[Alan Birch]

But.....I couldn't tell you the game. It’s a fantastic memory (so I guess we won??) immortalised by one moment of revelation. More on that below.

Some background first: neither parent was an active supporter of the Club, but because we lived two doors down from Saltergate on Rutland Road until I was 16 'it' sort of got to you. You know? The sudden bustle of people on the pavement on a Saturday afternoon as match time approached.....lots of people passing by our bay windows where we lived. Sometimes some Bobbies came past, and occasionally there were Bobbies on horses. OOOhhhhhh!!!!! .....and all seen by me from behind the bay window curtains, peeping out.

Then there was the noise. The noise of people talking, shouting, laughing, chanting…..sometimes screaming, and always the noise of police sirens in the background. And then when the match started it was the noise of people together……lots of people that I couldn’t possibly imagine at that time what they were doing to make such noises. Often sirens sounded during a match – and sometimes a ‘fog horn’...... But.....the supporters' noise, a waning and whining and winning noise was my main memory, particularly on a Saturday afternoon. It was a very distinct noise, a very different sound altogether and yet regular for a child because it ‘was Saturday’ – which for me became related to the football ground at the top of 'our road'.

The football ground with ‘four big pylons’’.

Saltergate’s lights, because of where they were, perched on top of a ridge once utilised by the Romans, became a ‘home beacon’ for me. When I saw them in my parents’ car, from the top of Spite Winter on the way back from Matlock or Beeley Moor….I knew that’s where I lived and where I was travelling to. My Grandparents house at Walton was the same: look out of the lounge window, just a bit to the right, and……four pylon lights glowing fiercely against the dusk sky.

Just like the noise of a CFC match day, Saltergate’s lights also had a bearing on my memories from this time. The noise emanated to our back yard, the kitchen and into my bedroom, and when it came to evening games the garden glowed gently and the top of our house was caught by a brighter glare straight off of those ‘four pylons’. If it had been through my bedroom curtains I wouldn’t have slept at all!
(As an aside – and apologies in advance if I’ve mis-remembered this – but I think Dema posted loads of pictures of the ‘four pylons’ at Saltergate’s demise. They were serious eye candy here, and thanks to anyone else for portraying them once and for all if my source is incorrect)!

So, I was immersed in the noise, the bustle….and sometimes even at only 8 years old or so….the roguish behaviour of fans home and away, living where I did 200 yards from Saltergate. Early and benign beginnings to get CFC in to my soul.

I’m not sure how it happened and it was certainly nothing special….actually, not a great deal of things with my Father were ever special. It wasn’t a birthday moment, it wasn’t a Boxing Day match, not a Cup match or anything such as that – memorable! It was a night match and it was the match I first went to supporting CFC.

And the moment of revelation I referred to earlier? The revelation as a kid immersed in this noise and light factory up the road?
It was on entering Saltergate for my very first time (from the Saltergate End), climbing what seemed really hard, huge and endless steps and then gradually looking out on to a flood lit pitch with loads of people, giant buildings & players in Blue….a HUGE great playing field………oh WOW!!!!!!

The noises that I’d heard a short way away from the ground, where I lived, were real. Even the pylons were bigger than I ever thought they’d be. And the game…..ah well, no memory exists…..but a lifelong experience made in that experience, all the same.

Cheers all, AB.

Now, a long PS……

If you’ve got this far…… and need an apology from me for wasting your time….please accept one from me. These are memories jogging around my head and it’s lovely to put them down in writing – just blank ‘Alan Birch’ in the future if it’s not your cuppa.

I’m really fortunate in that I haven’t got a date to die by, I have a great wife and happy children and (most of all lol) CFC is doing rather well. The best I’ve known really……

So this Team’s success has awoken some deep down and heartfelt memories for me; latent memories brought to life by CFC’s current strengths.
I can probably write more, but I’m conscious I don’t want to use the entire Bob’s Board message resource any further……

AB

[Westbars Spireite]

Nice one fella.

I miss the floodlights too in a funny way.

[jonnythespireite]

Alan Birch, on 26 January 2015 - 08:28 PM, said:

But.....I couldn't tell you the game. It’s a fantastic memory (so I guess we won??) immortalised by one moment of revelation. More on that below.

