Old Trafford: 100 Years of the Theatre of Dreams

OLD TRAFFORD

100 YEARS OF THE THEATRE OF DREAMS

IAIN McCARTNEY

EMPIRE PUBLICATIONS – WWW.EMPIRE-UK.COM

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First published in 2010 by Empire Publications

Smashwords Edition

© Iain McCartney 2011

ISBN: 1901746 607

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Published by Empire Publications at Smashwords

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FOREWORD

Celebrating any 100th anniversary is a time for looking back, recalling memorable occasions and stand out events. The one hundred years since the opening of Old Trafford is no different and within the pages of this book, Iain McCartney brings the home of Manchester United to life, creating a picture of the stadium itself as it grew from the vast open space of the early 1900’s to the magnificent arena it is today.

There is certainly something special about Old Trafford, a place where I have many happy memories, beginning as a player, back in 1963, through to the present day, where I still enjoy the match-day experience through my work with MUTV.

When Iain asked me what my favourite memories of Old Trafford were, the one that immediately sprang to mind was that never to be forgotten evening in March 1984, when United defeated Barcelona 3-0. Who could ever forget that night?

Steve Bruce’s two goals against Sheffield Wednesday in 1993, which paved the way towards ending that long wait for the Championship is another one of those magical Old Trafford moments, while from my own playing days, the 1-0 European Cup semi-final victory over Real Madrid in 1968 is another which readily springs to mind.

I also remember the early redevelopment of the ground for the 1966 World Cup and Paddy McGrath, an old friend of Sir Matt’s buying the first of the new executive boxes, right on the half way line, for the sum of £400.

Iain also rekindles the memories of so many other great games played out at the ground, the players who have graced its hallowed turf, whilst revealing countless other stories and events, creating an interesting and detailed account in words and pictures of one hundred years at one of the best known stadiums in world football – Old Trafford, the Theatre of Dreams.

Pat Crerand

February 2010.

INTRODUCTION

It was still some six hours until kick off, but the chill of the bright autumn morning could not deter the fans, pilgrims or whatever definition is best to describe those congregated around the main forecourt of the concrete and metal construction called Old Trafford.

The numbers began to increase, as the hours and minutes to the scheduled kick off time ticked away, but time would pass quickly enough for some who were making their first trip to the Mecca of English football. They would stand, oblivious to all around them, consuming every detail, as they longed for the red gates at the turnstiles to open and admit them to the arena so that they would be swallowed up by the stands of the stadium. For others, it would be merely a fortnightly ritual - a habit or love affair, that may have begun many years before, when they too were brought to the ground for the first time, to stare at the stadium in awe.

No matter the outcome of the match, your first trip to Old Trafford is always memorable. Maybe for a great game, a piece of individualistic skill, a certain incident, or purely just for being there.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the stadium packed to capacity, and from the darkened bowels of the Stretford End, the thespians for today’s performance are introduced. It is an all time United X1 which includes the famous names from the past, who have graced the hallowed turf... Meredith, Carey, Edwards, Best, Robson, Cantona, Keane, Ronaldo, Rooney...

Welcome to Old Trafford, home of Manchester United Football Club, the Theatre Of Dreams.

1 - GRASSROOTS

To the thousands who flock to Old Trafford on match days, it is difficult for them to imagine the spartan surroundings that the club had called home prior to 1910 and their arrival at the present site.

Newton Heath, as the club were called when they began their life in the world of football, in 1878, had their first home at North Road, Monsall, in the north-eastern Manchester suburb of the same name, close to the carriage and wagon works of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Hence the full original name of the original club - Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Football Club.

The playing surface of the North Road ground left a lot to be desired, with half the pitch as hard as iron, while the other was soft and muddy. The area surrounding this was little better than a quagmire and spectators entering the ground at one end needed the footwork of a first-class forward to avoid numerous pools of water in the bad weather. During the winter months, conditions deteriorated, and proved a sizeable obstacle for both players and followers.

Those players also endured the additional hardship of having no changing facilities at the ground. At first, they were to use the Three Crowns public house on Oldham Road, later moving to the Shears Hotel (which also became the club headquarters), around half a mile from the ground. After changing there, they had to walk to the ground with little prospect of a bath at the end of their afternoon’s endeavours.

The Heathens began their competitive life playing little more than friendlies, before they joined the Football Alliance for season 1889-90, having turned professional in 1885. By 1892, they had achieved First Division status, but there were dark clouds on the horizon despite stepping up to this higher level of football.

