Shrimpsvoices

I was casting my mind back to when I was very young and standing on that cinder bank at Christie park, late sixties to early seventies?
I tried to explain to someone, if memory serves me correctly? that it was a weird material to stand on, black, with the consistency of a crunchie bar, almost what you'd expect from a volcano or outer space.

Anyone, please put me right

Yep - I too remember standing on it with my dad and uncle.......if I remember rightly it was supposed to have been formed by importing coal ash from the old Morecambe gasworks which was roughly where the telephone exchange/train station is now off Central Drive

Yes. I used to stand on there with my Dad around the same time. Used to kick clumps of it in frustration if we missed a good chance. In later years vegetation started to grow on it. it also housed the old scoreboard with the clock that eventually started going backwards.

Not disputing where the cinders came from, but my dad worked for the then North West Gas Board. He told us it was on the land of the 'new' library.

I remember playing footy on the cinders during matches when I was younger. I always remember the Barrow graffiti on the wall we used as a net.

jbc.shrimp wrote:Not disputing where the cinders came from, but my dad worked for the then North West Gas Board. He told us it was on the land of the 'new' library.

Quick bit of research - I think that’s about right for where the library is now

jbc.shrimp wrote:Not disputing where the cinders came from, but my dad worked for the then North West Gas Board. He told us it was on the land of the 'new' library.

Yes it, was, but the site was much larger than the existing library site. There were numerous sidings for railway wagons supplying the plant, so looking at old maps, it also covered both car parks (i.e. the one next to the library and the one next to the telephone exchange- Central Drive itself was also railway sidings.

Yes, I stood on the Cinder Bank many times in my early years of watching the Shrimps, or walking from one end to the other at half-time. Here's a pic of a handfull of pieces of the very Christie Park cinders or clinker. Probably residue from burning fuel coke which could have been used to make 'synthesis gas' at the Morecambe Gas Works. Surprising what we find to photograph, collect and talk about in between football

Cheers guys,
We all have these recollections of what once was and it seems to happen more as you get on in life

57 years later, I still have a grey scar on my right palm where I fell on the cinders and cut it quite badly. Sharp stuff.

Brian S wrote:57 years later, I still have a grey scar on my right palm where I fell on the cinders and cut it quite badly. Sharp stuff.

Blimey, didn't have you down for being that old
Did this happen when you fell out the pram?

I wonder how many of us stood there watching the same match?

HALMA 1983 wrote:

Brian S wrote:57 years later, I still have a grey scar on my right palm where I fell on the cinders and cut it quite badly. Sharp stuff.

Blimey, didn't have you down for being that old
Did this happen when you fell out the pram?

I was 2, Christie Park was my playground. Had my own stool and glass in the supporters club bar when I was 3 and a parking space for my pedal car.

Brian S wrote:

HALMA 1983 wrote:

Brian S wrote:57 years later, I still have a grey scar on my right palm where I fell on the cinders and cut it quite badly. Sharp stuff.

Blimey, didn't have you down for being that old
Did this happen when you fell out the pram?

I was 2, Christie Park was my playground. Had my own stool and glass in the supporters club bar when I was 3 and a parking space for my pedal car.

So was that on the old cinder car park?

black morse wrote:I wonder how many of us stood there watching the same match?

It certainly gets you thinking

I started watching Morecambe around 1968 and through the 70's with my step father, who inturn, was a Blackpool fan,
He took me to Bloomfield road many times and then I started watching Oldham from1974 on, when my own father collected me.
I then met my wife in Blackburn in 84 and watched them at Ewood on the Saturday's she was working.

All very confusing, Berlin was correct..........More clubs than Tiger woods

Every now & again a thread comes along that gives me the chance to re-post this photo. Taken before they moved the turnstiles from the social club wall to nearer the ground.

Ahoy there captain!
Looks like Shrimper on deck

HALMA 1983 wrote:Ahoy there captain!
Looks like Shrimper on deck

Doubt it, Shrimper is only months older than me

Brian S wrote:

HALMA 1983 wrote:Ahoy there captain!
Looks like Shrimper on deck

Doubt it, Shrimper is only months older than me

It was a joke

HALMA 1983 wrote:

black morse wrote:I wonder how many of us stood there watching the same match?

It certainly gets you thinking

I started watching Morecambe around 1968 and through the 70's with my step father, who inturn, was a Blackpool fan,
He took me to Bloomfield road many times and then I started watching Oldham from1974 on, when my own father collected me.
I then met my wife in Blackburn in 84 and watched them at Ewood on the Saturday's she was working.

All very confusing, Berlin was correct..........More clubs than Tiger woods

Ha, our paths must have crossed all those years ago. My Dad also used to take me to Christie from 1966, then when Blackpool got promoted to the top League he took me there for a while instead during Jimmy Armfield days, typical gloryhunter

marky No.1 wrote:Ha, our paths must have crossed all those years ago. My Dad also used to take me to Christie from 1966, then when Blackpool got promoted to the top League he took me there for a while instead during Jimmy Armfield days, typical gloryhunter

I don't doubt it
After reading your reply I can fully relate to what you're saying, the very same happened to me and it was that Armfield era I witnessed, Jimmy Greaves playing for West Ham and that Man City side with Tony Book, Francis Lee and Summerbee.
I know one thing, it was my mother who took me on that train down to london in 1974 for the Dartford game

Weren't the cinders sold in the 1980's? Not sure what they would be used for? But it dug us out of a financial hole for a little while.

All you cinder-bankers will remember the dog that 'ran the line' on the far side. It understood the off-side law and would 'freeze', looking across the line. If the linesman didn't give it, she'd hold position for a few moments before looking briefly at the linesman in disgust, and then carrying on! She used to play football with us kids on Lancaster Road school field and I have a vague memory of her being taken on to Christie Park one time, to play with a ball when the opposition's coach had been delayed. Can't remember her name, although I think it may have been 'Shep'?

Wasn't the dog's owner the groundsman at the time....

Well remember the cinders.....met a certain young lady there....

My Dad also used to take me to Christie from 1966, then when Blackpool got promoted to the top League he took me there for a while instead during Jimmy Armfield days, typical gloryhunter

Snap! I started watching that year and my Dad also took me to Bloomfield Road in their top flight season.

Martin wrote:

My Dad also used to take me to Christie from 1966, then when Blackpool got promoted to the top League he took me there for a while instead during Jimmy Armfield days, typical gloryhunter

Snap! I started watching that year and my Dad also took me to Bloomfield Road in their top flight season.

Crikey, that's 3 of us that got transported to the Tangereen side, I guess we'd been tangoed