Some background first: neither parent was an active supporter of the Club, but because we lived two doors down from Saltergate on Rutland Road until I was 16 'it' sort of got to you. You know? The sudden bustle of people on the pavement on a Saturday afternoon as match time approached.....lots of people passing by our bay windows where we lived. Sometimes some Bobbies came past, and occasionally there were Bobbies on horses. OOOhhhhhh!!!!! .....and all seen by me from behind the bay window curtains, peeping out.

Then there was the noise. The noise of people talking, shouting, laughing, chanting…..sometimes screaming, and always the noise of police sirens in the background. And then when the match started it was the noise of people together……lots of people that I couldn’t possibly imagine at that time what they were doing to make such noises. Often sirens sounded during a match – and sometimes a ‘fog horn’...... But.....the supporters' noise, a waning and whining and winning noise was my main memory, particularly on a Saturday afternoon. It was a very distinct noise, a very different sound altogether and yet regular for a child because it ‘was Saturday’ – which for me became related to the football ground at the top of 'our road'.

The football ground with ‘four big pylons’’.

Saltergate’s lights, because of where they were, perched on top of a ridge once utilised by the Romans, became a ‘home beacon’ for me. When I saw them in my parents’ car, from the top of Spite Winter on the way back from Matlock or Beeley Moor….I knew that’s where I lived and where I was travelling to. My Grandparents house at Walton was the same: look out of the lounge window, just a bit to the right, and……four pylon lights glowing fiercely against the dusk sky.

Just like the noise of a CFC match day, Saltergate’s lights also had a bearing on my memories from this time. The noise emanated to our back yard, the kitchen and into my bedroom, and when it came to evening games the garden glowed gently and the top of our house was caught by a brighter glare straight off of those ‘four pylons’. If it had been through my bedroom curtains I wouldn’t have slept at all!
(As an aside – and apologies in advance if I’ve mis-remembered this – but I think Dema posted loads of pictures of the ‘four pylons’ at Saltergate’s demise. They were serious eye candy here, and thanks to anyone else for portraying them once and for all if my source is incorrect)!

So, I was immersed in the noise, the bustle….and sometimes even at only 8 years old or so….the roguish behaviour of fans home and away, living where I did 200 yards from Saltergate. Early and benign beginnings to get CFC in to my soul.

I’m not sure how it happened and it was certainly nothing special….actually, not a great deal of things with my Father were ever special. It wasn’t a birthday moment, it wasn’t a Boxing Day match, not a Cup match or anything such as that – memorable! It was a night match and it was the match I first went to supporting CFC.

And the moment of revelation I referred to earlier? The revelation as a kid immersed in this noise and light factory up the road?
It was on entering Saltergate for my very first time (from the Saltergate End), climbing what seemed really hard, huge and endless steps and then gradually looking out on to a flood lit pitch with loads of people, giant buildings & players in Blue….a HUGE great playing field………oh WOW!!!!!!

The noises that I’d heard a short way away from the ground, where I lived, were real. Even the pylons were bigger than I ever thought they’d be. And the game…..ah well, no memory exists…..but a lifelong experience made in that experience, all the same.

Cheers all, AB.

Now, a long PS……

If you’ve got this far…… and need an apology from me for wasting your time….please accept one from me. These are memories jogging around my head and it’s lovely to put them down in writing – just blank ‘Alan Birch’ in the future if it’s not your cuppa.

I’m really fortunate in that I haven’t got a date to die by, I have a great wife and happy children and (most of all lol) CFC is doing rather well. The best I’ve known really……

So this Team’s success has awoken some deep down and heartfelt memories for me; latent memories brought to life by CFC’s current strengths.
I can probably write more, but I’m conscious I don’t want to use the entire Bob’s Board message resource any further……

AB

Great post.

[Spireite-Karl]

Loved that A_B.

[Heavy_Soul]

Alan Birch, on 26 January 2015 - 08:28 PM, said:

But.....I couldn't tell you the game. It’s a fantastic memory (so I guess we won??) immortalised by one moment of revelation. More on that below.

Some background first: neither parent was an active supporter of the Club, but because we lived two doors down from Saltergate on Rutland Road until I was 16 'it' sort of got to you. You know? The sudden bustle of people on the pavement on a Saturday afternoon as match time approached.....lots of people passing by our bay windows where we lived. Sometimes some Bobbies came past, and occasionally there were Bobbies on horses. OOOhhhhhh!!!!! .....and all seen by me from behind the bay window curtains, peeping out.

