Jump to content
IGNORED

Burnden Park disaster


Lanterne Rouge

Recommended Posts

It`s seventy years today since 33 Bolton fans were killed in a crush at Burnden Park when the crash barriers gave way in a cup match v Stoke. It was the worst British football disaster until Ibrox in 1971.

Unbelievably the bodies of the dead were left covered with coats on the ground around the pitch and the game continued. Stanley Mathews said that it sickened him that the game was allowed to carry on - perhaps being just after the war people were more immune to the sight of death, who knows?

Fair play to the BBC who had a decent feature on the tragedy on their Breakfast programme this morning with interviews with survivors etc.

A long time ago but we shouldn`t forget these things. RIP to all that lost their lives.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was thought at the time that evacuating the stadium amongst the confusion would potentially cause further deaths, but yes it does seem people were more immune to death just after the war. Indeed, 13 years after the war this can still be experienced by anyone who has the 1958 Cup final on DVD. Despite it being just three months after the Munich Air Crash and the final involving Manchester United, the tragedy is never mentioned at all during the whole 90 minutes! If that was the case nowadays, the commentators would be flogging it to death at every opportunity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My wife's late grandfather, Harry was a lovely man who was born and raised in Bolton. He was a lifelong supporter and was present at Burden Park on the day of the tragedy on 9th March 1946. He was at the opposite end of the ground to where the crush occurred and was completely unaware that anything untoward had happened until he returned home to find his wife frantic with worry because she had, by then heard of the disaster and knew that many had died in the very part of the ground where he generally stood. He had been unable to get in to his preferred end of the ground on arrival because it was already full so went to the other end. Harry was a lucky man, that day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree totally. Disasters at football stadia are thankfully rare but we should never forget those who lost their lives following the sport we all love.

I admire the dignity and discreet remembrance demonstrated by Rangers, Bradford and Bolton when it comes to anniversaries of their tragedies.

They don't ram it down the whole country's throats and they don't demand widespread minutes of silence from every club while ignoring other clubs' tragedies including those in which they were involved...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

I agree totally. Disasters at football stadia are thankfully rare but we should never forget those who lost their lives following the sport we all love.

I admire the dignity and discreet remembrance demonstrated by Rangers, Bradford and Bolton when it comes to anniversaries of their tragedies.

They don't ram it down the whole country's throats and they don't demand widespread minutes of silence from every club while ignoring other clubs' tragedies including those in which they were involved...

Can't think who you're getting at !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't realise until a few days ago when i saw this picture. There was another fire at a live game, thankfully no one lost their lives but it just makes you wonder why the FA didn't learn their lesson from this to make the grounds safer. Perhaps the Bradford disaster could have been avoided. 

http://www.rightnow.io/breaking-news/city-ground_bn_1432367969286.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Threshing Red said:

I didn't realise until a few days ago when i saw this picture. There was another fire at a live game, thankfully no one lost their lives but it just makes you wonder why the FA didn't learn their lesson from this to make the grounds safer. Perhaps the Bradford disaster could have been avoided. 

http://www.rightnow.io/breaking-news/city-ground_bn_1432367969286.html

The City Ground.

Was that at Nottingham forest or Bradford City?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Threshing Red said:

It was Nottingham forests ground, you can read it in the history section on their wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Ground

OK, thanks for that.

I have just read the section on Wiki - very fortunate that nobody was injured with a 31,000 crowd present; and this was in the 1960s when, presumably, crowd safety systems were not as efficient as they are today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 06/03/2016 at 08:52, handsofclay1909 said:

It was thought at the time that evacuating the stadium amongst the confusion would potentially cause further deaths, but yes it does seem people were more immune to death just after the war. Indeed, 13 years after the war this can still be experienced by anyone who has the 1958 Cup final on DVD. Despite it being just three months after the Munich Air Crash and the final involving Manchester United, the tragedy is never mentioned at all during the whole 90 minutes! If that was the case nowadays, the commentators would be flogging it to death at every opportunity.

The world was a different place then,alien to young people of today.things always change...attitudes,social standpoint,let alone how technological advances comlpletely alter perception.the world is mostly unrecognizable even in the span of my lifetime so I guess we shouldn't be surprised..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...