Your favourite Belle Vue Photo

[Dutch Uncle]

Some pictures from the 1968-9 Promotion Brochure:

[Dutch Uncle]

And some more:

[graingrover]

1953 ..

[neil grainger]

Me too daggers!

See how high above the pitch that Rosso End pic was taken from too. Used to stand on the top of there sometimes. Even saw Donny Utd playing from time to time from there. Remember those 12 floodlights mounted on the back of the pylon in the Rosso End/Pop Side corner so that Utd could have a bit of light?

And that clock in the Cow Shed too! Always remember that. Barker & Wigfall had something to do with it didn't they? I guess they bit the dust years ago now too?

And just a thought. As a real youngster, I have vague memories of a sort of platform thing built up on stilts on the top of the Rosso End. It was used to show half time scores but it used letters to identify each match and you could only see which letter was each match if you bought a programme. Some urchin used to shin about up there putting 1-0 against match A and so on.

Anyone else remember it? Anyone got a photo of it?

Cheers

BobG

That was the half-time scoreboard Bob! One of my very favourite memories from Belle Vue.

As a kid, I used to be mesmerised by the sight of that young guy climbing up the ladder at half time to put up the scores.

Of course, you had to consult your programme to de-code the formula.
"H".........0
"J"..........1

"A"..........0
"B"..........0

Ruddy hell, I would think, checking the letters on the board against the key in my programme as the lad lifted each square up and hooked it onto the scoreboard..... Liverpool and Everton are locked in a nil-nil draw at half time....!

Then you would sense someone leaning over your shoulder to try and get a glimpse of which team was which letter..... "Bugger off"! I would think, hiding my programme under my arm. "Buy your own ruddy programme if you want to know the Enigma Codes!"

[River Don]

This one from Stuart Roy Clarke. Wonderfully evocative.


Entitled "A Crack at Belle Vue"

I would love to get a copy of "a crack at Belle Vue".

It is cracking. So evocative. Art and Donny Rovers aren't often mentioned in the same breath but... In this picture it is fair.


If you are interested I can tell you why this photo is so good that it is a piece of art.

The composition is beautiful. A slit of light showing the football field through the gates.

The beauty of the aged, decomposing gates themselves.

It says heritage, it says football, it says community.

It is bloody brilliant.

It is one of the best photographs of football I have ever seen.

[Dagenham Rover]

anybody remember one of the advertising signs that were hung off the front or the mainstand and hitting somebody at one game

[BobG]

Graing: thank you. Cracking picture. Can you tell me what that buidling is just behind the Pop side please? I thought the airport buildings (and later the airport club) are the little cluster at the top left of centre. But perhaps I'm wrong? And, where the dickens is the half time score board on the Rosso end?! surely it wasn't put up after 1953? MY memory of it must be from around 1963-65 or so and it looked fairly decrepit as I remember it. That can't be right surely?

Bob

[silent majority]

RD, that picture of Belle Vue is Stuart's best selling photo and has been the cover on at least one of his books. I have the postcard version. I've spoke to him a few times and tried to negotiate a decent sized print at a decent price, unfortunately they don't come cheap.

[BobG]

I've got a copy on this pc somewhere. Don't know how and don't know when. But I've defo got a jpg of it somewhere.

BobG

[nice one rovers]

Is that Ces Pod playing them onside

Aye, that's Ces. Saw him last week, his under 16's team in the Caribbean are two stages away from world cup qualification. He looks about 35 years old.

[1879Rovers]

If I remember rightly, that is the midweek win over Bradford the year we went up in 1981. Amazing how things like that can stick in my head but I can't remember what I had for tea last night.

There was a cracking shot of Belle Vue packed in about 1984 against Rotherham in the next league programme (I am sure it was Cambridge). If I can get at my programmes from in the loft, I will scan it and put it on here. I have some crackers from more recently when we won the fourth division in 2004.

[1879Rovers]

Nearing the end

[1879Rovers]

Last day

[1879Rovers]

Champions 2003/04 York & Carlisle

[1879Rovers]

Champions

[ravenrover]

Some pictures from the 1968-9 Promotion Brochure:

Pancho Regan and Bobbie Gilfillan showing how to do it hey!, them were the days

[1879Rovers]

Impressive old popside before it was reduced. I also spent many happy games stamping my feet in the cowsheds.

[BillyStubbsTears]

This one from Stuart Roy Clarke. Wonderfully evocative.


