Bantams’ History Week in Review

The inaugural Bantams’ History Week ended on a high note at the Midland Hotel on Friday night. Exactly 102 years to the day since Jimmy Speirs walked onto the balcony of what is now the Forster Suite, diners enjoyed a fabulous meal and listened to The Guardian’s David Conn describe his journey from terrace fan to football’s leading financial investigative journalist.

History was brought back to life when bantamspast museum’s curator David Pendleton described the scenes on the packed streets of Bradford when the Bantams brought the FA Cup back to the city in which it had been designed. From our view from the Forster Suite we looked across the street to the location of Fattorini’s where W. N. Norman drew the design of the iconic trophy. Next door was the headquarters of Sports & Pastimes who produced thousands of football shirts, including those worn by the Bantams’ players in the FA Cup Final of 1911. We looked out of the french windows from where Speirs emerged with the glittering trophy and imagined the sea of cheering faces packed onto the streets below. Bradford City chairman Mark Lawn brought along Speirs’ FA Cup winners’ medal – probably the first time it had been into the hotel since Speirs himself carried it, and the cup, into the hotel on the evening of 26 April 1911.

It was a fitting end to a wonderful week. From the opening walk the previous Saturday which raised £85 for the Burns Unit; the pulling of the first pint of the specially brewed Baines blonde by Mark Lawn at the Sparrow (the beer sold all 210 pints inside four hours); a tour of Undercliffe Cemetery, where a small collection gave £38 towards the upkeep of the vast cemetery, which is undertaken almost entirely by volunteers; and finally the dinner.

We would like to thank those who enabled the history week to go ahead: Turls Green (Wetherspoons); Sparrow Bier Café; Bradford City AFC; Friends of Undercliffe Cemetery; Midland Hotel; John Ashton; John Dewhirst; Gary Peacock; Glyn Watkins; Andy Tyne; Mark Lawn; David Conn; David Pendleton and, of course, everyone who took part and attended the events.

We'll be back next year bigger and better!

Up for the Cup Edwardian Style

As travel plans are made for the League Cup Final, it is remarkable how similar the experience will be to our last appearance in a major cup final – the FA Cup Final of 1911. Although a large proportion of the 31,000 supporters heading south will be travelling by road, a significant number will use the railways. Thankfully, an overnight journey in toiletless carriages has been left behind us. For the team, they will, like their 1911 counterparts, travel to London prior to the day of the match. However, it is unlikely that they will be staying at the Midland Hotel at St Pancras. City fans with an eye to history could stay at the hotel, which has recently been spectacularly refurbished, but as well as an interest in history, they would have to have deep pockets, as the cheapest room is over £220 per night!

We take the following text from David Pendleton’s Glorious 1911 book, which is still available from Waterstones in the city centre and will be restocked in the club shop shortly.

To the Palace for the Cup

A staggering two hundred trains poured fans into London from all over the country. The Great Northern Railway, which served both Bradford and Newcastle, ran 43 trains into Kings Cross. Twenty trains, including one conveying the City team, ran into St Pancras on the Midland Railway. City had something of a special relationship with the Midland, not least because the company leased Valley Parade to the club. The Midland Railway Company’s carriage works in Manningham made a silver horseshoe, which they presented to the team. A large crowd gathered to witness the departure of the official party, including the fifteen players from whom the team would be selected, as they left Forster Square at half past three on the afternoon of Friday 21 April 1911. Driver Luck, who had driven the team’s train to the semi-final, was once again at the controls as the train pulled away from Forster Square, past Valley Parade and towards the distant capital. The great invasion of London had commenced a few hours earlier with the departure of the reserve team from Forster Square.

Eleven trains conveying some six thousand City fans followed in their wake. The streets of Bradford were busy all through the night. Streams of supporters made their way to Forster Square and Exchange stations. Along the route vendors sold claret and amber ‘favours’ that trippers placed in their lapels or attached to hats. As each train started, cheers went up and the fans began singing the popular City song ‘Hello Hello’ which echoed down the platforms as the trains departed into the night. The first train disgorged its bleary-eyed travellers onto the capital’s streets at half past four in the morning! The first team party arrived at St Pancras at quarter past eight in the evening. Waiting at the hotel for the team was a good luck horseshoe, sent by the men of Bradford’s Tramways. The team visited the Euston Empire Theatre, a short walk from their base at the Midland Railway’s fabulous St Pancras Hotel. Given the huge number of fans of both clubs arriving at St Pancras and the adjacent Kings Cross in the early hours, it may not have just been pre-match nerves that kept the City players awake in their hotel rooms above the great station.