Then there was the noise. The noise of people talking, shouting, laughing, chanting…..sometimes screaming, and always the noise of police sirens in the background. And then when the match started it was the noise of people together……lots of people that I couldn’t possibly imagine at that time what they were doing to make such noises. Often sirens sounded during a match – and sometimes a ‘fog horn’...... But.....the supporters' noise, a waning and whining and winning noise was my main memory, particularly on a Saturday afternoon. It was a very distinct noise, a very different sound altogether and yet regular for a child because it ‘was Saturday’ – which for me became related to the football ground at the top of 'our road'.

The football ground with ‘four big pylons’’.

Saltergate’s lights, because of where they were, perched on top of a ridge once utilised by the Romans, became a ‘home beacon’ for me. When I saw them in my parents’ car, from the top of Spite Winter on the way back from Matlock or Beeley Moor….I knew that’s where I lived and where I was travelling to. My Grandparents house at Walton was the same: look out of the lounge window, just a bit to the right, and……four pylon lights glowing fiercely against the dusk sky.

Just like the noise of a CFC match day, Saltergate’s lights also had a bearing on my memories from this time. The noise emanated to our back yard, the kitchen and into my bedroom, and when it came to evening games the garden glowed gently and the top of our house was caught by a brighter glare straight off of those ‘four pylons’. If it had been through my bedroom curtains I wouldn’t have slept at all!
(As an aside – and apologies in advance if I’ve mis-remembered this – but I think Dema posted loads of pictures of the ‘four pylons’ at Saltergate’s demise. They were serious eye candy here, and thanks to anyone else for portraying them once and for all if my source is incorrect)!

So, I was immersed in the noise, the bustle….and sometimes even at only 8 years old or so….the roguish behaviour of fans home and away, living where I did 200 yards from Saltergate. Early and benign beginnings to get CFC in to my soul.

I’m not sure how it happened and it was certainly nothing special….actually, not a great deal of things with my Father were ever special. It wasn’t a birthday moment, it wasn’t a Boxing Day match, not a Cup match or anything such as that – memorable! It was a night match and it was the match I first went to supporting CFC.

And the moment of revelation I referred to earlier? The revelation as a kid immersed in this noise and light factory up the road?
It was on entering Saltergate for my very first time (from the Saltergate End), climbing what seemed really hard, huge and endless steps and then gradually looking out on to a flood lit pitch with loads of people, giant buildings & players in Blue….a HUGE great playing field………oh WOW!!!!!!

The noises that I’d heard a short way away from the ground, where I lived, were real. Even the pylons were bigger than I ever thought they’d be. And the game…..ah well, no memory exists…..but a lifelong experience made in that experience, all the same.

Cheers all, AB.

Now, a long PS……

If you’ve got this far…… and need an apology from me for wasting your time….please accept one from me. These are memories jogging around my head and it’s lovely to put them down in writing – just blank ‘Alan Birch’ in the future if it’s not your cuppa.

I’m really fortunate in that I haven’t got a date to die by, I have a great wife and happy children and (most of all lol) CFC is doing rather well. The best I’ve known really……

So this Team’s success has awoken some deep down and heartfelt memories for me; latent memories brought to life by CFC’s current strengths.
I can probably write more, but I’m conscious I don’t want to use the entire Bob’s Board message resource any further……

AB

A great read is pretty much all I need to say!

[Middle East]

Top stuff great post AB.

When I bought my current house the then owner said 'if you look out of the bay window you can see the glow of floodlights at saltergate when town play night games'

I said I never would.....and he asked why?

I told him that whenever the town played I would be stood under them!!!

Still miss those floodlights...

[whittman]

Middle East, on 26 January 2015 - 09:08 PM, said:

Top stuff great post AB.

When I bought my current house the then owner said 'if you look out of the bay window you can see the glow of floodlights at saltergate when town play night games'

I said I never would.....and he asked why?

I told him that whenever the town played I would be stood under them!!!

Still miss those floodlights...

The story of how those floodlights finally went up is well documented elsewhere :

[CrossStreet62]

Memorable noteworthy comments my friend.....enjoyed reading your memories.

