Thought I better come on in and thank you guys for all the great comments about my Valley thread.
Those years 'exiled' in London away from Devon were made so much easier by my stumbling over the derelict Valley as I went to get my Sunday paper one morning. I was blown away!
I got married and lived in Ladywell for a number of years before moving to Tonbridge (and eventually back to Devon) and loved watching Charlton (despite the trek to Selhurst).
Then on my return to Devon I would always make the effort to get to a game if the team where playing down this way, but didn't get the chance to see a game at the Valley.
Then a few years back I met up with a good friend who had moved to Greenwich and so finally managed to see that first game at the Valley, a 1-1 draw with Sunderland, and from then on, with frequent visits to stay with my friend, would get two or three games a season in. It was quite strange to walk up to, and into, the ground on that first game having not seen the ground for over fifteen years and that being when it was derelict as in my pictures. By the time of my 'return' it was as it is now so was quite a sight, in fact a shock, from my recollection. It took my breath away, but I did wonder if I'd made a mistake going back.
My increasing involvement at Plainmoor with Torquay United has meant not having a chance to get to an Addicks game this season. But I still watch the results with great interest and get a thrill from seeing 'us' top of the League and ready to start a move back to the rightful place for the club, the Premiership.
As it's often said, a mistress may provide fleeting moments of pleasure... But what pleasure!
I will always be indebted to the people who made our return home to the Valley possible? Charlton are a special club, and these people helped make it special. Too many people these day's say that football is all about money, it is also about the love of the game and supporting something you believe in?. Thank god for fans like this
Thanks Budleigh, your post brought back a lot of memories and a tear to my eye as well.
I have my uncle Alan to thank for my love of Charlton. He took me to a match round about 1970 when I was about 10 and that was it for me, I was hooked. It was a coold November day and the later part of the match was played with the floodlights on. The colours, sounds and the atmosphere were incredible.
My uncle passed away a couple of years ago of a heart attack on the way home from the Valley, but he did get to see his beloved club back home. It was good to spot the place on the East Stand from which we watched every match together.
I am pretty sure I am in one of the pictures. My mum holding me in that Steve Grit photo because I did have red boots and a green coat at the time and the lady looks the same height as my mum :-)
I really appreciated Torquay fans commenting on this. I always have a soft spot for the Devon clubs and was gutted Torquay lost in the playoffs because I did really fancy a weekend in Torquay and a good excuse to see Charlton.
Brilliant post Budleigh - can't find your post on the Torquay forum about 'The Mount', would love to read that too.
Was only talking about the decline of Charlton that led to the Selhurst debacle the other night to my missus. Looking at those pictures again made me almost weep too.
I first went to the Valley in '66. Dad had taken me to Millwall a couple of times, then Selhurst as he was a Palace supporter, then Craven Cottage. He never would take me to The Valley though, didn't like Charlton for some reason. Then, early in the '66/'67 season my best mates dad decided that he'd take us to Charlton and his reason was that he grew up in Sunderland and the Charlton connection was obviously via Sam Bartram. As soon as I walked through the turnstiles I knew immediately that this was 'my' club. No rhyme or reason to it is there? I remember the smell of hot dogs, tobacco and stout as we walked past the covered end and we took our places on the East Terrace near to the foot of the floodlight in the North East corner. Seeing the sheer scale of the ground took my breath away.
Somehow, for me, it's always been about Charlton and the ground, not the team and dare I say it, not even the division we're in but I do want us out of League one asap!!
The days at Selhurst were a nightmare in many ways, seeing Charlton in the top flight was a huge dream for me as a kid and when it finally happened it was at the wrong place. Compounded by travelling to work on the train every day and seeing the old girl in terrible state of disrepair, that was another nightmare.
I couldn't get a ticket for the first game back at The Valley, instead I was shopping in Rochester trying to imagine the scenes.
If I ever saw Roger Alwen I think I'd have snogged his face off!
Cue 'The Greatest Game' and given the circumstances that led me to support Charlton in the first place, it was ironic that we played Sunderland. I thought about my mates dad that day and also had the great satisfaction of finally converting my son from Man Utd to Charlton and getting my daughter to support a club - ours. My conversion rate isn't too bad - around the time I got engaged to my missus I converted her from Chelsea to Charlton too. But they all say the same thing, 'There's just something about the place'.