Good Luck Everyone!

 

Different century. Different venue. Same sentiment. History in the making. And it was! And it is!

France-Belgium 2011 - George Draycott

Under glorious skies the final commemoration of Glorious 1911 took place on the Great War battlefields of Belgium and France. No Bradford City supporter will need reminding that the captain and goal scorer in the 1911 FA Cup Final, Jimmy Speirs, was killed during the Battle of Passchendaele just six years later. Thus the centenary of the FA Cup victory was the appropriate occasion to visit the final resting places of the nine Bradford City players who lost their lives in the Great War. Over the next couple of weeks we will feature sections of the journey, along with a commentary and photographs.

Twenty City supporters left Bradford Interchange on a sunny Thursday mid-morning en route to France. One change of trains, a quick dash through the Channel Tunnel and we were in Lille in time for tea. The following day we were conveyed by a Belgian coach to Gauche Wood and the first of the former players George Draycott. He lies in an isolated cemetery among rolling hills with the Gauche Wood as its backdrop. A single tree stands within the cemetery. Looking out over the quiet fields it is difficult to believe that men fought and died in this tranquil place. The tiny cemetery had a powerful impact on our group. Its size and isolation added to the poignancy. We wondered how many visitors had discovered George’s final resting place? Situated up a winding green lane, inaccessible by car and many miles from the nearest centre of population, Gauche Wood is far from the madding crowd. The beautifully tended cemetery, designed, like all the others, to resemble an English country garden, evidently has regular visits from its gardeners, but one suspects visitors are few and far between. If it was my fate to be killed in a war many miles from home, I would be content to have somewhere akin to Gauche Wood as my final resting place.

France-Belgium 2011

The final event to commemorate the centenary of the 1911 FA Cup triumph took place this weekend when twenty people visited the final resting places of the nine Bradford City players killed in the Great War. We also took in the graves of the the two Bradford Park Avenue players and the Serre area where the Bradford Pals attacked on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Further images and a report will follow.

Speaking of events, this is the absolute final week of the When The FA Cup Came Home exhibition at Bradford Industrial Museum. It all finishes next Sunday 12 June. If you've not visited, shame on you! But there's still time - just.

Glorious 1911 and BBC Look North

Well, we're all still getting over the fantastic celebrations of last Tuesday, 26 April 2011, the centenary of the epic FA Cup win. As many readers will know, both the BBC and Yorkshire TV covered the various events throughout the day on their local news programmes.
Thanks to the BBC's Martin Armstrong and Look North Editor Tim Smith, here is what was broadcast on Look North, some of it live from the Midland Hotel.


Video courtesy of BBC Look North

Happy Birthday FA Cup! One Hundred Today

Tuesday 26th April 2011 is the centenary of Bradford City’s greatest feat: the winning of the FA Cup. A club only eight years old, having already established itself as one of the top five clubs in the country, won the greatest and most coveted prize of the age. It was an achievement almost without parallel.

Designed and produced by Bradford company, Thomas Fattorini, the current trophy (the third) was first presented to Bradford City captain, Jimmy Speirs, after the team's 1-0 victory in a replay against Newcastle United at Old Trafford, Manchester (itself then only a year old, thus its first big fixture) on 26 April 1911.

The celebrations for this significant footballing event reach a climax today when the trophy will be coming home to the city of its creation.

From 11am to 3pm it will be on display in front of a life-sized display of the team image above, as part of the exhibition When the FA Cup Came Home at Bradford Industrial Museum. Also on display are six of the players' winning medals, two shirts from the final, the original Fattorini hand-drawn design for the trophy and much more.

Skipton’s Aireville School are welcoming representatives from Bradford City, bantamspast museum, the Yorkshire Regiment and the PFA. A replica of the FA Cup will be at the school and pupils who are undertaking a pilgrimage to the battlefields of the Great War, including the final resting place of Jimmy Speirs, will be presented with replica shirts from the Edwardian era.

A centenary dinner will take place at the Midland Hotel during the evening. The FA Cup will be at the hotel exactly one hundred years to the minute when the Bradford City players returned from Old Trafford to the Midland itself with the Bradford designed FA Cup. Speeches and toasts will be made over the course of the evening.

