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80 years worth of memories

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pneal

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Dec 10, 2004
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The following was written by my next door neighbour Ted, who is 90 this year. He wrote it as a letter to the LEP, but they chose not to publish it. I thought it might be of interest to North End fans so I offerred to post it on here for him. It was written a few months ago now, so ignore the reference to Alan Irvine being manager! I hope this is of interest to some of you.

Dear Sir,

First of all I would like to thank you for publishing a letter I wrote last year regarding the 1938 Cut Final. I kept it short because I thought a long letter may not get published. I would now like to write a bit longer letter regarding football.

I am now in my 90th year and I left school at the age of 14 years.

My first interest in P.N.E. came about because a very close friend who was a player named George Harrison lived next to me in Linnet Street when I was about 8 years old. He played outside left for P.N.E. and also for England. His son took me out on the cross bar of his bicycle. I used to play football on Moor Park when schools were holiday. A number of lads would gather together on Moor Park, perhaps in a group of 20 or more. Tom Finney was usually one of the group. Toms brother Joe was the oldest and would take charge like a father. We would dump our coats down for goal posts and after Joe picked two teams we would play each other all afternoon. Tom was quiet in those days and was usually in the background hardly speaking you wouldn’t think it was the same person today.

I remember Tom playing for P.N.E. “B” team, pre-war and he would wait for the Holme Slack bus after the game. The bus stop was near my home, he visited his Grandma on Saturday afternoon after the game. I would call to him “how many this week Tom”; they usually won about 5 or 6 nil in those days.

I attended St. Gregory’s school near Holme Slack, and was friendly with most of the people in that area.

When I was 13 yrs old and still at school, one day whilst out playing with mates I was the first person to catch a glimpse of the fire on the town end stand at P.N.E. I gave the alarm to the fire brigade.



When I was 19 years old in 1940 I joined the R.A.F. and whilst stationed down south I watched Tom Finney play for Southampton. Whilst stationed in Italy I saw Tom play several times. I got the chance to meet him once, and he remembered me from our school days, but he doesn’t remember me today after 65 years.

I continued to watch P.N.E. after the war and still lived on Deepdale Road in the first block of houses past North Ends ground, and was lucky to have a neighbour in Bob Holmes, one of the “Old Invincibles” of the 1880’s.

I now live at Brock, near Garstang and still take a big interest in P.N.E.

I attended P.N.E. verses Sunderland in 1937, and the Huddersfield final 1938. I was stationed down south when North end played Arsenal in the 1941 cup final. I applied to Wembley stadium for a ticket and half an hour after I posted the letter I read in the morning paper the match was a complete sell out, I came home instead on a 48 hour pass. On returning on the Monday morning I received a letter offering me two tickets, (copy of letter enclosed). London was heavy bombed that night, perhaps I was lucky. I did see the replay at Blackburn. I also watched the West Brom final in 1954. In 1942 I saw England play Scotland at Wembley and still have all the tickets for these matches to prove it. Andy Beattie and Bill Shankley played in that international match, I still have the ticket and programme.

I watched every home game that Tom Finney played, plus many away games. When he was at his best I once stood on the Kop with my regular pals, I said when we get old we will look back at these days and say how lucky we were. No truer words were ever spoken. Tom was without doubt the greatest player ever to grace a football pitch.

I still have the programme of the day P.N.E. verses Arsenal when the crowd reached almost 43,000, I think this must be a record. I also have many other programmes.

I have seen the Kop partly covered, demolished and rebuilt, and also seen the Pavilion Stand built, demolished and re-built. I have seen the Town End stand burnt down, re-built and demolished, and re-built again. I have seen the Deepdale Road Stand demolished and re-built.

Obviously I am not writing this letter hoping to get it published but I thought it may be of interest to one or two people. I would like to take this opportunity of wishing Alan Irvine the best of luck and hope he stays at Deepdale until he get promotion to the Premiership. I also wish the club all the best with the Museum; it would be a disaster to lose it. I have really enjoyed many visits there, good luck to all.



Yours faithfully,







E. Swarbrick (Ted)

A supporter for over 80 years
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good read i like the old stories just like my uncle used to give me about how they just hung out with the players and went the pub with them and lived next door different world now isnt it ... thanks for posting that though sure others will like it
 
Great post and brilliant letter. Can't believe the LEP didn't print it. Guess they are more interested in printing negativity about "broken Britain". Thanks for posting though.
 
Thanks for that pneal and more importantly Ted. An enjoyable read. Makes me wish I was born 50 years earlier to experience the likes of Tom Finney jumping on the 'football bus' with the fans on the way to a match. Oh how times have changed!

Maybe a revised version with including what Ted thinks about PNE today (rather than under Irvine!) compared to that of his earlier years may tempt the LEP to post it.

