A
recent Bamber Bridge away trip to Workington, inspired me to look
into the history of some of the old football grounds around the North
of England. Approx 40 miles South of “Wukkie” takes us to Barrow
in Furness and in Particular, Holker Street. Home of Barrow AFC.
Barrow, like their Cumbrian Rivals suffered relegation from the
Football League. The “Bluebirds” losing their League Status in
1972. Being replaced by Hereford United. I'm delighted to say that in
June 2020 AFC Barrow regained their place in the Football League,
finishing Champions of The National League.
The old main stand, demolished in the 1970's
The Old main stand from The Holker Street End ( Photo: Many Thanks to Steve Woffenden for the use of his photograph ),
Holker
Street has changed quite considerably in the intervening years. The
Old wooden main stand fell into such disrepair following relegation
that it had to be demolished on health and safety grounds. The
Steelworks End had been damaged in a fire and was also demolished,
Today this is called the Crossbar End. It houses the club, offices,
changing rooms, clubhouse and club shop. There is a small terrace in
front of the buildings.
The covered Holker Street End, The roof was removed in 1972 and it has remained an open terrace ever since
In the close season of 2020, a new roof has been erected at the Holker Street End
The
old ground regularly held crowds in excess of 10,000 in the mid
1950’s and early 60’s. A record attendance of 16,874 attended the
FA Cup match with Swansea Town in 1954. Another 16,000 plus crowd saw
Barrow take on Leicester City, again in The FA Cup.
Opposite
The main stand is The Popular Side, a once sprawling terrace. Again,
this was reduced in size to accommodate a Speedway Track. It was the
introduction of speedway that hastened Barrow’s relegation from The
Football League. Initially, having removed terracing close to the
pitch to create the track, the club then laid grass on top of wooden
boards at the edges of the pitch. Opposition clubs objected and when
the club sought Re-election to the League in 1972 having finished 4th
from the bottom of the 4th Division, they received fewest
votes of the 4 clubs and were relegated to the Northern Premier
League.
The Popular side before it was dismantled to make way for a speedway track
Ironically
the Speedway team only remained at Holker Street for 2 years, until
1974. On leaving, the ground was in a far from ideal state, and
remained in a dilapidated condition throughout the 70’s and 80’s
as Barrow drifted between the 5th and 6th tiers
of English Football. A roof was erected over the popular side again
although the once large terrace was significantly reduced in size,
this was the only covered section of the ground, until a new 1,000
seat main stand was erected in 1998.
The Popular side as it looks today
Over
recent seasons the Stadium has been spruced up nicely. The ground now
has a capacity of 5,045. There are plans to put a roof over the
Holker Street end once again as Barrow pursue a place back in the
Football League.
The main stand, erected in 1998
The ground today looking from the corner of the Popular side and the Crossbar End
Next
time, I’ll be diving into the archives to investigate a long gone
football ground. Peel Park, the one time home of Accrington Stanley. Link to the Accy Stanley page is on the home page
