Watford FC - History Thread

Discussion in 'The Golden Years' started by Nuandy, Apr 18, 2015.

  1. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    Great minds think alike.. ive been wondering that myself.
    Someone on the FB group said the interior looked very similar to the old supporters club so i wondered if it was part of the same building. Looking at pics though (see below) the windows don't match up. Someone else thought that the boardroom was incorporated into the old stand under where the directors sat. If so i'm still not sure where the windows looked out onto and having looked at pics of the back of the old stand (also see below) none of the windows match up again.
    Without finding an external shot of those windows i'm none the wiser.

    eastst.jpg

    east.JPG

    east3.JPG
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2018
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  2. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    Another boardroom pic from the same day. With lavish directos bar..


    eltonboard78.JPG.gallery.jpg
     
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  3. Jossy

    Jossy Reservist

    Looking at the slanted roof support in this picture, the windows must be facing pitch side. Perhaps the existing pics of the exterior when the boardroom was possibly under where the directors sat were taken either before or after the windows were changed/modified?!

    In the pics of the back of the stand in your earlier post, I love the complete randomness of a bunch of old fridge-freezers dumped outside:p.
     
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  4. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    Yes i reckon the windows were covered up when the paddock was seated.

    You can see some windows below the directors box in this still from The Persuaders. The ones to the right of the tunnel i'd guess at. One appears split into 4 panes as in the first boardroom pic.

    watford2.jpg
     
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  5. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    Watford team off to play golf at Frinton on sea prior to FA cup tie vs Barnsley 1932..

    frinton.JPG
     
  6. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    According to the wonderful Watford Archive website WFC have only once played Barnsley in the Cup - in 1911. This picture might have been before playing Bradford Park Avenue in the Cup run of 1932, but did they really go to the east coast to play golf in February? Footballers must have been made of tougher stuff back then!
     
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  7. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    I think the guys only did one child photo and all the different kids have just been photoshopped in.
     
  8. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    Yes sorry you're right i misread it. Bradford PA at home. 5th round won 1-0.. all that fresh air did some good.
     
  9. On a completely unrelated matter - have you any idea why the 60's section of the seasons page on that website has gone missing?
     
  10. vic-rijrode

    vic-rijrode First Year Pro

    Why did they all look about 50ish?
     
  11. Early days of the Depression - tough times, everyone looked like that?

    As this school photo suggests - school photo.png
     
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  12. Rontaylor

    Rontaylor Reservist

    They did it again in Feb 1960 to Folkestone. After beating Birmingham and Southampton in cup, prepared for game against Sheffield United by going to Folkestone to play golf. Then they lost 3-2
     
  13. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    No gloves and snoods in those days - and short sleeves all round. Rock ‘ard!
     
  14. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

  15. Is that the old tunnel from before the extension. The tunnel I knew and loved is behind the actor. The box in the Directors area was the entrance to the exec area. In the 80s, that meant if you walked down the steps that led down from the box, you would enter the reception area, where chief steward Steve Dunham would stand and manage things. The main entrance to the reception was along a corridor opposite that pitch side entrance, and Bill Davis used to look after that.

    As you came down the steps from the directors box, the Directors suite was first on the left, which could well be the room in the board room picture. There was a bar in the corner as in the picture, though a bit more impressive as I remember, and I don't remember any windows, in fact I am sure there weren't any. At the far end, to the right of the bar, was the door to the Kremlin, which was usually no go for oiks like me (I went in there once to take a message to GT after the runners up game v Liverpool, and found the great man grinning to himself very contentedly on a very comfy looking couch with his feet up).

    Again, coming from the directors box, there was a second door on the left which was the old vice presidents suite, then called, if I remember correctly, the 1981 suite. This was where most serious drinking went on.

    Next to the pitch side entrance was the old video suite, which is where Mike Vince used to do his voice overs, and where I was allegedly (according to Steve Harrison) copy porn for the players, which was not the case! There was a door more or less opposite the directors suite that was the entrance to the guest suite, where the trophy cabinet was kept. The players, who had there own bar at the end of the extension, would usually end up in here with their familes and guests. There was a press room and other stuff on that side that were later knocked through to extend the guest suite.
     
  16. This is very rough and to no particular scale, but pretty much as I remember it, though it doesn't quite tally with the description above as I have doors facing in different directions because I am unsure. If I drew it tomorrow, it'd be different again, but the overall layout, I believe, is correct.

    I'd love to see a proper plan of under the stand.

    I believe the guest suite and the 'unsure what was here' areas were the old changing/laundry facilities from before the extension was built with the video suite roughly where the tunnel came out.

    [​IMG]

    I've marked on the photo below where Bill Davis's door was. Don't know if the fridges were his.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  17. Abso

    Abso First Year Pro

    Does anyone know why the club only extended properly to the South of the Main stand on the old East stand?
    My thoughts are that maybe teh club realised that one day they would need to shift the pitch South a bit and move the Rookery down to allow a bigger Vic Rd end. However teh Rous being built obviously put pay to that idea.
     
