Feethams nostalgia on the eve of this afternoon

[Feethams 1966]

While in Darlington today I had time to wander down to our old Polam Lane entrance for the first time since the 1980s - I almost lost the route at first due to a new housing estate. Anyway, I found it and closed my eyes as I turned the last corner, visualised the old turnstile entrances, opened them and ...nothing!
An overgrown path led straight on to the old Feethams pitch, covered in coarse undergrowth and bushes. I had a kind of surreal experience, standing in front of the tin shed, feeling like an unwilling time traveller from the past. I thought of the fantastic games I'd seen there since the 1960s; visions of George McGeachie tearing down the wing, of Tony Moor, our goalkeeper solid as a rock between the posts, of David Speedie scoring the most impossible of goals, the league cup match when we almost beat top of the first division Everton... I could have cried.
How did we come to this? What's stopping us coming back? I felt like I could have started with a spade and dug that undergrowth out there and then. Then I looked down at the ticket I'd just bought for this afternoon's game against TN at Bishop, and dreamed of better things.
Maybe that's the trouble; I'm just a day dreamer. But I'm dreaming of better things this aftenoon. Come on Quakers!!!

[lo36789]

WWhat's stopping us coming back?

Someone else owns the land. Unless you want to go all Robert Mugabe on them, can't just take land off people because you want it.

[Feethams 1966]

It was deserted and so peaceful there this morning, just the birds singing. Of course you can't just take anyone's land, but who does own it now?

[quakerlady]

Cricket Club sold it to the Esh Group and they are building houses on it, although not much action probably due to the recession

[vicreet]

Exactly - I can still see and hear the games being played, Ron Fergusons 40yd screamer v Sheff Wed, Alan Walsh's 4 goals, David Frost, Kathy Kirby, Daves' McLean & Speedie roughing up the oppos. Hot dogs@extra onions under the East stand - Dicky Deacon and his magic sponge..

Why do clubs leave their roots when football is all about the belonging, the tribal ground etc ?

[Feethams 1966]

It still felt like hallowed turf when I was there this morning, and how could you forget Dicky Deacon's magic sponge? Memories came flooding back - not all sad - like the time a patrolling policeman spun round thinking he was being attacked - but a wayward ball had knocked his helmet off. Or the time a lofted ball rose out of sight of the dugout crew - only to land squarely in their bucket of water - never seen anthing as funny as seeing 5 blokes jump up and waddle out - the way you only do when your trousers are soaked through.
Anyway there's nowhere else I'd rather have been than HP this afternoon - it all turned out right in the end didn't it ; Purewal's 3rd goal was fantastic.
What's the Feethams site worth - couldn't we launch an appeal? Everything has its price?

[Mr_Tibbs]

I believe the price is somewhere between £1.7m to £2m, which is a bit beyond what we could reasonably raise - then there is the cost of building the ground, and then getting the right type of worms.

[theoriginalfatcat]

There is still a micro possibility that Feethams could be saved in some way. Saved for sport, for the people of Darlington. That's what I've been reliably told.

Unlikely, but strange things happen........

[banktopp]

Can anyone expain why the cricket club own Feethams and were able to sell it ?
The land was purchased in 1903 by public subscription from the good people of
Darlington, and the Feethams trust formed.
Not enough money was raised and the cricket club had to take out a small mortgage for the shortfall. The fooball club somehow became tenants of the
cricket club when both should have been tenants of the trust . What changed ?,
when and why ? Does ' Land Registry ' in 1903 hold any answers.?
To me Feethams has always belonged to the people of Darlington for sporting
use.

[Christophano]

Long story short (and this in no way covers all aspects) but the benefactors who put up most of the money seem to have deliberately written the paperwork to give cricket the upper hand, as that's where their interests lie.
You're correct, I suppose, that we should both have been tenants of the trust, but as the trust was largely controlled by the cricket club, I don't suppose it made much difference.

None of this changes the fact that the land was specifically entrusted for sporting use, and I think it's a warped reading of that clause to read it as allowing selling of the land to fund sporting pursuits.

[Mr_Tibbs]

There is still a micro possibility that Feethams could be saved in some way. Saved for sport, for the people of Darlington. That's what I've been reliably told.

Unlikely, but strange things happen........

Do tell, we need to get everyone excited enough to buy season tickets and there's nothing quite like a "Feethams thread" for raising interest in the club

But Esh have paid the Cricket Club now so the only thing which might be outstanding is the £250k or so (I can't quite remember what it was) which they also had to cough up as part of the planning agreement (to go towards providing children's play areas).

