April 1946.
55. This must have further complicated the task of escorting spectators around the north end of the pitch into the Burnden Paddock. Indeed, this was stressed by one police officer at the Enquiry.
56. Bolton Evening News, 18 and 22 January 1946. Rowley responded by claiming that, because of payments to the FA itself, the club did not profit from a run in the Cup.
57. Bolton Evening News, 29 January 1946.
58. Bolton Evening News, 11 March 1946.
59. Daily Herald, 21 March 1946.
60. Daily Herald, 28 March 1946.
61. Times, 11 March 1946.
62. Daily Herald, 20 April 1946.
63. Bolton Evening News, 16 April 1946.
64. Bolton Evening News, 2 April 1946.
65. Bolton Evening News, 11 March 1946.
66. Daily Herald, 12 March 1946.
67. Bolton Evening News, 23 March 1946.
68. Bolton Evening News, 28 March 1946.
69. Young Percy M, Bolton Wanderers, (London, Stanley Paul, 1961), pp. 138-40.
70. Marland Simon, Bolton Wanderers; One Hundred Years at Burnden Park, (Derby, Breedon Books, 1995), pp. 73-77.
71. Ponting, I. and Hugman, B., The Concise Post-war Histoiy of Bolton Wanderers, (Langport, Somerset, Repvern Press?), p. 9.
72. Hayes, D., Bolton Wanderers; an A-Z, (Preston Palatine Books, 1994), p. 32.
73. Inglis, S., The Football Grounds of England and Wales, (Willow Books, 1983), pp. 31-2 and 268-9.
74. Football Association Council Minutes, 1945-46, pp. 22-23, Reference Minute 83(a).
75. Bolton Public Library, Local Archives, ABZ/42/3/1.
76. Bolton Public Library, Local Archives, ABZ/42/3/1.
77. correspondence between John Chapman, solicitor of Manchester, and the Bolton Town Clerk, 27 June and 9 July 1946.
78. Bolton Public Library, Local Archives, ABZ/42/3/1, letter, 24 September 1946.
79. Football League Minutes, 1945-46, 29 April 1946.
80. Football Association Council Minutes, 8 July 1946.
81. Football Association Council Minutes, Finance and General Purposes Committee, 16 October 1946.
82. Bolton Public Library, Local Archives, ABZ/42/3/1.
83. James Chapman to Bolton Town Clerk, 22 October 1946.
84. Bolton Public Library, Local Archives, ABZ/42/3/2, letters of 13 and 27 March 1947.
85. Bolton Evening News, 23 March 1946.
86. Football Association Council Minutes, Financial and General Purposes Committee, 11 April 1947, item 35 (c). Letter, 27 May 1947.
87. Football Association Council Minutes, Financial and General Purposes Committee, 13 October 1947, item 3.
88. Report, pp. 10-11. The underlinings are mine.
89. PRO/HO/45/24798, Minute, 13 May 1946.
90. Football Association Council Minutes, Finance and General Purposes Committee, July 1946.
91. Hansard A, 1945-46, vol. 425, col. 113.
92. Times, 2 August 1946.
93. Daily Herald, 6 September 1946.
94. Daily Herald, II January 1947.
95. Daily Herald, 3 February 1947.
96. Daily Herald, 3 August 1946 and 29 January 1947.
97. Evening Standard, 28 August and 6 October 1948.
98. PRO/HO/45/24798, Minute, 25 May 1946. Even when given priority status, repair to bomb-damaged grounds proceeded slowly. By November 1947.
99. PRO/HO/45/24798, Minute, September 1946.
100. Football Association Council Minutes, Finance and General Purposes Committee, 10 February 1947, item 27.
101. Football Association Council Minutes, Finance and General Purposes Committee, 2 June 1947, item 40(c). In fact.
102. although a reportedly very effective “sports crowd counting machine” was demonstrated in July 1947.
103. Football Association Council Minutes, 1947-48, Report ofthe Joint Standing Committee of the Football Association and the Football League, item 5. Memorandum on the Safety of Spectators, Control of Crowds, November 1948.
104. In fact, the Bolton/Stoke City match played on Saturday 9 March would otherwise have taken place in mid-week, possibly before a smaller crowd and without the accompanying tragedy.
105. See my “Going to the Dogs.”
106. Football Association Council Minutes, Memorandum, November 1948.
107. PRO/CAB/132/9, Lord President’s Committee, p.6, item 6, 9 April 1948. Alexander’s statement is quoted above, p.8.
108. My underlining.
109. Football Association Council Minutes, Memorandum on Safety of Spectators, November 1948.
110. PRO/HO/45/25128, Minute, 24 October 1948.
111. PRO/H0/45/25128, Minute, 29 March 1949.
112. Command 2088, quoted in the 1974 Popplewell Report and, in turn, in the Taylor Report of 1990.
113. Changes included a marked drop in the average age of the occupants of the terraces. The dead at Bolton averaged 38 years of age, those at Hillsborough 24 1/2.
114. Times, 17 April and 5 August 1989.
115. In the case of Hillsborough, John Castle, Conservative MP for Luton, continued to insist that “alcohol-crazed youths without tickets were one of the major causes of the problem.” The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster, 15 April 1989
116. Inquiry by the Rt Hon. Lord Justice Taylor, Interim Report, HMSO, August 1989, Final Report, HMSO, January 1990.
117. Taylor, R., Ward, A. and Newburn, T., (Eds), The Day of the Hillsborough Disaster: A Narrative Account, (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 1995).
118. Scraton, P., Jemphrey, A. and Coleman, S., No Last Rights: The Denial of Justice and the Promotion of Myth in the Aftermath of the Hillsborough Disaster, (Oxford, Alden Press, 1995).
119. Without wishing to become embroiled in debates regarding its long history, I would argue that the nature and extent of violence on the terraces changed markedly in the decades after the Bolton disaster.