Entitled "A Crack at Belle Vue"

I would love to get a copy of "a crack at Belle Vue".

It is cracking. So evocative. Art and Donny Rovers aren't often mentioned in the same breath but... In this picture it is fair.


If you are interested I can tell you why this photo is so good that it is a piece of art.

The composition is beautiful. A slit of light showing the football field through the gates.

The beauty of the aged, decomposing gates themselves.

It says heritage, it says football, it says community.

It is bloody brilliant.

It is one of the best photographs of football I have ever seen.

Stuart Roy Clarke says it's his finest photo. If he ever composes a better one, it'd be something special. For all the reasons you say RD.

My wife bought me a signed copy of it for my 40th a few years ago. It's on the wall of my study. I could state at it for hours. When my kids are old enough to appreciate it, I'll tell them of the times I stood exactly there at 14:55 on a Saturday with their grandad who they never knew, anticipation knotting our stomachs as we waited to go through the turnstiles.

It somehow isn't quite the same at the modern, antiseptic hermetically sealed bowls.

[turnbull for england]

I got a print and postcards of it at Ambleside football  museum a few years ago, its a classic.

[CottyRover]

Me too daggers!

See how high above the pitch that Rosso End pic was taken from too. Used to stand on the top of there sometimes. Even saw Donny Utd playing from time to time from there. Remember those 12 floodlights mounted on the back of the pylon in the Rosso End/Pop Side corner so that Utd could have a bit of light?

And that clock in the Cow Shed too! Always remember that. Barker & Wigfall had something to do with it didn't they? I guess they bit the dust years ago now too?

And just a thought. As a real youngster, I have vague memories of a sort of platform thing built up on stilts on the top of the Rosso End. It was used to show half time scores but it used letters to identify each match and you could only see which letter was each match if you bought a programme. Some urchin used to shin about up there putting 1-0 against match A and so on.

Anyone else remember it? Anyone got a photo of it?

Cheers

BobG

I certainly remember watching Donny United when the match I'd paid to see got boring. Not that it happened often, of course 😉

[CottyRover]

Last day

I notice the more modern dugouts in those photos.  Anyone recall the old brick ones that you could stand on?

[Dagenham Rover]

Last day

I notice the more modern dugouts in those photos.  Anyone recall the old brick ones that you could stand on?

Can't say I noticed but that was a prime position laying on top of the dugout

[niteowler]

I got a print and postcards of it at Ambleside football  museum a few years ago, its a classic.

Same here TFE

[Muttley]

One from the last day of the 97/98 season v Colchester...

(Copyright Iberian Red 2008)

[Muttley]

v Man City in the League Cup

[RobTheRover]

Not a photo of OBV, but I found this in a drawer last night...

[Donnywolf]

Me too daggers!

See how high above the pitch that Rosso End pic was taken from too. Used to stand on the top of there sometimes. Even saw Donny Utd playing from time to time from there. Remember those 12 floodlights mounted on the back of the pylon in the Rosso End/Pop Side corner so that Utd could have a bit of light?

And that clock in the Cow Shed too! Always remember that. Barker & Wigfall had something to do with it didn't they? I guess they bit the dust years ago now too?

And just a thought. As a real youngster, I have vague memories of a sort of platform thing built up on stilts on the top of the Rosso End. It was used to show half time scores but it used letters to identify each match and you could only see which letter was each match if you bought a programme. Some urchin used to shin about up there putting 1-0 against match A and so on.

Anyone else remember it? Anyone got a photo of it?

Cheers

BobG

I remember it well .... I have no photo of it but it is in one of the Team Photos of Rovers that I see regularly

Maybe Football League Review photo of the 66/67 team. I am sure someone must have that one as I wee it everywhere? I think the Players are stood on Half way line with their backs to the enormous Rosso End

I will look at my FLR's and Rovers Handbooks if nobody comes up with it

[The Red Baron]

I have that in a frame at home. Shows the old scoreboard at the Rosso End off nicely.

[Donnywolf]

Found this on Facebook

that's the one .... saved me a job !

[BobG]

Thank you Dave!

But crikey! It survived a helluva lot longer than I thought then. If I'd guessed I would have said it had gone by mid to late 60's. But, clearly, it was there at the start of the '69 season. Wonder when it did go then?

18 players in that shot. Can't work out who the goalie is...

Cheers

BobG