New book on Non-League grounds

A fascinating new book has been published, featuring 77 Non-League grounds past and present in the Liverpool and Manchester areas.

Terry Gorman has spent over two years putting the book together, and the end result is a fascinating review of many grounds that will be familiar to followers of football in our league.

The 88 pages, packed with anecdotes, research and 250 excellent images of grounds, most in colour, make the book a “must buy” for anyone interested in the history of Non-League grounds around the North West.

Terry explained to me the whole project started in 2006. “Although I now live near Northwich, I am from Bury, and my son and I are ardent season-ticket-holding supporters of Bury”, he said. “We had started to explore the North West Counties grounds, trying to get in a NWCFL game whenever we were not at a Bury game.

“When I came across the series of books by Mike Floate, “The Non-League Grounds of …………..” I exchanged e-mails with Mike, and offered to cover Lancashire. In my optimism I thought at first that two years would suffice!!!

“It was obvious that I was not an experienced ground-hopper, and the wealth of grounds that I discovered rather took me aback – which is when we decided it would need to be two volumes. There was a major problem of which grounds went into which volume, and I’ve tried to summarise my thinking on that in the Introduction to the book.

“In the end, I included the Liverpool County Premier League and the Manchester League, even though some clubs are outside Liverpool and Manchester, and excluded the West Lancashire League, even though some of its clubs are inside.”

Terry’s book is split into four sections – Current Grounds, The Manchester League, The Liverpool County Premier League and Gone But Not Forgotten Grounds. 13 of our current Vodkat League clubs appear in the first section, and as you can imagine, there are plenty of clubs now higher up the pyramid featured in the book who also once graced our league too.

I always think the particular appeal of this sort of book is that, even though it is on a subject that you are interested in and have some knowledge of, you are always likely to turn up a few nuggets of information and trivia that you never knew before. This book is no different.

For example, I spent two years at Daisy Hill and must have had numerous conversations with Secretary Bob Naylor over the years, but I don’t ever recall being told that the wooden seats behind the goal at New Sirs were acquired from Blackburn Rovers’ Ewood Park, and that the main turnstile was acquired from Hampden Park. Two stories on their own that are worth following up.

As well as Terry’s well researched text, the photographs accompanying each review strike a nice balance between old and new, with current photos often supplemented with shots taken some years ago.

I’ve been involved with this league in one way or another for about nine years now, and a good number of the photos predate that. From my point of view it was interesting to see Flixton’s Valley Road before the clubhouse and stand was built, and also the old clubhouse at Irlam.

I particularly enjoyed seeing some of the pictures of grounds that no longer exist, as it brought back happy memories of my early days of being involved in this league. Every away trip was to a new ground, often negotiated with one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding the league handbook. Or in the case of a trip to Formby’s Brows Lane, a walk round the corner from the railway station, having left various others members of the family in Southport for the afternoon.

On the other hand, misty eyed nostalgia is not necessarily the emotion you experience when looking at a picture of the Kirkby Sports Centre which hosted Bootle’s games between 2000 and 2002. The centre was past its sell by date by then, and there’s little chance of anyone ever being likely to prefer an afternoon there as opposed to New Bucks Park.

All in all, it’s a terrific book that I can strongly recommend, and the good news is that Terry has already started work on volume 2, where he is going to focus his attention on Lancashire and has already uncovered a few gems.

He told me: “I`m quite taken with the pitch in the middle of the grounds of what used to be the Lancashire Institute for Inebriate Women. Unfortunately the pitch wasn’t there when the inebriate women were, but what an image the connection conjures up!”

Terry’s book is called “Non-League Football Grounds of Liverpool & Manchester”, and he tells me that someone who has already read it described it as "a quirky but absolutely fascinating review of some interesting places". I'd go along with that.

The cover price is £14.95, but you can secure a copy for £14.50, with post and packing free, if you mention that you saw the book advertised on the Vodkat League website, newsletter or in North West Side Stories.

Terry will also be happy to talk to clubs about doing a special price if they are interested in buying five or more copies for club shops. Anyone requiring any more information should e-mail Terry at the following address: terry@gormans.org.uk.

To purchase a copy, send a cheque for £14.50 to: Terry Gorman, The Court House, Court Lane, Weaverham, Northwich, Cheshire CW8 3JQ.

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