The team had to be strengthened and in order to be able to afford the accompanying higher wage bill, it was decided to drop the ˜Lancashire and Yorkshire" part from the club’s name and form a limited company in order to raise some capital. This was all very well, but the ground at North Road, which also contained a cricket pitch, belonged to the Manchester Cathedral authorities, but was leased to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, who in turn paid a nominal rent to the authorities.

Following the final home fixture of 1891-92 against Notts County, the Heathens moved out and the Railway committee reclaimed the ground, but during the close season the difficulties between the two were ironed out, if only temporarily, and all the equipment and whatever that had been carried away in May was returned in time for the new season.

Returning to their old stomping ground, results showed some improvement, while off the field, the drainage system was improved, with work also being carried out on the embankments on either side of the ground. Baths and dressing rooms were also installed beneath a stand built in 1891 which could accommodate 1,000 spectators. The facilities, were far from ideal, but the improvements were certainly welcomed by players and spectators alike.

On October 13th 1892, a Football League record scoreline of 10-1 was recorded against Wolverhampton Wanderers (they had beaten Lincoln City by a similar score line during a Football Alliance fixture in November 1891) and a correspondent for the Birmingham Daily Gazette reported that the pitch was in a terrible state, with pools of water here and there and Wolves found it difficult to even stand on the muddy pitch. There was, however, another incident at the ground which made the newspaper headlines, this time in something of a more spectacular scale.

During a training session, which for some reason or another involved throwing a hammer, Stewart let it slip from his grasp and it struck his team mate Donaldson, who was standing close by, on the side of the head. Surprisingly, although the player was carried home and received medical attention, he turned out in his usual position a couple of days later.

A year after having almost been declared homeless, a new home definitely had to be found when the Manchester Cathedral authorities decided that with the football club now having moved away from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway they would end the agreement with railway company. This was despite the landlords having spent a considerable sum on the improvements of twelve months previously.

Today, North Road has gone, along with the Three Crowns and the Shears Hotel. The whole area has seen wholesale changes since those early days, but for a while there was a link between Manchester United and the area, as one time shirt sponsors Sharp™ had their home a goal kick from the patch of land that the Heathens once called home.

So, in 1893, Newton Heath packed whatever belongings they had and moved to a new site, some three miles south, at Bank Lane, Clayton, where a more spacious enclosure, the Bradford and Clayton athletic ground, was secured. This was let to the club for eight months per year, for two years, for playing purposes, although pre-season training was allowed to take place on occasional nights.

The new ground was ready for the start of season 1893-94 and had a much better playing surface than that at North Road. There were, however, other distinct disadvantages, as the new ground stood beside a chemical works, with a background of chimney stacks, which would emit foul smelling fumes, that engulfed players and spectators alike. It has been claimed that the home side would pass a a message to the neighbouring factories if they were losing for them to stoke the chimneys in an effort to distract the visiting team.

Numerous reports from those distant days at Clayton often mention the conditions at the ground, sometimes the comments would take up more lines than the actual match report itself. One gentleman, going under the name of Tam, visiting the ground for the F. A. Cup tie against Chelsea on February 1st 1908 gave his uninitiated readers an insight into the sometimes atrocious conditions.

He wrote of thirteen belching chimneys confronting the spectator in the grandstand; where steam in great volumes threatens to envelope the whole place at any moment if the wind but swings round to the west. He also described the pitch as but a bed of grit, though it rolls out as flat as a running track. Another report, for a match against Burnley, mentioned that the goal posts were so tainted with smoke and the dullness of their surroundings, as to be hardly discernable.

Rather ironically, those same conditions, no matter how favoured they were by the home team and its supporters, did not prevent the name of Newton Heath from making an early entry into the record books, when Walsall Town Swifts were defeated 14-0 on March 9th 1895. The Midlands side, however, protested about the terrible ground conditions which clearly favoured the home side and after the inquest which followed, the match was declared void.

On April 3rd, the match was replayed and a 9-0 score line, again in Newton Heath’s favour, showed clearly that it was not just the playing conditions that had defeated the visitors.

