Jon
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Post by Jon on Apr 7, 2014 22:43:32 GMT
Changing the subject completely have i read somewhere that the pop side was named because there was a line of poplar trees behind the grass bank before the cover was built in the early fifties ? Can anyone enlighten me ? In the early days of football as a spectator sport, most grounds had a "popular side". That is popular in the sense of "of the common people". The posh folks paid a lot more to sit comfortably under cover in the stand. The "common people" paid a lot less, stood out in the rain and got soaking wet. A couple of references to Plainmoor's "popular side": WMN 13/07/28  WMN 30/07/46  Plenty of other matches. A search for "poplar side" returned zero matches. |
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Apr 7, 2014 22:52:45 GMT
Jon, can you assist? Photos I have do not have a stand that would hold 3000 plus an existing. 2000 stand, only a roped off area with the flat caps taken from amongst the gentlemen hat wearers of the Grandstand and a small stand to the left as you look, toward the family stand end. Other shots that day show the away end not much different to how it was 60 years later. I take it the development didn't happen on schedule. It was certainly the Magpies taking to the field that day. I'm going to have to learn how to upload images.
Edit: article 1928.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Apr 7, 2014 23:10:40 GMT
Jon, can you assist? Photos I have do not have a stand that would hold 3000 plus an existing. 2000 stand, only a roped off area with the flat caps taken from amongst the gentlemen hat wearers of the Grandstand and a small stand to the left as you look, toward the family stand end. Other shots that day show the away end not much different to how it was 60 years later. I take it the development didn't happen on schedule. It was certainly the Magpies taking to the field that day. I'm going to have to learn how to upload images. Edit: article 1928. Rob, do you know when your photos were taken? Could you scan them? The 2000 stand would have been the grandstand. I assume that the 1928 addition was some form of rudimentary covering on the Pop rather than a stand as such. I don't know if this didn't happen or was a structure that didn't last. There was obviously a need for new covered accommodation on the Pop after WW2 - and I guess that the structure that lasted until the 90s dated from the late 40s. |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Apr 7, 2014 23:18:47 GMT
Timbo posted this programme from 3/9/47. Work on covering the Pop delayed.  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2014 7:28:47 GMT
I'd never heard the "poplar" explanation before. But I know there have long been popular stands and popular enclosures at sporting venues throughout the English-speaking world.
In South Wales there were "tanner banks" and "bob banks" reflecting the price of admission; either sixpence or a shilling.
As for our popular side, I much prefer "popular" to "pop". In fact I rather liked the sound of " The Marnham" when it was once suggested to me.
The structure itself, I feel, is a disappointment. But I'm pretty sure we've been through the realities and practicalities of this in the past. It's now had twenty years use with, I imagine, plenty more to come. I fear we've rather grown into its' smallness.
Recently I saw the popular side described as "iconic". That's not my favourite word nor does it strike me as the most apt of descriptions. Indeed I'm unsure as to whether it was being to describe the architecture or the atmosphere. If it was the latter perhaps the word in mind was " ironic".
Well, on occasions maybe.
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Apr 8, 2014 12:07:06 GMT
Jon, can you assist? Photos I have do not have a stand that would hold 3000 plus an existing. 2000 stand, only a roped off area with the flat caps taken from amongst the gentlemen hat wearers of the Grandstand and a small stand to the left as you look, toward the family stand end. Other shots that day show the away end not much different to how it was 60 years later. I take it the development didn't happen on schedule. It was certainly the Magpies taking to the field that day. I'm going to have to learn how to upload images. Edit: article 1928. Rob, do you know when your photos were taken? Could you scan them? The 2000 stand would have been the grandstand. I assume that the 1928 addition was some form of rudimentary covering on the Pop rather than a stand as such. I don't know if this didn't happen or was a structure that didn't last. There was obviously a need for new covered accommodation on the Pop after WW2 - and I guess that the structure that lasted until the 90s dated from the late 40s. Jon, I was of the impression they were of our 1-1 draw with Exeter, first match in League. If you PM an email or instructions how to upload to messageboard. I'll get that done in the next week as I don't know how to upload. Had a similar issue trying to upload a breakfast plate once and have never returned to the issue. Got a few bits including historic Swindon and Huddersfield programmes, and paper ones from 1920's/1930's but am sure Tim will have those. Copies of them all last got a public showing at the initial trust meeting Adrian Sanders and Kevin Rye attended. |
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Apr 8, 2014 13:57:56 GMT
Been having a root around and whilst I can't find the bigger ones I have, I have a number of smaller photos that confirm there is not a row of trees along the Pop. It is rather odd as you see that there is a back row of people behind those behind the rope, but they appear to be suspended in mid air. I'm guessing there was a wall or slight step rather than floating, though. Wouldn't imagine there are 10k there in these photos, of various matches including schoolboy fixtures at a guess, so it won't be the Exeter match. Although a couple of the scenes show people well packed in, so maybe. All photos taken from the Grandstand where my grandfather and great grandfather would have been - in their hats. There is a nice team photo, not an official one, as well. Refs attire priceless. Can't imagine trying to keep up with play in that for 90 minutes.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Apr 8, 2014 23:04:20 GMT