Many players from Bradford City’s FA Cup quarter final of 1976 will be in attendance (incidentally, it is 35 years since that remarkable achievement) as well as representatives from Bradford City. Finally, Stuart McCall, one of few former City players who have appeared in both the English and Scottish Cup Finals, will be one of our most honoured guests. It will be an evening to remember and a commemorative programme will be on sale. The dinner itself is a complete sell out.

A letter to Jimmy Speirs

On 19 April 1911, Newcastle United captain, Colin Veitch was staying in The Alexandra Hotel and Hydro, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, in preparation for the FA Cup Final the following Saturday. Using the hotel's headed notepaper, he replied to a letter from Bradford City captain, Jimmy Speirs:

Thanks for your letter, which expresses in sound terms the spirit of comradeship, and the proper sentiments one would expect to see associated with the sportsman and the sport.

Please express to your colleagues the admiration which we all feel for your kindly thoughts for the injured players. You will be pleased to hear that recent reports are not so unfavourable in the case of Albert Shepherd, whilst Willis has improved so rapidly during the Easter weekend that there is every chance of him appearing on Saturday.

I trust we will have a splendid game at the Crystal Palace, and by our united efforts, serve to bring the professional side of football even more prominently in front of the public, as the essence of everything good in the sport.

May the best team win, as you say.

Again thanking you for timely and kindly letter.

I remain

Yours sincerely

Colin Veitch

When the FA Cup Came Home - Grand Launch

A fantastic evening at Bradford Industrial Museum attended by over 300 people. The celebration of Bradford City's 1911 FA Cup win was officially opened when Mary Needham, granddaughter of City's first chairman, Alfred Ayrton, cut the claret & amber ribbon.
Alexander Jackson, who works for the National Football Museum, said that in his opinion it was the best football related exhibition he had ever seen.

You can see more launch pictures here.

When the FA Cup Came Home - Now Open

The exhibition celebrating the centenary of Bradford City's epic FA Cup win is now open! First comments are most encouraging. If you're going to Bradford Industrial Museum to see it, be sure to take your camera so you and your loved ones can be pictured with the team.

Glorious 1911 - Visit to France & Belgium 2011

If Glorious 1911 was Bradford's finest hour, then the years 1914-18 were the bleakest the city has ever faced. The fate of Bradford City's FA Cup winning captain Jimmy Speirs perhaps epitomises the era. In 1911 he held the glittering FA Cup aloft to the cheers of 100,000 people packed onto the streets of Bradford; six years later he lay dying in a muddy shell hole.

As we celebrate the centenary of Bradford City's greatest triumph we will also remember the nine Bradford City players who lost their lives in the Great War. As we have seen among that number was the captain and goalscorer in the 1911 FA Cup final, Jimmy Speirs. Also killed was the man-of-the-match of the FA Cup final Robert Torrance. Sadly, Torrance has no known grave and is thus commemorated among the 36,000 names on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing near Ypres, Belgium. Others with no known final resting place include City's England internationals Jimmy Conlin and Evelyn Lintott.

Bradford City fans will have an opportunity to visit the last resting places of the nine players during a trip to France and Belgium in June. As well as the nine players the visit will also take in Serre where the Bradford Pals attacked on the first day of the Battle of the Somme and the grave of Bradford Park Avenue's Donald Bell - the only professional footballer to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

The trip will take place between Thursday 2 June and Sunday 5 June 2011. People can book an early bird price of £270 if they pay before April. It includes all travel to and two nights accommodation in Lille and one night in Arras (including breakfast). The trip is strictly limited to twenty places and will be sold on a first come first served basis. To register interest please contact David Pendleton by email davidpendleton1@gmail.com or drop into the bantamspast museum at Valley Parade prior to home games.

Working on the FA Cup Came Home Exhibition

Things are really hotting up at Bradford Industrial Museum in readiness for the exhibition about Bradford City’s FA Cup triumph 100 years ago. On Tuesday we went across to Preston, to the National Football Museum (currently in the process of moving to Manchester) to collect a splendid Newcastle United shirt from the game.
Having been loaned the pristine City shirt of centre forward Frank O’Rourke, we now have an example from each team. How splendid they look!

Bradford City FA Cup Winners 1911 Centenary Celebration Dinner

26 April 2011

7pm

Midland Hotel, Bradford

On the evening of 26 April 1911 Bradford City’s FA Cup winning team arrived back in the city following their 1-0 victory over Newcastle United in a replayed FA Cup Final at Old Trafford, Manchester. The scenes which greeted their arrival in Bradford were unprecedented. An estimated 100,000 people were on the streets to welcome their heroes; an incredible third of the entire population of the city.

