Welcome to another TGS blog. There’s much to report and, as you’ll see, it’s been a busy summer for the Great Savers.
100 years of Vicarage Road, Watford
Geoff has been working hard on the definitive centenary history of Vicarage Road, Watford’s ground since August 1922. His book, entitled ‘100 Years at Vicarage Road’, is published by the club at £20.22. It’s a way of curating in one volume a host of fascinating stories, amazing facts and glorious images of the place.
It was launched at the end of August with a signing by Watford legends. There is an accompanying exhibition at Watford Museum running until 24th September.
The Great Save, Australia
We were delighted to hear from Greg Werner in New South Wales of his very impressive launch. It happened on 4 May in NSW Parliament House and The Great Save got a name-check. There’s more here at this link:
The Great Save is launched as NSW football celebrates 140 years – Football NSW
Greg is also looking to set up a library / research facility based on the great UK-originated items he’s found Down Under. Here’s a wonderful, time capsule selection to kick off with.
Greg says, “The programmes were a donation from an expat who was cleaning house, while the rest are just a small part of the Sid Grant collection. Sid was a journalist and one of the great men of our game. He started working in the game in 1928. His collection extends to a couple of hundred items primarily on the English game as he himself produced the first book on the game here in 1974. The only other books prior to that were rule books and coaching manuals apart from the 1968 autobiography by Leo Baumgartner.” Well Saved!
Collected – 150 years of Reading FC
Roger was the interpretation lead on this exhibition at Reading Museum, which closed in mid-August after a six-month run, attracting 30,000 visitors. He then had to organise the collection of all the image and text material produced and get it down to the club’s SCL Stadium! It’s in secret storage there, awaiting dispersal and display around the stadium as a permanent legacy of the exhibition.
For those further away, a small portion of the content is available via the Reading Museum blog https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/blog
The Great Save on Radio 4
BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours ran a feature on the decline of the football programme in June and Roger was the lead guest, lamenting the way in which the match day magazine had got too big for its boots or its buyers’ pockets. It’s available here – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001817q – about 34 minutes in.
He’s also in the September 2022 edition of When Saturday Comes, lamenting the end of the last of the Football Pinks, but at least he’d saved a few old ‘uns to illustrate the article!
The Sheffield Football Library and Archive
The Great Save keeps in touch with the development of the Sheffield Football Library and Archive and our advocacy sparked correspondence in the Letters page of When Saturday Comes recently.
The scanning of a number of loaned 19th century Alcock Annuals has begun. Interesting conversations about substantial new donations are happening. More donations to the library are always welcome – do contact alex.holyoake@sheffield.gov.uk
Sporting Heritage Football Network 28 September
Fran Stovold of Sporting Heritage writes: ‘we have our next meeting coming up on Weds 28 September 10am-1130am. Booking is now open for the session and you can sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sporting-heritage-football-network-meeting-tickets-388280967827. I am keen for the focus of each meeting to be something that meets your needs and interests so if there is an area you would like to know more about or a topic you would like to have a speaker on just let me know.’
The Great Save resources
We’ve created what we’ve called The Great Save ‘Taxonomy of Football Memorabilia’. In other words, a list – of the kinds of items we believe are more or less valuable in terms of requiring preservation and / or making a collection. It’s a downloadable PDF here.
We’ve also compiled The Great Save ‘Beginner’s Guide to the Different Types of Football Heritage Entity’ you might set up with some real world examples drawn from our blog posts. It’s a downloadable PDF here.
And finally …
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