Nevertheless life at Clayton saw the club finances hit rock bottom and in 1902 bankruptcy threatened. At a shareholders meeting in March, club captain Harry Stafford announced that he knew of four men who were prepared to put up the £2,000 required to keep the club going. The four were Mr Taylor of Sale, Mr Brown of Denton, Mr Jones of Manchester and Mr Davies of Old Trafford. It was also suggested that perhaps a change of name would lead to a change of fortune and on April 28th, the Manchester Guardian reported that the name of the club from then on would be ˜Manchester United" and a month later the Lancashire Football Association gave formal permission for the name change. The legend was born, with the red and white jerseys, which have since become famous all over the world, the new club colours.

Mr J. H. Davies became the club chairman and president and although he knew little of the game of football, he made up for this with his business acumen. He was for many years the chairman of the Manchester Brewery and a self made man, living a life of luxury, but never looking down on those less fortunate than himself. Along with his wife, he would travel to watch his club wherever they played and the players were often invited to his 17th century mansion home at Bramall Hall, where they would be lavishly entertained.

Prior to the start of season 1902-03, the Athletic News wrote "Financial troubles are at an end, in fact money has been spent most lavishly, but to good purpose, in all directions. Close upon £4,000 has been sunk in getting a competent team together, and in such alterations to the ground as to make the latter one of the finest enclosures in the country.

"The stand on the Bank Street side has been roofed in and extended and improvements having been made to the other stand, it is now possible for 8,000 people to watch a match under cover. The architects entrusted with the renovation of the ground say that some 50,000 spectators can now be accommodated and all have a clear view of play.

A great effort is to be made to lend an air of sociability to the club. Every consideration and comfort will be extended to lady visitors, whilst guinea members are to have quite an ideal position. The players have not been overlooked. They are to be looked after better than they were in the past and the officials of the club are to be commended upon the wisdom they have shown in making an underground passage from the dressing rooms to the field of play for the players and referee.

The Cricket and Football Field, another popular publication of the day was slightly more descriptive of the new-look Bank Street ground, following the attendance of one of their correspondents to a pre-season practise match, "On entering the ground one was struck with the great improvements that have been made, and every credit is due to the new management for the manner in which they have catered for the comforts of the public. Though not quite complete yet, there is no doubt that when finished it will prove one of the best equipped of grounds.

On the enclosure side, the three stands have been made into one (covered), and underneath will be found well-fitted dressing rooms, reading and recreative rooms for the players, offices etc. The stand behind the goal at one end has been practically rebuilt and covered and will find accommodation for a goodly number. On the other sides, great bankings have been thrown up and an imposing press box and office erected. In every way, improvements have been made and the spectators who visit this ground need have no fear on the score of suitable positions, for a good view is obtainable everywhere. The playing pitch never looked better and the newly painted boards all round make a splendid border.

The midas touch of John Davies seemed to be rubbing off on the club, as each season saw some improvement with promotion to the First Division eventually being achieved at the end of season 1905-06, as runners-up. It had been twelve years since Newton Heath had last appeared in the First Division, following their relegation at the end of season 1893-94. The success continued and in what was only their second season back in the big time the League Championship was won. At long last the loyal band of supporters were getting something to shout about, as the club were now challenging for a permanent place amongst the top clubs in the country.

Although Mr Davies had helped get the club back on its feet and his financial backing had enabled those supporters to enjoy First Division football again, enjoying the taste of success as much as anyone, he was very concerned about the conditions at Clayton, as he thought that they were an embarrassment to the club and not ideal for the playing of top class football. Nor were they ideal for a club who wanted to play its football in the top flight, although a representative match between the Football League and their Scottish counterparts was played at Bak Street on April 4th 1904.

Neither was John Davies a man to rush into things and he certainly did not squander his money or invest it in projects where there was little or no return. But he had set his sights on finding a new home for his club and he scoured the city for a site worthy of United, before deciding upon a spot to the south-west of the city centre, in Stretford, alongside the Bridgewater Canal at Old Trafford.

Stretford, or Streetford as it was known in Anglo-Saxon times, was a woollen town, which was indicated by the old Bishop Blaize Inn (sounds familiar?), as the Bishop was the patron saint of woolcombers. The construction of the Bridgewater Canal, from Worsley to Manchester in 1761, began an upsurge in development, which continued with the building of the Ship Canal and Trafford Park Industrial Estate.