The team arrived at Bradford Exchange station. Two horse-drawn charabancs took the players across the city centre to the Midland Hotel where they were to celebrate their famous victory. Sat alongside the driver of the first charabanc was Bradford City’s captain, and goalscorer in the FA Cup final Jimmy Speirs. On his lap was the brand new Bradford designed FA Cup. In an astonishing coincidence 1911 was the first year the current FA Cup was used. It had been designed by the Bradford jewellers Fattorini’s. Thanks to a first half header by Jimmy Speirs the FA Cup made a rapid return to the city of its birth.

Speirs held the cup aloft to deafening cheers as the charabancs crawled through the packed streets. Down Bridge Street, around Town Hall Square and along Market Street should have taken only a matter of minutes – the journey took over three quarters of an hour. When the players arrived in the sanctuary of the Midland Hotel, a mass of humanity crammed themselves into the streets outside the hotel. Speirs appeared at an upper window of the hotel to give the crowds a final glimpse of the silver trophy. Speirs must have looked down on a sea of cheering faces. What a moment it must have been. Without doubt the biggest celebration in the city of Bradford’s history.

Exactly one hundred years since those momentous events the FA Cup itself will return to Bradford will be in pride of place during a centenary celebration dinner which will take place at the Midland Hotel. One hundred years to the very hour when Speirs and his players arrived at the Midland Hotel in triumph diners will be raising a glass to their remarkable triumph. During the three course meal speeches made on that unforgettable night will be recreated and a brass band will play tunes from the Edwardian era. The Saltaire Brewery is producing a batch of Glorious 1911 vintage ale based on the same recipe that was drunk by the players in 1911. The real ale will be on sale in the Midland’s bar during the course of the evening.

 The event has been organised by the bantamspast team at Valley Parade comprising Dave Pendleton, John Dewhirst and John Ashton. During the last year there has been fund raising through the sale of enamel badges and a cheque for £5000 will be formally presented to Professor David Sharpe and his staff from the Burns Unit. 

On the night diners will have the opportunity to purchase a number of limited edition collectibles which are being produced to commemorate the evening including a programme, rosette and enamel badges with proceeds donated to the Bradford Burns Unit. Copies of David Pendleton’s book Glorious 1911 will be on sale and the author will be on hand to sign copies. Directors of Bradford City AFC have been invited and several former players have promised to attend.

The evening is close to being a sell out but a few tickets are still available. They are £25 a head and can be ordered by sending a cheque payable to:

BANTAMSPAST

PO BOX 307

SHIPLEY

BD18 9BT

Further details, email glorious1911@paraders.co.uk and/or from the websites www.paraders.co.uk or www.bantamspast.co.uk

Details also available from the bantamspast team in bantamspast museum above the club shop before kick off on match days.

Dress: jacket and tie for gentlemen, dress for ladies.

Glorious 1911 - Visit to France and Belgium 2011 - Itinerary Update

Days after we announced the itinerary for our trip to visit the war graves of the nine City players killed in the Great War, slight changes have been made to the summer rail timetables. Unfortunately, due to required connection times at London we have had to slightly recast our travel plans. The new times are as follows:

Thursday 2 June

Depart Bradford Interchange 1022
Arrive King’s Cross 1345

Depart St Pancras 1434
Arrive Lille 1658

The only significant change is that our arrival time back into Bradford on Sunday 5 June is 1850. Apologies for the alterations which are beyond our control.

Glorious 1911 - Visit to France and Belgium 2011 - Itinerary

Our itinerary for the bantamspast trip to visit the war graves of the nine Bradford City players killed during the Great War is now in place. We are waiting to confirm hotel fees before we can announce an overall price for the trip, though it is likely to be in the £350 bracket (this includes all travel and accommodation, but not food and drink).

Places will be restricted to twenty people to make the trip manageable and will be on a strict first-come-first-served basis. Places will only be confirmed once a deposit has been paid. We will shortly announce the amount of the deposit required and how you can contact us. The deposit will be non-refundable; this because we have to pay a non-refundable deposit to the various companies. Please keep watching for updates as we hope to announce a price early next week.

Thursday 2 June

Dep Bradford Interchange 3.22pm
Arr London King’s Cross 6.44pm

Dep London St Pancras 7.34pm
Arr Lillie Europe 10.04pm

Night in Lille

Friday 2 June

Coach: Arras (Harry Potter), Etaples (Ernest Goodwin), Villers-Guislain (George Draycott), Theipval (Evelyn Lintott).

