Our old pit villages today as support

[graingrover]

Have the years eroded the support we  used  to get from our outlying  villages .Supporters' buses ran from most of them to home matches and many had supporters' club sub branches ? In the 60's !
Dunscroft / Stainforth ,Rossingto. , Armthprpe , et al

[IDM]

Or more folks have cars these days.?

[scawsby steve]

Also, the price of football today.

In the 60s, all working class pleasures, including football, were very cheap.

[Pintolager]

I was born in '73, so not old enough to know, but how many Leeds, Man U, Liverpool fans etc, were there in Donny? Did people back in the 60's stick to supporting their home team?

[scawsby steve]

I was born in '73, so not old enough to know, but how many Leeds, Man U, Liverpool fans etc, were there in Donny? Did people back in the 60's stick to supporting their home team?

It was more in the 50s when Donny people stuck to supporting the Rovers.

Leeds and Man Utd fans cropped up in Donny in the mid to late 60s.

[Hounslowrover]

Used to get the special bus to the game in Thorne during the 50s and 60s.  Used to watch other teams too as they weren't in our league I.e.  trains to Rotherham, Sheffield United and Wednesday.  No time for Barnsley though.

[TonySoprano]

I know of many Rovers die hards in Edlington, they usually go on a mini bus to away games.

[Avsuptem]

Most of me fellow pupils at Highfields school's Dads used to work at Broddy pit but we had to take a 2 penny ride into town and then catch the trolley bus to Belle Vue. A massive adventure when you are a 6 year old under guardianship from your 8 year old big brother. The odd thing is I remember it like it was yesterday.

[knockers]

Played quite a lot of football against Highfields.

Everyone seemed to be related and most had a moustache. It was crap to be a winger as the supporters used to try to trip you up as you ran down wing.

Good set of lads though!

[selby]

  I think the biggest difference is TV. Instead of the wendies and weeds the kids now are Arsenal and Man City but a lot go to the Rovers because they can and there is a growing interest with more shirts in evidence and the club to their credit keep it cheep for youngsters.

[Ian Nimmo]

Have the years eroded the support we  used  to get from our outlying  villages .Supporters' buses ran from most of them to home matches and many had supporters' club sub branches ? In the 60's !
Dunscroft / Stainforth ,Rossingto. , Armthprpe , et al

Yes in the 60’s and into the early 70’s my mum and dad were involved in forming and running the Conisbrough branch, which included running a coach to all home games and some away games.
In those days not everyone had cars, and the majority of home games were night games because of playing on Friday nights, thus running a bus was always a viable option, around half of the coach would be kids of all ages so much more convenient for families and older kids travelling by themselves.

I don’t think we have lost support because of the lack of these sub branches, but the support was consistent throughout a season from the villages because the option was in place.

[ForsolongaRover]

In the 40s and early 50s the car park used to get quite full. My dad had a car for his job and there would be a car full - 3 men and me - travelling to home matches. Back then we never went to away matches, not even Rotherham or Barnsley. There were extra Race Course and Hyde Park trolley buses on the circular routes to the ground and lots walked too. I imagine that there were lots coming in on buses from the neighbouring villages too, but I can’t say I really noticed.

I think the trend towards supporting Leeds in particular came in the Don Revie era. That coincided with many years of Rovers in the doldrums.  I was not aware of large numbers travelling to Sheffield, and Hillsborough, with the pre-eminent team was not easy by public transport.

There was not nearly as much TV football in Leeds’ heyday, so I’d say the era of the long-distance Premier League fan did not really begin on any scale until we had Sky. Would that be in the early 90s?

[Pintolager]

I understand what you say Forsolong, but when I was a kid in the 80's, there were plenty of Leeds/Wednesday fans because of relatives supporting them teams about and that was before the Prem. School mates (albeit armchair fans) also supported Liverpool & Man U maybe because of MOTD.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

We've lost much of our village pub/culture where there was the opportunities to run coaches/buses to the match whereas now, most folk choose to make their own way in their own time.