The sprawl of the area which encompassed Old Trafford, (the name is thought to derived from Old Trafford Hall which was situated where the White City Retail Park on Chester Road is today) and simply abbreviated. This had been owned by the de Trafford family since the 13th century. The family occupied Trafford Hall from around 1017 until the late 1600s before moving to the other end of the Park, amid the 1,183 acres of land which contained three entrance lodges, Throstles Nest, Barton-upon-Irwell and Old Trafford and three farms, Park Farm, Moss Farm and Waters Meet Farm, making it more than a possibility that the area now occupied by the stadium was once used for sheep and cattle grazing.

With the building of the Ship Canal in 1887 disturbing some, or perhaps much, of the rural peace and quiet, the family decided to put the estate on the market in May 1896, looking for something in the region of £300,000 (over £24m today).

The Manchester Corporation’s Open Spaces Committee showed an early interest, but it was an Ernest Hooley who in the end paid £360,000 (around £30m today) for the bulk of the land in June 1896. Two months later, he had formed Trafford Park Estates Ltd., transferring ownership over to the new company, the world’s first industrial park and within two decades the area expanded at an unforeseeable rate.

Perhaps it was this expansion that the businessman in J.H. Davies saw as attractive and certainly important to Manchester United’s immediate future, hoping that a large number of those working in and around Trafford Park would make their way through the gates of the new ground upon finishing work at lunch time on a Saturday.

˜Mancunian of the Cricket and Football Field certainly did not share the opinion of John Davies regarding the proposed new home for Manchester United, writing I consider it too far from the centre of the city. Nor do I think it would be fair to the present supporters, who have stuck to the club through adversity, to take another ground on the opposite side of the city to that from which they have always drawn their patronage, for I don’t think they would follow them". How wrong he was to be, not only in the near, but also distant future.

In the Athletic News dated March 8th 1909 an article entitled Pen Picture Of The Undertaking by a correspondent called ˜Tityrus described the proposed move to pastures new in great detail and even today it makes very interesting reading: The west of Manchester is destined to be the Mecca of sportsmen of that great commercial city. ‘To the west, to the west’ will be the cry of our football folks when leaves are falling next autumn. Already we have the Lancashire County Cricket ground, the polo ground, the curling pond, the Manchester Gun Club and numerous other organisations of similar character, devoted to pastime and recreation to the west of the city.

"In September, the Manchester United Football Club will fling open its portals and bid all welcome in the same locality. The contrast between Clayton and the new headquarters of this great football club need not be insisted upon. Clayton is situated in the very heart of the working class community, and dominated on every hand by about forty huge stacks of chimneys belching forth ciminerion smoke and malodorous fumes. No doubt there are those who feel thankful for a football ground in the vicinity, as it does tend to remind the immediate residents that there is some space left where the toiling people can be amused in a healthy and vigorous manner that pleases them. But an ambitious and a vast club like Manchester United appeals to the 800,000 folks of Manchester and Salford, and an area of larger dimensions, with better accommodation for seeing and housing the spectators and situated in a more attractive locality became essential. Hence the decision of the enterprising directors to lay out an enclosure in the west of Manchester. The new ground lies between the Cheshire Lines railway and the Bridgewater Canal, being a little to the left of the Warwick Road North which juts off the Cheshire Road. In other words, walking along the Chester Road towards Stretford, one would turn to the south along Warwick Road for the County cricket ground and exactly opposite to the north for Manchester United football ground.

"The goals in the new arena will be almost west and east, the Streford goal being the west and the Old Trafford goal to the east. This will give the readers an idea of the exact environment in the locality which is expanding. There will not be any difficulty in reaching the new rendezvous. Electric tramcars already run from Clayton to Old Trafford and from the city direct by two routes. It is proposed to lay down a circular tramway siding just off Chester Road so that cars can be turned in there, and the passengers having disembarked, the cars can run round the western end of the circle and return to Manchester for more freight.

"There is here a bridge over the Cheshire Lines railway which is to be widened so as to cope with the traffic, while further north on the other side of the ground it is intended to throw a bridge over the canal. But apart from those approaches we understand that the Cheshire lines committee will open a special station within two or three minutes walk of the western end of this home of sport, so that people can step off the train into the immediate precincts. With such conveniences as these there should never be any difficulty in getting to the place or away from it.

"The Manchester United club have resolved to lay out and equip a huge ground wholly and solely dedicated to football. There will be a running or cycling track around the grass, and for football alone there will be no better enclosure in England. It is to accommodate 100,000 people and if the greatest matches of the day are not in turn brought to Manchester we shall be surprised, especially as the club is not frightened to expend £30,000 on the undertaking.