I for one would certainly buy the paper for that article alone.

Cheers Ted.

All the best.
 
Ted Swarbrick said:
I have seen the Kop partly covered, demolished and rebuilt, and also seen the Pavilion Stand built, demolished and re-built. I have seen the Town End stand burnt down, re-built and demolished, and re-built again. I have seen the Deepdale Road Stand demolished and re-built.
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It must have been like watching a child grow up.
How good must it have been to see great footballers as "normal people" and neighbours.
 
So the LEP wouldn't publish it. OK that's it. I will never, ever buy the LEP again.

If our marketing team had any savvy they would enable these old timers to post up their PNE tales on the official website. We need these stories before they are lost forever. Would be quite a simple thing to do and would provide some superb reading.
 
pneal said:
The following was written by my next door neighbour Ted, who is 90 this year. He wrote it as a letter to the LEP, but they chose not to publish it. I thought it might be of interest to North End fans so I offerred to post it on here for him. It was written a few months ago now, so ignore the reference to Alan Irvine being manager! I hope this is of interest to some of you.
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An excellent read. Thank you for posting it. My father is 89 this year and so may well know your next door neiighbour. Interestingly he was also in the RAF and attended all the cup finals mentioned in the letter.
 
agreed also Voldemort
my dad is 84 and he has loads of tales of watching PNE in bygone days and he did write a letter to the club regarding an item in the programme ,someone got in touch and asked him to put his story in writing and it was printed in one of the programmes,i think they even asked him if he had any more tales he told them yes but it didnt get any further
 
A good read indeed.

In the late 70's/early 80's Steve Elliott used to live accross the road from me and was our leading goalscorer for a number of years. As a very young teenager we used to play cricket and football in the fields behind his house. It was only a bog standard 3 bedroomed semi not like the flash houses that todays footballer buy.

One summer while playing cricket in the field I was batting and hit the ball into his back garden. As it was me that hit it I had to knock on his door to get the ball back. He was very nice about it and asked what we were all doing. I said we were playing cricket in the back field. Imagine my surprise when he asked if he could play. Naturally I said yes and we all spend time playing cricket before he suggested a kick around with a football. I was in goal and saved a few from him but the delight from the rest of my mates trying to get the football off him was a memory I will always treasure.

You would never see any of todays footballers doing that and as such I feel the modern game is less for it.

Happy memories.
 
SteveElliottsDoor said:
A good read indeed.

In the late 70's/early 80's Steve Elliott used to live accross the road from me and was our leading goalscorer for a number of years. As a very young teenager we used to play cricket and football in the fields behind his house. It was only a bog standard 3 bedroomed semi not like the flash houses that todays footballer buy.

One summer while playing cricket in the field I was batting and hit the ball into his back garden. As it was me that hit it I had to knock on his door to get the ball back. He was very nice about it and asked what we were all doing. I said we were playing cricket in the back field. Imagine my surprise when he asked if he could play. Naturally I said yes and we all spend time playing cricket before he suggested a kick around with a football. I was in goal and saved a few from him but the delight from the rest of my mates trying to get the football off him was a memory I will always treasure.

You would never see any of todays footballers doing that and as such I feel the modern game is less for it.

Happy memories.
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another good read - heard myself he was a sound guy - used to work at Uni-Chem but now works for the railways - likes his golf - like you say how many of today's players would be seen doing things like these.
 
I honestly cannot believe this was never published. :( This should have had centre page with photo's and scanned pics of ticket stubbs what Ted had collected from the games over the years, which he mentioned.

I am appalled by this. No respect for the older generation :mad:

I would try and get it published mate along with a covering letter, highlighting the fact that the LEP didn't have the decency to do so first time round.
 
Marvellous stuff - especially the fact that he actually knew one of the Invincibles. That is one of the great things about supporting a football team - that you are part of continuous unbroken chain of people who share the same loyalty and which gradually renews itself. When you think about it if someone starts attending matches in their early teens and goes on until their 80s they may easily attend matches over seven different decades. It is perfectly feasible that even now there may be someone attending matches who in their youth overlapped with someone who in their early days had even watched the Invincibles. I suppose my dad who saw his last match in his late 80s right at the fag-end of the Simmo era might have done that and I daresay Ted certainly has done. I wonder if there is anyone in that category now.
 
Thanks you everyone for their comments, I'll make sure Ted gets to see them. I'm sure some of them'll put a smile on his face. :)
 
So if PNE and the LEP don't want to do it how about it MB guys ? Get them to post up on here and you save for posterity.

Otherwise these stories will be like "tears lost in the rain" to quote that memorbale line from Rutger Hauer in "Bladerunner."
 
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