Even if transport was laid on from our major villages, would there be sufficient take up?

 

[Goole Rover]

I was born in '73, so not old enough to know, but how many Leeds, Man U, Liverpool fans etc, were there in Donny? Did people back in the 60's stick to supporting their home team?

They call themselves Leeds, Man Utd., and whatever fans but they’re not fans they’re followers.
Half of the so called Leeds fans round here haven’t been to home game in the last five years. We know a few Wolfie don’t we.

[Pintolager]

I was born in '73, so not old enough to know, but how many Leeds, Man U, Liverpool fans etc, were there in Donny? Did people back in the 60's stick to supporting their home team?

They call themselves Leeds, Man Utd., and whatever fans but they’re not fans they’re followers.
Half of the so called Leeds fans round here haven’t been to home game in the last five years. We know a few Wolfie don’t we.

I agree and that is why I used the term armchair fans. Not just football, but society in general likes to jump on "bandwagons"

[BobG]

Fashion, for example. The latest toy for Christmas.  Flappy paddle gearboxes. Those stupid electronic handbrakes.

A helluva lot of bandwagons are nothing but marketing devices. Make folk spend on something they don't need and didn’t  know they wanted.

When I become Lord of the Universe, which, actually, is due to happen fairly soon now, I have a plan to make the world a whole lot better place:

First against the wall will be estate agents. All of them. Valueless and talentless.

Second against the wall will be marketing types. Nothing against them in principle, but they've  gone too far. Licensed liars now. Gone.

And third against the wall: wasps. Every single one of them. I mean, what, actually, are they for?? What do they do that's even a teeny bit useful?

BobG

[Silkscarf]

There’s been huge structural change in our region since the miners’ strike, as elsewhere in the old industrial areas. Work and society has changed out of all recognition for everyone. The pit villages have no reason to be there any more, they no longer relate to that pit, people there work wherever they can.

They’ve been doing that for 40 years now, with not much help from central government. They’ve been adapting and now are just areas where people choose to live but they work all over the place, commuting by car long distances, or working from home.

Somewhere like Askern for example there’s loads of new housing being built so presumably there’s demand. Things are improving. We just need to remind all those people to support Rovers.

[Goole Rover]

Fashion, for example. The latest toy for Christmas.  Flappy paddle gearboxes. Those stupid electronic handbrakes.

A helluva lot of bandwagons are nothing but marketing devices. Make folk spend on something they don't need and didn’t  know they wanted.

When I become Lord of the Universe, which, actually, is due to happen fairly soon now, I have a plan to make the world a whole lot better place:

First against the wall will be estate agents. All of them. Valueless and talentless.

Second against the wall will be marketing types. Nothing against them in principle, but they've  gone too far. Licensed liars now. Gone.

And third against the wall: wasps. Every single one of them. I mean, what, actually, are they for?? What do they do that's even a teeny bit useful?

BobG
What about the council's planning officers and the councilors who it on the planning committee.

[graingrover]

I do lament the passing of these village communities and of course the pit is no longer the essence of community living  .We all need to belong to something and our neighbourhoods have become so lacking in community values .The attachment to a football club is one way of expressing common community and DRFC does a lot in that way to stimulate interest and attachment .

[TonySoprano]

Taxation killing the pubs is a an absolute travesty

[danumdon]

I do lament the passing of these village communities and of course the pit is no longer the essence of community living  .We all need to belong to something and our neighbourhoods have become so lacking in community values .The attachment to a football club is one way of expressing common community and DRFC does a lot in that way to stimulate interest and attachment .

As stated previously the pub trade disappearing at an ever increasing frequency has also evaporated the community spirit in many villages, fans who would all know each other and socialise in the same pubs, some would of also travelled together to games and used the pubs, before and after matches,

Who remembers when you could go to a pub after the match and everyone was talking about the game? it seems most now will only discuss a game on any socials they use.