Night in Albert

Saturday 3 June

Coach: Neiuwpoort (Jimmy Conlin), Poperinge (Gerald Kirk), Tyne Cot (Robert Torrance), Dochy Farm (Jimmy Speirs), Ypres (James Comrie).

Night in Lille

Sunday 4 June

Dep Lille Europe 12.56pm
Arr London St Pancras 2.31pm

Dep London King’s Cross 3.57pm
Arr Bradford Interchange 7.09pm

When the FA Cup Came Home

There are just 66 days until the opening of the exhibition When the FA Cup Came Home.
This will be the undoubted highlight of our celebrations marking one hundred years since Bradford City won the FA Cup. You’ve seen the film, read the book and now it will not be long before you can visit the exhibition. On display will be several FA Cup winners’ medals, shirts from the era as well as a host of other memorabilia never seen before.
In preparation for the exhibition several exhibits, including the FA Cup Final ball, have been moved from the bantamspast museum at Valley Parade to Bradford Industrial Museum. As a result it will remain in a state of flux until the end of the season. However, 90% of our items remain on display and we hope that our regular visitors will bear with us until next season when the entire bantamspast museum will receive a much needed facelift.
The exhibition When the FA Cup Came Home is being hosted by our good friends at Bradford Industrial Museum in Eccleshill. The scale and cost of staging the exhibition meant that we could not hold it at bantamspast. However, many of the displays will move to Valley Parade in time for the 2011/12 season.

When the FA Cup Came Home
Saturday 19 March 2011 to Sunday 12 June 2011
Admission free
Bradford Industrial Museum

Celebrate Christmas with One in a Million and bantamtamspast

One in a Million invites you to celebrate Christmas and bantamspast with a festive event and book signing.

The event follows the launch of a new book by the co-curator of the bantamspast museum, Dave Pendleton, and will see copies of his book ‘Glorious 1911’ on sale and an opportunity to have it signed by the author.

“Bradford City's ascent to the upper reaches of English football within a few years of formation was quite remarkable and the period immediately preceding the First World War has remained the pinnacle in the club's history. GLORIOUS 1911 and Bradford City’s Golden Age, 1908-15 tells the story of the Bantams' campaigns in the first division and the legendary FA Cup winning season of 1910/11.

It provides background on the personalities of that time as well as the major events and also examines the reasons for the club's change of fortune when peacetime football resumed in 1919. GLORIOUS 1911 and Bradford City’s Golden Age, 1908-15 is the product of extensive research by author Dave Pendleton with input from two other writers with considerable knowledge of the club's history, David Markham and John Dewhirst.

Additionally it features a wealth of long-forgotten images and archive material to provide a unique insight into a fascinating era.”

To get everybody in the Christmas spirit, a festive menu will be available from the Bantams Cafe and Christmas music will be played.

A presentation will also be made by bantamspast.

Lenny the City Gent will also be making an appearance and Bradford City Supporters Trust will be offering FREE membership which gives an immediate 10% discount for use in the Club shop.

Everyone welcome. Admission, as always, is free.

Glorious 1911: Selling Well!

Since its Grand Launch at Pictureville last Sunday, copies of Glorious 1911 have been flying off the shelves. There was a great deal of interest at both recent home games and Waterstone's in Bradford have been doing a roaring trade. Possibly as a result of the plummeting temperatures, Glorious 1911 scarves are also proving most popular.
The book is also on sale at Salt's Mill and this weekend at Bradford Industrial Museum's Victorian Christmas Market.
If you can't reach any of those venues for your copy, why not download and complete an order form?
Of course, there are more Glorious 1911 events to come: the Centenary Celebration Dinner at the Midland Hotel on 26 April 2011 and the exhibition at the Industrial Museum, beginning in March. More details coming soon.

A Momentous Weekend

Well, the book is launched and the first copies have been sold. There were a good number of customers in the bantamspast museum along with Glorious 1911 author and the Telegraph & Argus.
The official Pictureville Launch was a resounding success enjoyed by all. Thanks must go to Tony Earnshaw and his staff who could not have been more helpful. Both film and stills looked tremendous when displayed on the big screen.
Above: a tiny snippet from David Pendleton's presentation.

Glorious 1911 Grand Book Launch - The Day's Arrived At Last!

Pictureville Cinema, 21 November 2010

Performance begins at 8.15
Books will be on sale and the author will be available to sign from 7.30 onwards.
Those who haven't booked already will be able to pay 'on the door'.