I really think we can forget about ever returning to Feethams - barring some working class hero charging in with a bundle of notes to save the day or, perhaps, Terrace Hill wanting to do some sort of leisure development on that land, but that really is grasping at straws.

[banktopp]

As long ago as 1949 the football club was at loggerheads with the cricket club over the tenancy arrangements and it would have appeared to have been a long running sore for years. So much so that the directors of DFC were going to purchase land between Yarm Road and Haughton and build a new stadium.
'The best in the North East ' and a mini Wembley. The war years had been a very
successful and profitable time for our club, and arguably we were one of the best
teams in the country with many full Scottish and English internationals pulling on the black and white hoops to play for us. Something went wrong and the new stadium was never built and the rest as they say is history.

[theoriginalfatcat]

Do tell[/quote] Not sure if you're serious Mr Tibbs


I have nothing new to offer. Very briefly I speak with Shaun Campbell every so often about this, and he still thinks that the Feethams fight is not lost.

Many won't agree with this but, he has proved that he can get ambitious stuff to happen!

[Mr_Tibbs]

Nah, I'm serious. I'd love us to go back there as much as anyone but I just can't see it happening now. Soon it'll be too late for Shaun or anyone else to save it for sport so if he's got any ideas then people need to know about them, if he wants to get the weight of public opinion behind them.

[Feethams 1966]

I think yesterday was a strange kind of day. Too be stood at Feethams at 10.00am by sheer coincidence and then at 5pm at HP to see us going up was surreal.
Anyway I know that those in charge of our club will have thought about all the options and will for necessities sake need to keep some things close to their chests, so those of us on the outside can only speculate.
Anyway, to state the obvious:
If Feethams was built on we could forget it, but it's not.
We need some derelict land somewhere near the town centre - anyone know anywhere else?
If...if we could buy it back, it wouldn't take much to level the site, and if I was a player I'd even get changed in a portacabin.
It would be awful if - at the pace we're going - if we had to deliberately stay in a league on our way back - simply because we didn't have a ground or one that wasn't rated highly enough.
We can all imagine what a groundsell of support there'd be for a move back to our home.
There, that said, I have merely one or two things to add.
"From small acorns do mighty oak trees grow".
To use a couple of railway analogies:
It was a group of people sitting round a table in a Darlington pub who worked out that if enough people paid the equivalent of a pint a week, they could manufacture a full scale working steam locomotive.
At a similar time in Redmire a group of people sitting in a village hall hatched a plan to rescue a redundant railway line in Wensleydale; they now run a multimillion pound operation running trains
In both case the doubters and negatives had to eat their words. Where there's a will there's a way.

[DarloDave40]

Just get over the fact we will never go back to Feethams and if the rumours are right that Mowden have voted against us going back to the Arena or a new smaller stadium at the Arena site. So looking at site opportunities in Darlo is now a must for the CIC board for the season after next.

[Mr_Tibbs]

I agree F1966, if there was even a sniff of a chance that we could do it I think we'd all be down there with our wellies on clearing the ground.

[fat tony]

The new Right To Bid scheme might be worth a go, just in case Feethams ever did come back on the market or the build start date in any planning approval expires - http://mycommunityrights.org.uk/community-right-to-bid/

DCLG have been pushing it as a way of specifically protecting football grounds for communities, which is basically what we're all about - https://twitter.com/CommunitiesUK/statu ... 4194798593

[Feethams 1966]

Maybe we should try and buy the cricket ground. Now, there's a thought. I don't know anything about the cricket club; have they got any ambition? Have they done anything remarkable recently? I've heard that they only use their ground in Summer, and even then when it's not raining.

[Mr_Tibbs]

Maybe we should try and buy the cricket ground. Now, there's a thought. I don't know anything about the cricket club; have they got any ambition? Have they done anything remarkable recently? I've heard that they only use their ground in Summer, and even then when it's not raining.

Well, if these dignitaries who were there last night (i.e. our Mayor and our MP) wanted to earn some brownie points they should get together with Peter Barron (and maybe even Hodgy could lend his voice too) and start a campaign to get us back into the town.

I don't think the club can do it on it's own - it needs to be fan-driven, and I can only think of one goal which would capture enough people's imaginations for it to succeed...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Please-he ... 8680279959

[Feethams 1966]

I just figured that if those genteel cricket club folk could be persuaded to try an out of town location I know - near a rugby club with better parking for their Mercs and Audis - we could just sort of turn the tin shed the other way round and call it New Feethams?

[Feethams 1966]

Not looking so good for Feethams - I'm hearing on the save Feethams facebook page that the house builders are about to start.