"When sightseers cross over the railway bridge, they will find themselves in the midst of a clear space which will serve as a gathering ground one hundred and twenty feet broad for spectators and there need not be congestion in gaining access to any portion. With this ground laid out for football alone, the sightseers are brought as near as possible to the playing portion.

"The ground will be rectangle in shape with the corners rounded and it is designed so that everybody will be able to see. The pitch for the game will be excavated to a depth of nine feet from the ground level so that the boundary or containing wall which is to surround the whole place will only be thirty feet high. There are numerous and spacious exits around the ground. Ingress will be easy and it is estimated that a full ground can be emptied in five minutes.

"Now let us assume that the ordinary spectator has passed through the turnstile. He will find himself in a passage twenty feet broad, which girdles the whole area. From this, access can be obtained from any portion of the popular terracing, which is virtually divided into three sections. There will be one hundred steps of terracing constructed on a special plan and a nicely judged gradient with of course Leitch’s patient crush barriers. The lower portion of this terracing is solid ground, the next higher is formed by the excavated earth and the last and highest is built entirely of ferro-concrete, which is as hard as rock and non-flammable.

"With his practical experience of all the best grounds in these islands, Mr Archibald Leitch M. I. M. E. of Manchester, who has been the only designer, has endeavoured to cope with these problems. There seems every reason to believe that he has solved it.

"Now, from this twenty foot passage, which will of course afford protection from rain until it absolutely necessary to go into the arena, the herds of human beings can melt away at will. Right in front of the visitor, whichever entrance they take, will be a flight of very broad but easy stairs, which end in a wide opening or mouth, sixty feet wide and split into three sections.

"The stream of sightseers mounting these stairs and reaching the opening find themselves rather above the middle of the terracing which they can spread themselves at will. We can picture these great mouths vomiting thousands upon thousands human beings onto this glorious amphitheatre. The advantage of each mouth is its central position. But if the spectator wishes to go right on top of the terracing, any tier above sixteenth, he will take another wide staircase which hugs the inside of the boundary wall and lands him at the top of forty tiers of concrete, resting on foundations of the same material, the space underneath being utilised for refreshment rooms and other conveniences.

"Means are provided for transferring from one portion of the ground to another, but it is expected that in a ground devised on this plan, with so many conveniences for reaching the particular position that the spectator desires, there will be little call for transfers and certainly not to the same extent as on other enclosures.

"The accommodation will, as said, provide for 100,000 people. Of these, 12,000 will be seated in the grandstand and 24,000 standing under steel and slated roofs, so that together there will be room for 36,000 folk under cover and 64,000 in the open, divided between the two arcs of a circle and the mammoth terracing behind each goal. The roofed part for the populace will be on the southern side and will have wide open ends with overhanging eaves so that no portion of this erection will obstruct the view of those who are not fortunate enough to secure its shelter on an inclement day.

"The special feature of the grandstand compared with similar erections is that there will not be a paddock in front of it. The spectators will be seated from the barricade round the pitch direct to the back of the stand, in fifty tiers. These fifty tiers are again divided into three sections, the lower, the middle and the highest. Spectators desiring to be comfortable in the grandstand will enter from the turnstiles facing the mouth of Chester Road. They are especially reserved for grandstand visitors only and there they can only obtain tickets for any part of the stand.

"Entering there, the spectator will find themselves in a corridor along which run tea rooms, referee apartments, the players’ facilities, a gym, billiard room and laundry. All of which are to be fitted up in the most modern manner. From this central corridor, there are means of access to three sections of the grandstand. The lowest or front portion will be approached by a number of passages on the ground floor. To the middle or central portion there are stairs which run practically the whole length of the stand. The highest part is to be gained by means of a distributing passage which is as long as the stand and twenty feet broad. Stairs lead from this to the loftiest section. Thus it will be seen that the structure is designed in such a manner that each person will be able to get to his seat with the least discomfort to himself and the minimum inconvenience to his neighbours, because there is a separate means of ingress to each section of the stand.

"The man who wishes to go to the top of the stand has not to disturb those sitting in the lower rungs and this applies to each portion for every detail has been carefully thought out, both by Mr Leitch the mastermind and Messers Bramfield and Smith of Manchester who were responsible for the extensions and improvements at the Clayton ground, the present home of Manchester United F. C.