Society is changing at break neck speed, football is only one of the victims of this change.

[graingrover]

Maybe Retford FC , Rossington Main FC , Thorne  Colliery   FC are our new outlying village feeders .

[ForsolongaRover]

Taxation killing the pubs is a an absolute travesty

I think it’s far more complicated than that. The demise of Tied Houses beginning in the 70s and 80s was a major factor with the consequential take-over of so many of them by companies who needed to add food to finance their costs changed pub culture especially in villages. Excise Duty was always a factor, but the character of the British pub was badly damaged by the influence of those seeking to profiteer.

I’m surprised that no one has mentioned working mens’ clubs; not only was their beer so cheap that pubs in pit villages were really up against it, but they paid no tax on their profits as it was classed as “mutual trading”, the principle being that you can’t make a profit out of yourself. So I suspect their members included Rovers fans.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

It's not all doom and gloom. I notice the Black Bank has been promoting itself, setting up a website and online store. This is a good way of recruiting young uns following on from the work done with schools, catching the next generation of school pals etc.

[ForsolongaRover]

It's not all doom and gloom. I notice the Black Bank has been promoting itself, setting up a website and online store. This is a good way of recruiting young uns following on from the work done with schools, catching the next generation of school pals etc.

It’s a different culture now and people like me have no chance of understanding it. When I was at Wheatley Junior Mixed we were almost overawed when a policeman came talk to us about Road Safety. If Syd Bycroft had turned up it would have been like meeting royalty!

[Padge_DRFC]

Re kids supports further up. I'd seriously consider reducing kids football shirts with Rovers and get the town full of them.

[Pancho Regan]

I agree with DonnyBazRover, and whilst I have a lot of sympathy with the sentiments in the OP, it’s certainly not doom and gloom by a long way.

People move around much more than they did in the 60’s. I’m one of 5 siblings and we all left Donny in our teens in order to find work elsewhere, and none of us went back.
Our Dad was from a very large family and unlike his brothers and his father before him, he didn’t go down the pit. He didn’t want me and my brothers to go down the pit either.
As the pits closed down one by one, I suspect more and more young adults had to move out of the mining villages to find work.

But one of the most striking, and most welcome changes I’ve witnessed in the last 20 years or so as a Rovers fan is the increase in our young fan base.
I was one of a very small number of Rovers fans in my school during the 70’s, but it is heartening to see the number of kids attending Rovers games nowadays.

Despite a minimum 3-hour round trip to home games, I dragged my young daughters to the Keepmoat throughout their childhoods until they were into their later teens, and they really enjoyed the experience (I think!).

I wouldn’t have done that back in the OBV days. Of the many excellent fan-friendly initiatives undertaken by the club in the last few years, they deserve huge credit in particular for the effort they have put in to making the match day experience more enjoyable for kids.

So times change, but we have much to be grateful for as Rovers fans today.

[moses]

Agree on the young un's and Rovers Pancho
I went to Hatfield High School in the 80's and whilst nearly everyone wanted Donny to win and some went to occasional games I think if you had done a poll the percentage of Rovers fans would have been 0-5%. Looking back I am not sure I fully understood that Rovers played the same game as Liverpool, Man Utd and England on the telly. It was world's away. Now I see kids in Rovers shirts in Tesco's almost every time I go.

My 17 year old knows about Rovers news before me from Instagram and all his footy friends follow Rovers on Instagram, as well as 51,000 others. They watch all the match vlogs after every game and are sharing them with their wider networks via group chats. After the Bradford game he was showing me 20 page chat conversation between him and his mates about the team and getting promotion.

There is a different engagement going on that I don't fully get, they love the stats, the signing reveal videos and the food reviews which I am indifferent too.
It is just different to speaking about it in the pub, but they are still talking about it.