For financial reasons I can't go half as much as I'd like to. If I manage 3 games a season I'm lucky, but it's the only club for me - get within a quarter mile of the place and I still get the butterflies I did as a ten years old years ago.
Will post a link to the Mount thread. It's part of a lost grounds of London thread and is a few pics plus an article I contributed to in Groundtastic magazine.
Below is a link to the Lost Grounds of South London thread on the TFF forum which includes my small bit on The Mount at Catford as published in Groundtastic. It is in response to a map posted by BartonDowns (one of Torquay United's great geeks!). It is worth scrolling down a bit further on that thread as I have also posted a few pics.
I've always been aware that Woolwich Arsenal FC played their matches at The Manor Ground in Plumstead ..... but seeing the map that Budleigh supplied, I was amazed at the size of the stadium with the amount of terracing and 2 grandstands. Record attendence was 32,000.
But Woolwich Arsenal only moved to that ground in 1893. Before that they played at The Invicta ground (good old Kentish name!)....which was soon after developed and built over with terraced housing and a church.
Again, are any photos of these grounds still in existence?
I've always been aware that Woolwich Arsenal FC played their matches at The Manor Ground in Plumstead ..... but seeing the map that Budleigh supplied, I was amazed at the size of the stadium with the amount of terracing and 2 grandstands. Record attendence was 32,000.
But Woolwich Arsenal only moved to that ground in 1893. Before that they played at The Invicta ground (good old Kentish name!)....which was soon after developed and built over with terraced housing and a church.
Again, are any photos of these grounds still in existence?
Oggy....The Mecury did a piece many many years ago about Woolwich Arsenal, they had some photos of the ground with people in it and empty.....the curved terracing always stuck with me, as did the pictures they took of the terracing which was still visible in peoples gardens back when the article was printed.....facinating stuff.
Here's a Picture of Woolwich Arsenal from 1906.....not a great shot of the ground though....the terracing at the other end was similiar to the East Terrace from what I remember from the Mercury.
I've been looking again at the info on Charlton playing at The Mount, Catford.
Perhaps there's a chance that there may still be photos in existence? Surely the local press would have covered the matches there.
Also, does the club have a photo or documents in their archives - or was this the sort of stuff lost when The Valley was abandoned in 1985 ?
I have about 20-30 microfiche sheets ( each sheet has about 40 a4 pages) that relate to the club during the late 70s up to the mid 80s. I must get these developed someday, as I'm sure there is some interesting stuff on them. Not sure the best way of getting it done.
Formed as Dial Square FC, they soon Morphed into Royal Arsenal FC, then after moving grounds to Plumstead they became Woolwich Arsenal FC, here another shot from 1906......appraently as early as 1904 they were averaging 22,000 but by 1910 had gone into administration....blamed on the locality as Plumstead was sparsely populated and attendances had dropped to 11,000 ( I wonder if this had anything to do with the little club up the road!). The steps are apparently from the Invicta Ground. Cant find any pictures of the terracing in back gardens from the Manor.
Couple more of the Manor Ground....ok unless I find a decent shot of the high end, thats it.....Im not a closet Arsenal fan, but do find old grounds interesting....looks like the fiddled the crowd figures even in the early days....
Comments
Those years 'exiled' in London away from Devon were made so much easier by my stumbling over the derelict Valley as I went to get my Sunday paper one morning. I was blown away!
I got married and lived in Ladywell for a number of years before moving to Tonbridge (and eventually back to Devon) and loved watching Charlton (despite the trek to Selhurst).
Then on my return to Devon I would always make the effort to get to a game if the team where playing down this way, but didn't get the chance to see a game at the Valley.
Then a few years back I met up with a good friend who had moved to Greenwich and so finally managed to see that first game at the Valley, a 1-1 draw with Sunderland, and from then on, with frequent visits to stay with my friend, would get two or three games a season in. It was quite strange to walk up to, and into, the ground on that first game having not seen the ground for over fifteen years and that being when it was derelict as in my pictures. By the time of my 'return' it was as it is now so was quite a sight, in fact a shock, from my recollection. It took my breath away, but I did wonder if I'd made a mistake going back.