Jon, I was of the impression they were of our 1-1 draw with Exeter, first match in League. If you PM an email or instructions how to upload to messageboard. I'll get that done in the next week as I don't know how to upload. Had a similar issue trying to upload a breakfast plate once and have never returned to the issue. Got a few bits including historic Swindon and Huddersfield programmes, and paper ones from 1920's/1930's but am sure Tim will have those. Copies of them all last got a public showing at the initial trust meeting Adrian Sanders and Kevin Rye attended. Easiest way is to open a photobucket account, upload pics there and paste the ![]() link on here. I'll PM you my email address in case. If we are talking 1927, the only cover at Plainmoor would have been the new grandstand from Buckfastleigh racecourse which had just replaced the two small stands that had stood on that side before. The stand did not run the full length of the pitch. There was a large paddock area towards the Ellacombe end. I assume Ronnie Barker stood there while Ronnie Corbett was on the Pop and John Cleese sat next to your great granddad. The other three sides would have been open and freshly "banked". I guess this meant just made into a slope rather than terraced as such - probably with some cinders or clinker laid down to soak up the worst of the mud. I don't think the railway sleepers came until later, but I could be wrong. |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Apr 8, 2014 23:53:32 GMT
Name those trees:  |
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Post by Ditmar van Nostrilboy on Apr 9, 2014 11:14:33 GMT
Interesting to know the story goes back a few years. You rarely hear the u pronounced in popular (is that a Devon thing or the same everywhere?), so easy to see how the two words could be confused. Does anyone know if the trees actually were poplars? I couldn't tell a poplar from a larch. Jon, can't say i've noticed an inability to pronounce popular in the local area? Perhaps someone like Tony Beard may do but he's from up north debbun, innit... Im no expert on trees either, but found this photo with what looks like a row of trees along Marnham road behind the pop side? Heres the old photo from John Oakford's Ashburton College siteThe '55 Leeds match according to the caption. Im going to hazard a guess it's to the right of the Pop side stand looking from the pitch as it seems to slope up, right to left? |
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Post by gullone on Apr 9, 2014 14:16:29 GMT
Interesting to know the story goes back a few years. You rarely hear the u pronounced in popular (is that a Devon thing or the same everywhere?), so easy to see how the two words could be confused. Does anyone know if the trees actually were poplars? I couldn't tell a poplar from a larch. Jon, can't say i've noticed an inability to pronounce popular in the local area? Perhaps someone like Tony Beard may do but he's from up north debbun, innit... Im no expert on trees either, but found this photo with what looks like a row of trees along Marnham road behind the pop side? Heres the old photo from John Oakford's Ashburton College siteThe '55 Leeds match according to the caption. Im going to hazard a guess it's to the right of the Pop side stand looking from the pitch as it seems to slope up, right to left? Thanks for the research Jon and interesting photo. Still reckon i should have started this thread on April 1st tho ! |
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Apr 9, 2014 21:41:13 GMT
I'd say the far right one was possibly a Poplar from the shape, but I'm no expert. Could be a leylandi. Not there in the 1920's, if anyone knows about ages and growth of these things. (Not leylandi) Jon has sent me a PM and I'll get them over when I'm next in the office.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Apr 9, 2014 22:28:54 GMT
I'd say the far right one was possibly a Poplar from the shape, but I'm no expert. Could be a leylandi. Not there in the 1920's, if anyone knows about ages and growth of these things. (Not leylandi) Jon has sent me a PM and I'll get them over when I'm next in the office. I was thinking much the same. If the young-looking trees in DVN's 1955 photo are the same as the mature ones in my 1975 photo, I would imagine that they hadn't even been planted back in the 20s when the popular side was already called the popular side. Maybe Rob's photos will show a tree-free popside to prove the point. On the subject of those trees in the 1975 photo, we had a game postponed at very short notice when one of them crashed down on to the popside a few hours before kick-off. A few hours later and I could have been squashed to death by a poplar (or a larch). I'm guessing this was some time between 1988 and 1991, if I was living where I think I was living at the time. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2014 19:44:26 GMT
On the subject of those trees in the 1975 photo, we had a game postponed at very short notice when one of them crashed down on to the popside a few hours before kick-off. A few hours later and I could have been squashed to death by a poplar (or a larch). I'm guessing this was some time between 1988 and 1991, if I was living where I think I was living at the time. I remember that. It was certainly during that period because my mother was still alive and I was living in Taunton. There's a fixture in the 1989/90 season against Gillingham that wasn't played on the original scheduled date of 28 October. I wonder if that was it? I remember being most pissed off by the postponement and grumpily heading off for a walk up Easterfield Lane. A car pulled up outside King George V and asked for directions. Turned out to be a work colleague from Somerset who'd been off sick for a while; her husband supported whoever we were due to play that day. I've tried Googling the date and all I can find is that Damon Lathrope was born that day. |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Apr 10, 2014 21:57:22 GMT
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