[smurfboza]

Remember it well.I lived on foljambe road until I was 18,had some good laughs on match days :-) I'm 46 now.

This post has been edited by smurfboza: 27 January 2015 - 05:41 PM

[Waller is my hero]

Alan Birch, on 26 January 2015 - 08:28 PM, said:

But.....I couldn't tell you the game. It’s a fantastic memory (so I guess we won??) immortalised by one moment of revelation. More on that below.

Some background first: neither parent was an active supporter of the Club, but because we lived two doors down from Saltergate on Rutland Road until I was 16 'it' sort of got to you. You know? The sudden bustle of people on the pavement on a Saturday afternoon as match time approached.....lots of people passing by our bay windows where we lived. Sometimes some Bobbies came past, and occasionally there were Bobbies on horses. OOOhhhhhh!!!!! .....and all seen by me from behind the bay window curtains, peeping out.

Then there was the noise. The noise of people talking, shouting, laughing, chanting…..sometimes screaming, and always the noise of police sirens in the background. And then when the match started it was the noise of people together……lots of people that I couldn’t possibly imagine at that time what they were doing to make such noises. Often sirens sounded during a match – and sometimes a ‘fog horn’...... But.....the supporters' noise, a waning and whining and winning noise was my main memory, particularly on a Saturday afternoon. It was a very distinct noise, a very different sound altogether and yet regular for a child because it ‘was Saturday’ – which for me became related to the football ground at the top of 'our road'.

The football ground with ‘four big pylons’’.

Saltergate’s lights, because of where they were, perched on top of a ridge once utilised by the Romans, became a ‘home beacon’ for me. When I saw them in my parents’ car, from the top of Spite Winter on the way back from Matlock or Beeley Moor….I knew that’s where I lived and where I was travelling to. My Grandparents house at Walton was the same: look out of the lounge window, just a bit to the right, and……four pylon lights glowing fiercely against the dusk sky.

Just like the noise of a CFC match day, Saltergate’s lights also had a bearing on my memories from this time. The noise emanated to our back yard, the kitchen and into my bedroom, and when it came to evening games the garden glowed gently and the top of our house was caught by a brighter glare straight off of those ‘four pylons’. If it had been through my bedroom curtains I wouldn’t have slept at all!
(As an aside – and apologies in advance if I’ve mis-remembered this – but I think Dema posted loads of pictures of the ‘four pylons’ at Saltergate’s demise. They were serious eye candy here, and thanks to anyone else for portraying them once and for all if my source is incorrect)!

So, I was immersed in the noise, the bustle….and sometimes even at only 8 years old or so….the roguish behaviour of fans home and away, living where I did 200 yards from Saltergate. Early and benign beginnings to get CFC in to my soul.

I’m not sure how it happened and it was certainly nothing special….actually, not a great deal of things with my Father were ever special. It wasn’t a birthday moment, it wasn’t a Boxing Day match, not a Cup match or anything such as that – memorable! It was a night match and it was the match I first went to supporting CFC.

And the moment of revelation I referred to earlier? The revelation as a kid immersed in this noise and light factory up the road?
It was on entering Saltergate for my very first time (from the Saltergate End), climbing what seemed really hard, huge and endless steps and then gradually looking out on to a flood lit pitch with loads of people, giant buildings & players in Blue….a HUGE great playing field………oh WOW!!!!!!

The noises that I’d heard a short way away from the ground, where I lived, were real. Even the pylons were bigger than I ever thought they’d be. And the game…..ah well, no memory exists…..but a lifelong experience made in that experience, all the same.

Cheers all, AB.

Now, a long PS……

If you’ve got this far…… and need an apology from me for wasting your time….please accept one from me. These are memories jogging around my head and it’s lovely to put them down in writing – just blank ‘Alan Birch’ in the future if it’s not your cuppa.

I’m really fortunate in that I haven’t got a date to die by, I have a great wife and happy children and (most of all lol) CFC is doing rather well. The best I’ve known really……

So this Team’s success has awoken some deep down and heartfelt memories for me; latent memories brought to life by CFC’s current strengths.
I can probably write more, but I’m conscious I don’t want to use the entire Bob’s Board message resource any further……

AB

Good read mate...I used to live on Compton Street as a kid, so echo those memories