June 2000
The
English football league season finished with mixed fortunes for Yorkshire’s
leading clubs. Sheffield Wednesday, after a pretty awful season, were
relegated from the Premier League. As Barnsley failed to win promotion, that
reduced the number of Yorkshire clubs in the Premier League to three (Bradford
City, Leeds United and Middlesbrough). Leeds finished third, so winning a
place in next year’s European Champions’ League. With a young talented
team they had a great season though they never really recovered towards the
end from two unpleasant incidents off the pitch. Through it all, David
O’Leary, the team manager, has earned the respect and affection of all Leeds
supporters.
But
on the last day of the League programme it was Bradford City who won the
headlines and the hearts of football supporters not just in Bradford but
throughout the whole country. A year ago they were promoted to the Premier
League and few expected them to survive for long. They would, it was generally
thought, have a season in the sun playing with the big boys and then, like
Bede’s sparrow, return to the cold and dark, in this case of the Nationwide
League. Well, they battled bravely all season, despite having a small squad of
players and limited resources. Sometimes they were clearly outclassed and by
the end of the League programme faced relegation. But then in a climax which
could have been scripted for a boys’ annual, on the last day of the season
they beat the mighty Liverpool, and, at the other end of the country, playing
at the same time, their rivals for survival lost. It was enough. Next season
Bradford will play Premiership football again.
Alan & Garry Stockdill celebrate at Valley Parade!
The
fans at Valley Parade, Bradford’s ground, went wild with excitement. Grown
men wept. And Bradford partied all night. You would have thought they had won
the League, not simply remained in it and finished 17th. But it was a great
achievement in the circumstances and the people of Bradford knew it.
The
following day thousands massed in the city centre as the players and their
young manager toured the city in an open top bus before being given a civic
reception. It made the national television news. With a startling lack of
originality, Bradford’s Chief Executive said that he was ‘over the
moon’. According to the Telegraph and Argus, the Bishop of Bradford thought
it was ‘absolutely brilliant’. The Daily Telegraph quoted the managing
director of Bradford City as saying ‘what is here is very good. The problem
is there isn’t enough of it’ before explaining that he was talking about
the stand, not the team.
Last
month an article by Piloti in Private Eye described the sad and shameful
neglect of Lister's Mill in Manningham in Bradford. It is unusual to find such
an informed article about a matter of this kind in a metropolitan magazine.
The quotations here are from that article. ‘Poor old Bradford needs to
exploit all the assets it has…The old industry has collapsed; the city
centre was buggered up by councillors and city engineers in the 1960s and,
these days, while Leeds goes from strength to strength, Bradford is
desolate’. And yet Lister’s Mill has been allowed to fall into ruin. The
mill dominates Bradford’s skyline as one looks from the hills surrounding
the city. It is magnificent. Built in the 1870s, the buildings, ‘solidly
constructed of stone and embellished with Italian Renaissance detail’, include 16 acres of floor space. The 249 foot
chimney is a Venetian campanile made of 8,000 tons of stone. In short it is
‘one of the wonders of the Victorian Age’ and anywhere else it would be
protected, restored and revered. ‘Surely it is recognised by anyone half
sane that solidly constructed Victorian industrial buildings are a most
valuable resource? But that is
not how they do things in Bradford’.
Lister's Mill
Over
the last few years the empty unprotected mill has been ‘systematically
looted. Almost every slate has been removed from the roof and many of the York
stone floor slabs taken up…Why didn’t Bradford city council try to stop
this theft and vandalism to a listed building?’ It continues. I understand
that only last week hooligans set fire to part of the building, so damaging it
even further.
The
article ends thus. ‘A vast structure which, a few years back, was in
reasonable condition is now worth practically nothing as an asset. So unless
Bradford city council is prepared to behave responsibly, enforce the law and
put some of its own money into the project, these superb buildings look
doomed’. It is disgraceful.
Two more photo's (click to enlarge)
The
first weekend in June saw unusually heavy rainfall in the West Riding.
Conditions in Calderdale were the main story on the national news. In the
Calder Valley hundreds of homes had to be evacuated as the river burst its
banks. Roads and railway lines became impassable. National newsreaders began
the day mispronouncing Todmorden and Mytholmroyd. However their attempts
improved noticeably as the day progressed. One can well imagine that irate
Yorkshiremen had spent the morning telephoning the BBC to explain that it’s Todmorden,
not Tod-more-den, Mytholmroyd, not Mitholmroyd.
Local papers somehow always manage, unintentionally, to make a serious and dramatic event appear comic. Take this from the front page of the Yorkshire Post. ‘Several people and a dog became marooned on the steps of Hebden Bridge Picture House where they spent four hours in darkness’. Well, call me an old cynic, but that sounds to me much like any normal evening inside Hebden Bridge Picture House.
David Brearley