Barrow AFC.net

Mother in law has dug this out I’ve never seen it before

What an excellent read - thanks for posting - I’m unsure of where the Drill Hall is - is the Strand where Morrisons’s supermarket is now ?

Yes I think. Its where The Rink was allegedly

Interesting read thanks for posting.

I have one of those too.

Excellent. I wish I'd had that a few weeks ago. I had a feisty discussion with someone on another forum about 'soccer' and how it was a common term around Barrow, not restricted to the USofA, and there it is in the opening paragraph from 1951.

Thanks for posting this, Mark. There is another frequent poster on this forum (whose confidentiality will be respected) who kindly sent me a scanned copy of this Golden Jubilee booklet and one of the mentions in its pages is a sore topic which has been discussed on this forum in the past but with no successful resolution. There's no point in raking over old coals UNLESS there is someone new to this forum who can provide an answer to the mystery; that mystery is where exactly on Ainslie Street did Barrow play? The Golden Jubilee souvenir booklet states as follows:

After three seasons at The Strawberry Ground Barrow moved to Ainslie Street, the first match being played there on September 3rd 1904 - - - it was thought that Ainslie Street would be more central but the playing area was a very unsatisfactory one with a decided slope from touchline to touchline and before the end of the season 1904-05 the club moved again, this time to Little Park, Roose. The first match on that ground was played on March 18th 1905 (my birthday as it happens . . . the March 18th bit I mean, not the 1905 bit).

So, we 've already gone over this conundrum and we know where the Strawberry and Little Park grounds were situated but nobody has ever solved the mystery of where exactly our football was played during those few months on Ainslie Street. No point in guessing, we've been over it all before and covered all the guesses. But if there is somebody new to this forum who knows for sure where the Ainslie Street pitch was situated it would be great to know.

Few early maps on here those with a home computer may be able to zoom in and shed some more light on PJ’s perplexing situation;- https://www.francisfrith.com/barrow-in-furness/maps

Unlikely to feature on a map as was so short-lived.

(Incidentally, a good selection of maps is available online from the National Library of Scotland at https://maps.nls.uk/, including the useful 'side-by-side' option.)

Basically it was a (poor quality) pitch with a hut for changing. A newspaper report refers to the pitch as sloping - no surprise as there is little flat land either side of Ainslie Street.

FanzoneFan wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 5:44 pm - I’m unsure of where the Drill Hall is - is the Strand where Morrisons’s supermarket is now ?

I think it was in Holker Street where the Legion is now.

It was later but I seem to remember the Strand location being the original site.

MisterPleasant wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:52 pm Excellent. I wish I'd had that a few weeks ago. I had a feisty discussion with someone on another forum about 'soccer' and how it was a common term around Barrow, not restricted to the USofA, and there it is in the opening paragraph from 1951.

Did we not refer to Going to the Soccer to the end of our first spell in the League?

Hadrian wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 8:39 pm It was later but I seem to remember the Strand location being the original site.

Correct:

https://uktenpinhalloffame.co.uk/2022/0 ... ancashire/