Altogether, the entire area of the new home of Manchester United will be sixteen acres. The outward circumference of the ground will be about 2000 feet. The ground will be six hundred and thirty feet long and five hundred and ten feet broad, with the width of the terracing being one hundred and twenty feet. This is a palatial ground which will challenge comparison with any in Great Britain. The executives of the club are to be congratulated on their spirited policy which no doubt be met with reward from the football public.

As a matter of interest, Archibald Leitch, the man behind the construction of Old Trafford was a Glasgwegian consulting engineer and factory architect by profession. His first work on a football stadium was in his native city with Rangers in 1899 and as the years passed by, he was involved in the ground improvements and extensions with the likes of Tottenham, Arsenal, Fulham, Sunderland, Everton and Chelsea, as well as at Hampden Park. His work with United and their Old Trafford project, however, was the first time he was involved in designing a complete stadium.

For those familiar with the ground up until the early sixties, it is not difficult to visualize those vivid plans for the stadium from those bygone days. However, before finalising the plans, Mr J. J. Bentley, the club secretary, suggested several refinements, such as the cycle track, reducing the height of the terracing and omitting the cover on the terracing opposite the main stand. The latter of course meant a reduction in the planned 100,000 capacity, by around 20,000, but the original plans were felt to be a little too ambitious and this reduction did in fact cut the costs of the project to around £60,000, which was also something of a deciding factor, even though the final figure was twice the sum initially reported.

In an effort to make an indent in the final cost of the new stadium, no matter how small, Archibald Leitch tried to involve the Cheshire Lines Railway in the project. From his Manchester Office, at 78 King Street, he contacted James Pinion, the manager of the Railway Committee and a letter from Leitch on May 27th 1908 set out his proposal.

It read "In reference to my interview with you, I shall be glad to know whether your Committee would be willing to entertain a proposal to loan the Manchester United Club the sum of £10,000 for the purpose of erecting the Grand Stand at the NEW Football Ground. The Club Directors would be willing to give their personal guarantees and also a guarantee from the Club itself, and in addition a guarantee would be obtained from the Manchester Brewery Co. and Messers Walker and Humphreys, Brewers in both of which Mr Davies, the chairman of the Manchester United Football Club, is also Chairman.

The money would be repayable in five years at a rate of £2,000 yearly, or it might be arranged that half of the net drawings of the grandstand taken yearly would go towards the reduction of the debt. In this way the money might be refunded at an earlier date, but without going further into details at the present moment I shall be glad to know whether your Committee, as already stated, are willing to entertain this proposal."

Three days after receiving the letter, James Pinion sent a memorandum to all the other Committee members outlining the proposal, whilst also mentioning the construction of a Station, something which was not mentioned in the original letter, but something which must have been brought up by Archibald Leitch at his earlier meeting with James Pinion.

The memorandum, entitled Manchester United Football Club. Proposed new Ground in Trafford Park immediately alongside the Cheshire Line Railway read as follows

"The estimated cost of this ground with stands and other accommodation is £60,000. The estimated cost of the Station shewn(sic) on the plan prepared by Mr Blundell for the accommodation of traffic to and from is £10,000. The ground is to be constructed so as to accommodate 100,000 spectators. The football season extends over a period of thirty-three weeks and estimating that on twenty Saturdays during the season, matches will be held on the ground and that we obtain the carrying of one-tenth of the number the ground is estimated to accommodate, it would mean the conveyance of 10,000 per match on twenty Saturdays, bringing up an aggregate of 200,000 from Manchester during the season.

"In addition, on the remaining twenty Saturdays comprising the year it is proposed to hold athletic meetings, cycling meetings and such like and that we shall have 1,000 on each such Saturday, making up a total of 20,000 for athletic gatherings or 220,000 passengers altogether in the year.

In addition to this estimate for the Manchester traffic there is to be reckoned traffic from Liverpool, Warrington and other stations on the Cheshire Lines proper and also traffic from such places as Derby, Sheffield, Nottingham etc, on the Parent Companies Lines and a great many other places on foreign lines, but reckoning the passenger traffic alone from Manchester the proposal appears to be an enticing one from a Cheshire lines point of view.

"I should state that it is the intention of the Football Club to provide elaborate provision for substantial refreshments for large parties coming from a distance so that footballers coming from such remote places as Derby, Sheffield, Nottingham etc, will on arrival on the ground obtain liquid refreshment and refreshments of a more substantial character so that