In honour of the start of the secondary of the two World Cups taking place over the next few weeks, this week’s #FloodlightFriday adventure takes us to the beating heart of the people’s republic of South Yorkshire, Doncaster. This via the brilliant 2nd iteration of Rovers’ fanzine Raise The Roof, namely Raise The Roof II issue 5 which appeared in 1997.
This week it’s not just a brilliantly clear photo, oh no dear reader we have a FIVE page article to present, written by a Rovers exile living in Connecticut, USA. I told you there was a world cup connection. Our exile writes in with a sort of eulogy to Belle Vue explaining what it once was and how it could have been deserted by the authorities. It is quite beautiful if a little rose tinted in places.
“Large Stands” “broad acres” “handy clock” “the Man. Utd. of the lower divisions” are all phrases you might hear uttered by someone in the US today when talking about the delights of Belle Vue. I know he might be exaggerating a bit for comedic fanzine effect but I’m not sure. He doesn’t believe in vikings that’s for sure and for good reason, a Yorvik army was routed at Donny in 868 and it wasn’t York City either.1
“What the Kop was to Anfield” continues some stretched imagery but then we get our first glimpse of the floodlights, perhaps the best one in the whole article. 18,747 watching Hibs on a balmy (by South Yorkshire standards) spring evening in 1952, riding from Balby to see erections, warning signs on pylons, jumpers for goalposts, those were the days. None of this new fangled quartz halogen nonsense of the 70s. I’m being a little facetious of course, apologies and to be fair he was right about the “metallic, hollow, soulless place” to come.
And then Belle Vue and its floodlights “appear”, not exactly the Nou Camp indeed and not a David Bailey either (one for the teenagers there). Despite the terrible quality it is quite evocative, rows of post war semis, wasteland/ an aerodrome all around and one pylon just about visible. I can’t quite find that picture anywhere so you’ll have to do with these very slightly clearer ones instead.
I spent 30+ years knocking around Saltergate, similar in many ways to Belle Vue and yes it was great and yes I miss it but we couldn’t stay there, open air toilets, no room to grow, great when people got the bus to games but a problem in the car age with cinder mounds or crumbling concrete terraces that weren’t fit for much after years of neglect.
This is a lovely article, the sort of brilliant contributions from random sources that made fanzines so spectacularly great, including the terrible photography.
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