  18. vic-rijrode

    vic-rijrode First Year Pro

    In a word - money. Bonser was the chairman at the time of promotion to Div. 2 for the first time in the club's history in 1969. There was literally nothing in the way of building the "Main Stand Extension" to the south of the old stand (other than movable dog track paraphernalia) - to the north side there was the old Supporters hut and other bits and pieces. There was never any intention to "shift the pitch" - in fact the (much) longer term view was to replace the Main Stand with something to match the Extension - but Bonser had limited funds and the need (and whatever money was available) evaporated as we plunged back down to Div. 4.

    Come the SEJ and GT era, and the obvious easier side to develop was the Shrodells (still like that name - could have called it the GT Shrodells Stand, I suppose). Shrodells apparently comes from Shrubberies in some way and together with the Rookery End and Vicarage Road Ends would have constituted a very bucolic nomenclature not matched by many other League Clubs.
     
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  19. Forzainglese

    Forzainglese Reservist

    Ah yes, but I believe 'Rookery' was an old nickname for a crowded slum (rooks nest in noisy colonies). And I think there was just such an area somewhere back there. In fact I think one of my ancestors lived in it. Add to that the fact the (old quarry?) was a rubbish tip* before it was taken over as a football ground it might be best we keep quiet about that.
    The Shrodells Hospital was developed on the site of the Workhouse (so not all that bucolic unfortunately) - and indeed several of the old buildings were (and still are!) utilized and not knocked down.
    * = Does anyone else remember a hole appearing in the middle of the pitch during a game? It was big enough (and he was small enough) for Tommy Harmer to sit in it. The match wasn't abandoned, men came with buckets of soil and filled it in. The explanation was that some of the original rubbish had decayed so much the ground gave way. I think was said it wasn't the first time this had happened.
     
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  20. vic-rijrode

    vic-rijrode First Year Pro

    You make good points about rookery, workhouse, rubbish tip etc. - which is why I perhaps should have stressed that Vicarage Road was bucolic in name only!

    I'm pretty sure that holes have appeared in the pitch at least twice since the early 60s - Harmer was indeed one of the smallest (but certainly gifted) players in our history.
     
  21. Is that Keen, Elton, Stratford, Smith, Bonzo, Rollit and Harrowell?

    If it is, one of those guys got a testimonial. Can anyone remember which (bit obvious really) and who we played?

    Hope I'm right now. Could be embarrassing!
     
  22. Forzainglese

    Forzainglese Reservist

    Apparently, one of Harmer's party tricks was to play keepy-uppy for the entire length of time it took him to smoke a cigarette. Mind you, probably most of today's PL players could do that - the difficult bit would probably be to persuade the vast majority of them to smoke.
     
  23. We hate 48

    We hate 48 Reservist

    Ron Rollitt had a testimonial in April 76 v an "All Star 11"-1,500 turned up-not bad for a friday night and considering the average crowd that season just ended was probably under 5,000

    Have no idea who the All Stars might have been-but we lost 4-1 to them
     
  24. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Elton’s like a different species.
     
  25. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Presumably plus fours were the daft part shaved haircut of their day.
     
  26. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    How big was the trophy cabinet?
     
  27. I remember Billy Jennings played. I hung about the players entrance for ages to get his autograph.
     
  28. Not very! There was a lot of memorabelia in it, and the mini Jules Rimet trophy that all English clubs got to commemorate the WCF. There was also a mini football presented to the Club by the Chinese FA at the Great Wall of China Cup, which was occasionally abused in one aside matches in the board room, after everyone else had left. The Sherriff of London Sheild was stored down there in a side room for a good few years. Took a load of us to shift it.

    One of the things that stuck in the memory were framed pages from the evening echo reporting on the 7-1 thrashing of Southampton. Not in the cabinet, but on the wall.
     
  29. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    Ermmmmm.. sounds about right to me.

    I see the question was answered above but i would have gone Keen myself :(




    PS Sterling work with the East stand layout.. top class!
    I was only ever in the East stand 'behind the scenes' once.. for the England v Denmark U21 game in 88. My brothers then girlfriend was working for the FA so we got in there with the England first team and other footballing hierarchy. I remember someone (Tony Adams?) shouting over to Gazza at the buffet table.. "you wont find any Mars Bars there fatso!"
     
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  30. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    I can help you with that one..

    s-l1600 (5).jpg



    So ex Watford players.. in the main.
     
  31. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Wonderful.

    It does make me think that it’s the taking part which counts.
     
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  32. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    and the 2000-2010 section.

    I sure hope we aren't losing that site.. i'd go into depression!
     
  33. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    I remember reading once that back even further.. 30's maybe? a hole appeared large enough to "swallow a horse & cart"
    This later hole wasnt even deep enough to swallow a Ross Jenkins.. mind you that'd take some doing!

    Capturekkkkkk.JPG


    PS isnt The Rookery is the name for the area south of Vicarage Road? I believe it is on Google maps.
     
  34. Anyone know who the match ball Donor, J Pyrke, was and his role at the Club (other than catering)?
     
  35. We hate 48

    We hate 48 Reservist

    I worked for John in the tea hut (between the main stand and Vic Rd) as a young teenager on some match days in the early 70's. I thought he was only catering but knew a lot of what went on. His son still goes and sits near us in the UGT.

    He got Elton to sign a album cover for with a message for me which at the time seemed great. Still got it.
     

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