Floodlight pylons

[KenMcnaughtsNuts]

Does anybody have any photos of actually inside the old kop? Before the days of camera phones so probably not.

I've forgot what it looked like inside. It's ok seeing a photo of it in the distance full of people, but it doesn't give you a proper sense of being inside it. I very rarely went inside properly too, i usually got there pretty late and stood on the left uncovered bit.
A few times when i was maybe 6 or 7 i'd slowly work myself into the middle. Think i only got to the corner to the John Street side once. A friendly i think, not many people there. Can't remememer what it looked like. Can anybody enlighten me?

 

[metalblade]

Just think of being inside one of those old corrugated tin garages but on a bigger scale. The girders halfway down over the walkway across the kop would have done justice to a railway bridge. Pitch black in there at night matches the only lighting being a few 200 watt light bulbs here and there and they were only turned on at half time or when there was a fight going off.
Happy days

 

[Sharrowblade]

Following up from this, the old man told me that the small floodlights had been sold to some local club, which turned out to be Chesterfield. Its believed they went up to the Ball Inn ground for a few years before going to Chezzie in 66'. They were never used because they were deemed not big enough for a League ground.

I think all that has been confirmed in the follow up on sufcimages, where the original photo was taken from, by Silent.

 

[Silent Blade]

Following up from this, the old man told me that the small floodlights had been sold to some local club, which turned out to be Chesterfield. Its believed they went up to the Ball Inn ground for a few years before going to Chezzie in 66'. They were never used because they were deemed not big enough for a League ground.

I think all that has been confirmed in the follow up on sufcimages, where the original photo was taken from, by Silent.

Many older Blades were surprised to see what the original floodlights were like in that 1961-62 photo of the ground as some didnt think that the old floodlights were that small or thought that these 145 feet floodlights were the original ones erected in 1954. A Blade fan in sufc images thought that the 1961-62 photos was a fake! Why would anyone fake a photo of floodlights! I was looking at photos in Denis Clareborough's book to see the position of the old floodlights but couldnt get one and then I thought of your programme collection (the best one was v Huddersfield in March 1955) which helped me to confirm what the original floodlights looked like

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Derbys old ground the baseball , had very weird lights , remember losing 4-0 to a Brian Clough team there in front of 40000 , ohare 2 hector 2 in a ground that was cramped with 25000 in it
View attachment 7545
The terraces were like trenches around the pitch with the front row being 4 to 5 feet below the touchline, was like watching from a rabbit warren

In the first away game thread, Derby was mine, this picture reminds me how low we were stood at the front.

 

[BladeFisher]

Here's a pic of the Lane in 1933 - no pylons at all then
View attachment 7519

Was that a Lufthansa, I mean Luftwaffe photo, sort of getting a sneaky look before the er main event?

 

[Lawrence]

See them on the train from Leeds to home matches. Sad to see the old Millmoor ground going to rack and ruin

Barnsley's Oakwell ground still as floodlights, it's also a rusting old ground, falling to bits just like S6.

 

[silver blade]

One of the original floodlight pylons was blown down in the great sheffield gale of 1962 (see link) I have searched for photos of this but no dice, (I am sure I have seen one in the Star years ago)

http://secretsheffield.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/the-great-sheffield-gale-1962/

I remember the gale of 1962, I watched from my bedroom window as all manner of things blew down the road, mum said not to open the window in case it blew away, I spent ages watching people trying to keep on there feet.
A lad in my class had his leg broken when a chimney stack fell onto the bed he was sleeping on.
Glass from the floodlights had to be removed from the pitch before the next game.

 

[felix]

Following up from this, the old man told me that the small floodlights had been sold to some local club, which turned out to be Chesterfield. Its believed they went up to the Ball Inn ground for a few years before going to Chezzie in 66'. They were never used because they were deemed not big enough for a League ground.

I think all that has been confirmed in the follow up on sufcimages, where the original photo was taken from, by Silent.

Chesterfield did begin to put one ex-Bramall Lane pylon up but that was as far as they got. The idea that they were too small is a fairly recent one buy it could be true; at the time though it was reported that the pylons had become rusty and knackered because it had taken too long to get round to using them.

The Spireites were the last team in the League to have floodlights, switching them on in a friendly against the mighty (ahem) Sheffield Wednesday early in the 1967/8 season. I know that because I were there!

 

[JJ Sefton]

View attachment 7517

"The little floodlights were in place when I started going to The Lane (1958). The big floodlights were put up soon after. This picture must come from a time when they were in place together, but the little ones were due to come down.

I remember United being very proud of the new floodlights and they made much of it in the programmes.

This must have been around the time of the Sheffield Hurricane (1962?) because one of the new floodlights was blown down not long after being put up, and there was a picture of it in the paper laying across the pitch.

There was a 5th Round Cup match against Norwich just after, and there was a gap where the pylon had been. If I remember right it was in the south-east corner."

Walth Snr