The old rec hanley actual location?

[Fosse69]

3 hours ago, barny61 said:

Yes the loop line was in use. I lived about 500 yards from the old ground in High street , Hanley (now Town road) and used to catch a train from the station by the Grand hotel. Three pence, (old money) if my memory serves me right to the Vale.

Sunday morning about 40 of us used to play football on the old ground and one of the stands was still up and the crush barriers were still in place on the slobs side (Swan passage). Memories ! I was always under the impression that the kick off was at 3.15 because the pubs shut at three then.ha ha.

Pub afternoon closing time was the factor, North Staffs was 3.00, whereas other places it was 2.30.

[Conrad]

4 hours ago, barny61 said:

I've just clicked, you don't have brother named Deano by any chance ?

Yes, that’s not his real name but every one knows him by that name.

[Conrad]

4 hours ago, melv said:

I went to that school 

You went to school?

[barny61]

Know who you are now Conrad, I've worked with Deano for 25 years ! Barnowl.

39 minutes ago, Conrad said:

Yes, that’s not his real name but every one knows him by that name.

 

[Jacko51]

There are very few clubs who have grounds in city centres.  Both the St James' Parks are near the centres but I can't think of many others.  Peterborough isn't far but not as close as those two.

[Conrad]

5 minutes ago, Jacko51 said:

There are very few clubs who have grounds in city centres.  Both the St James' Parks are near the centres but I can't think of many others.  Peterborough isn't far but not as close as those two.

Was going to say Exeter’s is near the city centre, then realised that’s one of the St James parks.☺️

[Jinksy]

Thought I would just say lived in Hillchurch St. til I got married. Went to Broom street School and spent many long hours on the old rec and around Bryan St. Happy days. Also caught the loopline  from Hanley

[sinnott2spinnit]

I notice that on the 22nd April, this year, it will be 70 years since the Vale played its last game on the Old Recreation Ground. Maybe a feature in the match day programme prior to this date (Newport County) would be In order, or would the Sentinel do a feature of this nature!!!

I can visualise where the old ground was located, the Potteries shopping centre and Cineworld etc, but it would be interesting to see a “layered” street map showing the old ground placed on a modern day one.Can anyone oblige?

 

[barny61]

1 hour ago, Jinksy said:

Thought I would just say lived in Hillchurch St. til I got married. Went to Broom street School and spent many long hours on the old rec and around Bryan St. Happy days. Also caught the loopline  from Hanley

I remember you Jinksy from when we used play on the old rec. There were two Jinksies, you and one from the prefabs in Hanover street !  I went to Broom st school but was moved when it closed, sad.

When I moved on to Grove Senior School the other Jinksy was in his final year and said come with me on the first day then you wont get your head dunked ! 😂😂

[Joe B]

As a younger fan, what an enjoyable thread to read this has been.

[Jinksy]

3 hours ago, barny61 said:

I remember you Jinksy from when we used play on the old rec. There were two Jinksies, you and one from the prefabs in Hanover street !  I went to Broom st school but was moved when it closed, sad.

When I moved on to Grove Senior School the other Jinksy was in his final year and said come with me on the first day then you wont get your head dunked ! 😂😂

When I left Broom St. most of my friends went to Grove I went to Wellington Rd. We were bitter rivals (the two schools).... Memories 😊 

 

[Old fort]

I can vividly remember looking towards the Lewis's Man of Fire from the Rec car park. We used to call it Jack Frost. Toward Bryan Street I remember there was Swift House. I have to say that nowadays, I only tackle Hanley if absolutely unavoidable, maybe as a kid you don't have the same outlook, because I used to love going up Anley duck 

[toyahw]

26 minutes ago, Old fort said:

I can vividly remember looking towards the Lewis's Man of Fire from the Rec car park. We used to call it Jack Frost. 

Used to scare the <ovf censored> out of me as a kid did Jack. We always rereferred to the car park as "Vale car park". Was it  just us, as Mum had been the Old Rec many times as a lass?

[barny61]

Seeing as you're enjoying it Joe here is an old photo of Town road where Forest Park is now, my home was one of the terraced houses with Hanley deep pit behind. When the miners used to finish a shift in the early hours I can remember them making a right old noise as they headed to the pit baths and my owd man shouting out of the bedroom window to shut the f... up. Of course they just give it him back and got even noisier.

[RailwayRowdy]

A lot of people said we lost a lot of support when we moved out of Hanley to Burslem.

With this in mind, I looked up the average attendances for the last season in Hanley and our first in Burslem.

For 49/50 in Hanley it was 12,983 but for the following year in Burslem it was 10,832. That’s a loss in attendance of over 16% 

However, I do seem to remember that a poster on here (possibly Fosse) saying that in 50/51 we had to play 4 home games in a week to catch up with postponements and consequently gates were (as low as 2,630) very poor which obviously would affect the average. However, the theory that we lost support with the move does seem to have some legs.

Whilst looking these figures up on wikipaedia I just looked at our glorious 53/4 season. According to them, Vale’s change strip (obviously days before away strips) that season was, wait for it, red & white stripes ! Can anyone confirm that this is correct ?

If it is indeed right, what in God’s name were we doing playing in a Prize Bully kit ?