TWO Batley supporters have brought part of the Yorkshire club’s past back to life by restoring a pair of turnstiles at their historic home.
It’s believed supporters first clicked through them in the early 1900s, when the Bulldogs were known as the Gallant Youths and their ground, with its notoriously sloping pitch, was called Mount Pleasant rather than the Fox’s Biscuits Stadium.
It has been in use since 1880, staged matches in Rugby League’s first season of 1895-96 and has a record attendance of 23,989 for a Challenge Cup tie against Leeds in 1924-25.
Batley replaced the bulk of their turnstiles during the 1991 close-season, but two, situated at what is now the sponsors’ entrance and painted in their former cherry and white colours, remained in place, although unused.
Stuart Merton and Tony Grace have carried out the restoration project, with the reopening ceremony conducted by lifelong fan Jimmy McVeigh, now 93, who remembers paying threepence in pre-decimal money (around 75 pence now) to use them.
Now they hope fans, both of Batley and other clubs and sports, will come and take a look at a piece of history.
“We’ve worked on them on and off over the last two years,” explained Merton, a 77-year-old retired mechanical engineer.
“We stripped them down, making repairs where needed, and repainted them, and I have been able to restore some of the counters, which enabled attendances to be collated.
“It’s fascinating to wonder how many supporters passed through them over the years, and to think that at one time there were probably thousands of these turnstiles in use up and down the country.
“With grounds being upgraded to use electronic turnstiles or in a lot of cases demolished to make way for new ones, there can’t be too many left.”
It’s believed the first turnstiles at a British sports stadium were at the original Hampden Park in Glasgow, which was built in 1873 but lasted only a decade.
Merton and Grace are both members of Batley’s Tuesday Club, with weekly meetings for coffee, biscuits and chat taking place on that day, from 9.30am, in the boardroom at the Fox’s Biscuits Stadium. New members are welcome.