Burnden Park

[wackerchackers]

3 hours ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Ah right.

Expand the picture and look carefully at the tracks at the point where the A666 would be built.

I'm pretty sure the bridge is already there- you can see shadows which I think may be support structures.

Which makes sense, as the land either side is higher than what is the Croal Valley.

The bridge fairly recently reopened as part of the cycle track to Bury, and on occasions we've gone into town along it.

 

The smaller sister of Darcy Lever Viaduct, Burnden comprises six 73-foot lattice spans which were replaced in 1882, 34 years after they first carried trains. Originally the pillars were 15 feet higher but the land beneath was raised to accommodate a dual carriageway. This resulted in the River Croal being culverted and the Manchester, Bolton and Bury canal filled-in. Today, the structure is Grade II listed.

[MickyD]

1957 saw the first floodlit game at Burnden so before then.

[Johnnyrotten]

22 hours ago, Zico said:

And what is interesting is there's fans who'd have been going for years and never been to a night game because they didn't exist

Then came a night game 

Must've been strange the first time

Good point, must have been so wierd, suddenly coming home from work on a Tuesday having a game to go to, some will have been going for decades without that ritual.

My other thought is, if no floodlights, then games in winter couldn't kick off at 3pm?  Must have started no later than 2pm to finish in daylight.  So the "Saturday, 3pm" was only a permanent feature from say the 60s?  

[bolty58]

I think Mounts can post photos so I'll send him what the former club secretary's son sent to me. Reckons the photo is from the late 50's and the gym is there. Proceeds from the FAC win?

His old man would have had a hand in building it (at least from a coordination or paying for it perspective). Unfortunately no longer around or we would get chapter and verse.

[Mounts Kipper]

2 cracking images sent to me by @bolty58

 

[bolty58]

Floodlights were installed in '57 and my mate reckons the gym may have been built in 1959.

[MancWanderer]

20 minutes ago, bolty58 said:

Floodlights were installed in '57 and my mate reckons the gym may have been built in 1959.

Christ my memory really is going. I genuinely couldn’t remember that gym being there in my first full season on the Burnden Paddock which was 72/73

[Whitestar]

1 hour ago, Mounts Kipper said:

2 cracking images sent to me by @bolty58

 

Great pics, however it looks like the steps up from before the Burnden paddock were still not there or were under construction.

[Tonge moor green jacket]

Didn't the steps up actually occupy part of the railway track?

Could only have been built after the railway was closed.

[Whitestar]

Those steps seemed ancient and to a young lad seemed they had been there forever.

Its the ones on the front cover of "good bad & ugly"

[Traf]

1 hour ago, Whitestar said:

Those steps seemed ancient and to a young lad seemed they had been there forever.

Its the ones on the front cover of "good bad & ugly"

The excellent book by @Smiley now available in all good book shops (and some shit ones) at £12.99?

[Casino]

Itd better be at 2.99 by now

[Traf]

1 hour ago, Casino said:

Itd better be at 2.99 by now

Unlikely, it's @Smiley we're talking about.

£22.99 is more likely. Every pound's a prisoner.

[bolty58]

10 hours ago, MancWanderer said:

Christ my memory really is going. I genuinely couldn’t remember that gym being there in my first full season on the Burnden Paddock which was 72/73

It happens to all of us Colin.

[Krimzon]

When did the alphabet scoreboard go up ? 

[MickyD]

9 hours ago, Krimzon said:

When did the alphabet scoreboard go up ? 

Was certainly there pre early 70s

[MickyD]

Found this on FB. One of the comments was that the locomotive dates the photo to mid-50s

[Whitestar]

Love old stuff like that.

Bit off topic (and I'm not a railway geek) but i grew up in the area always known as Daubhill Station, there was no station there by then but i always used wonder what it was like.

I can vaguely remember the buildings at Great Moor st station but it was no longer a working station.

[Tonge moor green jacket]

1 hour ago, MickyD said:

Found this on FB. One of the comments was that the locomotive dates the photo to mid-50s

Standing on the embankment as smoke and soot gently fall on you would have been an interesting experience.

reading yesterday that the line only fully closed in 1970.

Thought it was earlier. 

[RUREADY2ROLL]

26 minutes ago, Whitestar said:

Love old stuff like that.

Bit off topic (and I'm not a railway geek) but i grew up in the area always known as Daubhill Station, there was no station there by then but i always used wonder what it was like.

I can vaguely remember the buildings at Great Moor st station but it was no longer a working station.

I moved from nearer town to Daubhill in 1958 and no passenger trains were going through by then; last freight train was 1965 but very infrequent as we used to play on the tracks

[athywhite1958]

1 hour ago, MickyD said:

Found this on FB. One of the comments was that the locomotive dates the photo to mid-50s

Wasn't there a clip in an old Arthur Askey film where the train stopped at the Embankment and he was leaning out of the window he said "I like trains"

[MickyD]

2 hours ago, athywhite1958 said:

Wasn't there a clip in an old Arthur Askey film where the train stopped at the Embankment and he was leaning out of the window he said "I like trains"

 

[Dr. Feelgood]

17 hours ago, MickyD said:

Fantastic bollocks in that. Continuity was interesting as one team’s players shirts changed to white for one scene. Odd they used a London stadium for the football shots.

[perth_white]

Here's a pic taken on the train station at the Haugh (the first station back on the way to Bury), legend has it that's my Grandad in the photo and the remains of the station overlooked his garden. Also used to walk along the disused line as teenagers and sit just before the viaduct with our legs dangling over the drop drinking, it's a wonder we didn't come a cropper.

[bolty58]

18 minutes ago, perth_white said:

Here's a pic taken on the train station at the Haugh (the first station back on the way to Bury), legend has it that's my Grandad in the photo and the remains of the station overlooked his garden. Also used to walk along the disused line as teenagers and sit just before the viaduct with our legs dangling over the drop drinking, it's a wonder we didn't come a cropper.

Brilliant photo that. Was that station somewhere near Castle Street? Must have been not far from the viaduct at Darcy Lever or have I got my wires crossed?