My increasing involvement at Plainmoor with Torquay United has meant not having a chance to get to an Addicks game this season. But I still watch the results with great interest and get a thrill from seeing 'us' top of the League and ready to start a move back to the rightful place for the club, the Premiership.
As it's often said, a mistress may provide fleeting moments of pleasure...
But what pleasure!
Thanks,
Leigh 'Budleigh' Extence
Charlton are a special club, and these people helped make it special.
Too many people these day's say that football is all about money, it is also about the love of the game and supporting something you believe in?. Thank god for fans like this
Do you get to see hells bells down there and would you rather watch footie than bang her senseless
If its the later , I will still support torquay but for my initial reason not my sentimental stoopid thoughts from yesterday
Great thread great read great pictures , it is warming that the old girl took a piece of you with her , like she has all of us
I have my uncle Alan to thank for my love of Charlton. He took me to a match round about 1970 when I was about 10 and that was it for me, I was hooked. It was a coold November day and the later part of the match was played with the floodlights on. The colours, sounds and the atmosphere were incredible.
My uncle passed away a couple of years ago of a heart attack on the way home from the Valley, but he did get to see his beloved club back home. It was good to spot the place on the East Stand from which we watched every match together.
I really appreciated Torquay fans commenting on this. I always have a soft spot for the Devon clubs and was gutted Torquay lost in the playoffs because I did really fancy a weekend in Torquay and a good excuse to see Charlton.
Was only talking about the decline of Charlton that led to the Selhurst debacle the other night to my missus. Looking at those pictures again made me almost weep too.
I first went to the Valley in '66. Dad had taken me to Millwall a couple of times, then Selhurst as he was a Palace supporter, then Craven Cottage. He never would take me to The Valley though, didn't like Charlton for some reason. Then, early in the '66/'67 season my best mates dad decided that he'd take us to Charlton and his reason was that he grew up in Sunderland and the Charlton connection was obviously via Sam Bartram. As soon as I walked through the turnstiles I knew immediately that this was 'my' club. No rhyme or reason to it is there? I remember the smell of hot dogs, tobacco and stout as we walked past the covered end and we took our places on the East Terrace near to the foot of the floodlight in the North East corner. Seeing the sheer scale of the ground took my breath away.
Somehow, for me, it's always been about Charlton and the ground, not the team and dare I say it, not even the division we're in but I do want us out of League one asap!!
The days at Selhurst were a nightmare in many ways, seeing Charlton in the top flight was a huge dream for me as a kid and when it finally happened it was at the wrong place. Compounded by travelling to work on the train every day and seeing the old girl in terrible state of disrepair, that was another nightmare.
I couldn't get a ticket for the first game back at The Valley, instead I was shopping in Rochester trying to imagine the scenes.
If I ever saw Roger Alwen I think I'd have snogged his face off!
Cue 'The Greatest Game' and given the circumstances that led me to support Charlton in the first place, it was ironic that we played Sunderland. I thought about my mates dad that day and also had the great satisfaction of finally converting my son from Man Utd to Charlton and getting my daughter to support a club - ours. My conversion rate isn't too bad - around the time I got engaged to my missus I converted her from Chelsea to Charlton too. But they all say the same thing, 'There's just something about the place'.
For financial reasons I can't go half as much as I'd like to. If I manage 3 games a season I'm lucky, but it's the only club for me - get within a quarter mile of the place and I still get the butterflies I did as a ten years old years ago.
It is worth scrolling down a bit further on that thread as I have also posted a few pics.
http://www.torquayfansforum.com/index.cgi?board=groundreviews&action=display&thread=1389
Perhaps there's a chance that there may still be photos in existence?
Surely the local press would have covered the matches there.
Also, does the club have a photo or documents in their archives - or was this the sort of stuff lost when The Valley was abandoned in 1985 ?
But Woolwich Arsenal only moved to that ground in 1893.
Before that they played at The Invicta ground (good old Kentish name!)....which was soon after developed and built over with terraced housing and a church.
Again, are any photos of these grounds still in existence?
Not sure the best way of getting it done.