The Season's First Pre-match Event

The bantamspast museum hosts its first presentation of the season on Saturday. Prior to Bradford City's match against Bristol Rovers, the Bradford Bulls Foundation will be showing films and giving a presentation relating to their Heritage Lottery funded Past Times project which is aiming to capture the social history of Odsal Stadium for future generations.

The ground, which of course was Bradford City's home in the wake of the fire disaster, has a rich heritage and has hosted rugby, speedway, stock cars, equestrian, festivals of sport, girl guide jamborees, football, trotting, dog shows, the Harlem Globetrotters, cattle markets, tennis and many other events.

The event begins at 1.15pm in the bantamspast museum which is located above the Club Shop behind the Kop End of Valley Parade. As with all bantamspast events, admission is completely free.

bantamspast: A New Look

The 1911 FA Cup Final ball has returned to the bantamspast museum following its long term loan to Bradford Industrial Museum where it was on display for their fabulous exhibition that marked City's 1911 FA Cup triumph. We also took the opportunity to create a new case that holds some of the most iconic items from the club's history. These include the match ball from City's miraculous Premier League survival when Liverpool were beaten 1-0 at a breathless Valley Parade. Also from that unforgettable match is Matt Clarke's shirt. Alongside those items are Stuart McCall's boots from the game at Wolves when City gained promotion to the Premier League and the shield the club received to mark that feat.

As fabulous as those items are, the most noticeable change are the two huge images of the FA Cup winners Jimmy Speirs and Bob Campbell which will greet visitors as they enter the museum. Over the coming weeks we will also be erecting similar profiles of the other cup heroes. More photographs will be added as work progresses.

Upcoming Events

The bantamspast museum is pleased to announce the return of our popular pre-match events. Further details will appear nearer to the time but here are three for the earlier part of the season. As usual admission to the museum and events is completely free of charge.

10 September: The Bradford Bulls Foundation will be giving a presentation on the social history of Odsal Stadium and will present a 20 minute DVD which gives a flavour of the many sports Odsal Stadium has hosted since it was constructed in 1934: from speedway to rugby league; baseball to show jumping.

24 September: Bradford City's Valley Parade ground is 125 years old this year and the actual birthday falls on 25 September. As Bradford City play at home to AFC Wimbledon the day before, that seems like an ideal time to celebrate our beloved ground. The birthday party will take place in the bantamspast museum. Come enjoy a birthday cake, cards and balloons.

22 October: Bradford City's Billy Clarke was the first ever black footballer to score a goal in the first division of English football. He signed for City in 1905. Over 60 years later Ces Podd and Joe Cooke graced Valley Parade as pioneering modern day black players. We celebrate the contribution of black players to Bradford City with an event in the bantamspast museum prior to City's match against Northampton Town. Speakers include Professor Matt Taylor of De Montfort University and bantamspast's own David Pendleton. An international five-a-side match will take place on the pitch between two teams from Bradford's African refugee community. Joe Cooke will be one of our guests of honour.

France-Belgium 2011 - A Final Picture

Our band of travellers at Jimmy Speirs' grave. An appropriate way to end the celebrations of Glorious 1911.

France-Belgium 2011 - James Comrie

The huge Menin Gate at Ypres has become the site of one of the best known and poignant ceremonies that surrounds the modern memory of the First World War. Every night members of the Ypres fire brigade play the last post beneath the imposing gate on which are inscribed the names of 56,000 men who died in the defence of Ypres and have no known grave.

Among those names is James Comrie, signed when Bradford City gained promotion to the first division and he replaced Gerald Kirk in the team. When the war came James was living in Lincoln, but for reasons unknown he ended up serving with the Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed near Ypres, but has no known grave. As large crowds gathered to witness the last post ceremony, the traffic was stopped and the bugles sounded their lament, I looked for James' name, but found myself pondering the eleven men whose graves we had visited.

My eyes were then drawn to the endless lists of names on the Menin Gate. I read as many as I could, thinking of the places and lives they had left behind. This is no glorification of war, far from it, there was only sadness and a thankfulness that my generation had not been asked to face the horrors that these ordinary men had.

France-Belgium 2011 - Gerald Kirk

The village of Poperinghe was for British troops a respite from the hell of Ypres. This was the railhead for the infamous Ypres Salient but also a place where bars and restaurants could be visited. For City's amateur centre half Gerald Kirk it was the place he came to die. Badly wounded during the defence of St Julian following the first ever gas attack in the history of warfare, when the German's released poison gas on French colonial troops who ran for their lives at the sight of the yellow gas clouds.

Gerald's company were thrown into a hasty counter attack designed to plug the gap in the line, it was successful but it cost Gerald Kirk his life. Badly wounded he was taken to Poperinghe, but the following day he succumbed and he lies in the Poperinghe Old British Cemetery.

France-Belgium 2011 - Robert Torrance

As you walk down the gravel path to the Tyne Cot Cemetery halfway up the Passchendaele ridge, a soft woman's voice reads a name, regiment and age at the time of death. It's a beautiful litany of the 300,000 men who died in the infamous Battle of Passchdaele. Tyne Cot is the largest British and Commonwealth war cemetery in the world. Over twelve thousands graves and an additional 36,000 on its Memorial to the Missing. This truly is the Silent City.

Among the names on the Memorial to the Missing is that of Robert Torrance. Probably Bradford City's greatest defender. The auburn haired centre half was the man-of-the-match in the 1911 FA Cup Final replay. Seven years later he lost an arm during an artillery barrage near the Belgian town of Ypes. The field hospital he was taken to was then shelled and Robert was blasted into oblivion. His body was never found. Today he may still lie undiscovered under a Belgian field, or he may lie in a grave marked simply 'known unto God'.