FOLLOWING construction work at Barrow Raiders' stadium a miraculous discovery has been made whereby 75-year-old match day programmes have been found in good condition.
The match it dates back to was against Bradford on January 19, 1946 with the writing still as clear as day.
The photos were discovered by the gents toilets wrapped up in an old hessian bag by Darren Fawcett.
They were hidden in the bag wrapped round a beam in the stand which has now been knocked down.
Steve Neale, chairman at Barrow Raiders said this was “quite the interesting find” and that this was as a result of the roof removal that is currently ongoing.
“As we are removing our roof this has fallen out so it must have been in part of the old section that is being taken down at the moment,” he said.
“Steve Andrews has quite a large collection of match day programmes going back decades, and this is one that he has not got.
“So we are thinking of offering this to him as part of his collection.
“The programme features quite a few stars from back in the day as well.
“The programme itself is 75-years-old and is still in really good nick which is amazing.”
The team sheet itself featured some big stars from back in the day with Robert “Bob” Ayres, Roy Francis, William “Billy” Little, John “Jack” T. ‘Tank’ Woods who all played at international level, to name just a few.
This find dates back to post-second world war where Barrow dropped out of the wartime Lancashire league in 1940–41, they did not return to league competition until 1945–46.
As many of the pre-war players had retired, this was an era of rebuilding and recruiting.
The 1950s were the club's heyday. The team was captained by Willie Horne and Barrow appeared no less than three times at Wembley.
On May 5, 1951, Barrow made their second appearance at Wembley and were beaten 10–0 by Wigan. On Saturday October 27, 1951 13,319 spectators were at Barrow to watch the home side beat New Zealand 9–5. On April 30, 1955, Barrow made their third appearance at Wembley.
This time, they won the Challenge Cup 21–12 against Workington Town, later that year they added the Lancashire Cup after a 12–2 win over Oldham.
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