9th March 1946: The Bolton disaster

[FGR Stroud]

75 years ago 33 people died inside Bolton stadium.
It was the first major disaster in a British stadium from before the 1st World War.
This disaster happened before I was born, as I expect same for most on forum, and is now half forgotten.
Sadly Ibrox 1971, Bradford 1985, Heysel 1985 & Hillsborough 1989 are better known but are all tragic.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=471425674009257

 

[shoddycollins]

I'd never heard of it

 

[FGR Stroud]

I'd never heard of it

I had almost forgotten about it.
The video is very informative and utterly respectful.

 

[Back in the DHSS]

Some people estimate that there were more than 90,000 people in attendance. Having been to Burnden park I find this totally unimaginable. No health and safety in those days. Beyond tragic.

 

[Vanni]

What was the ground's capacity at the time?

edit - ok found it. 70,000 max apparently.

 

[Chris FGR]

About 70k apparently.

 

[masi51]

Good touch from Cambridge last night laying a wreath..........
Impressed with Bonners interview as well

 

[stevowanderer]

Horrible to think about. I had a season ticket at burnden as a kid in the 90s and could not imagine those crowd numbers either. Different times

 

[Valeite]

My grandad was there, only 3 sides open , he said he didn`t know anyone had died until he got home just thought they had fainted in the crush.

 

[valefan16]

Shocking really that they played on whilst the bodies we covered by coats on the pitch side... different times though, the Farnborough Air Show disaster a few years later was the same when 50 odd died when a plane crashed into the crowd and the show went on.

Tragedy and shouldn’t be forgotten like it seemingly has.

 

[masi51]

My grandad was there, only 3 sides open , he said he didn`t know anyone had died until he got home just thought they had fainted in the crush..

You are quite right the Burnden stand was still full of food/rations etc from the war
Horrible day not just in Boltons History but also Stokes.
It was the q/f of the fa cup and Bolton was a well supported team due to the heroics of Harry Gosling who in 1939 as captain of Bolton Marched the full team up to the recruitment centre in Bolton Town Centre, and enlisted the full team for the war. Gosling was the only one who never came back. Killed in Italy in 1943.




Going back to the Game. Like Hillsborough most received crush injuries the dead were laid against the running track down one side and the game in which Stanley Mathews played resumed.
Different times and i suppose people cannot understand why that was allowed to happen.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Remember that they played on at Heysel too. Shocking.
I remember they showed the build up to Heysel on Wogan, of all places. Imagine that.

 

[GTFCfish]

I had never heard of this before.

 

[White horse]

The FA Cup game that continued with 33 people dead at the side of the pitch

It is 75 years to the day since Bolton and Stoke City were involved in one of football's first stadium tragedies

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Look at the size of that crowd and the bodies on the pitch,

It's been forgotten by the national press as usual.

 

[masi51]

Can never get my head round why it was a Referee who made the decision to carry on playing

 

[Soz]

i went to my next door neighbours funeral about 10 years ago and they mentioned there that he'd been in the stadium that day, first time I'd ever heard of it if I'm honest, but i did spend some time googling it afterwards.

not sure why it doesn't get the same press as Hillsborough or Bradford as it's no less tragic.

 

[Vanni]

I was a bit hesitant to say I'd never heard of it but now I see that I'm not the only one, though there's a good reason for our 'ignorance' as the incident doesn't get the same press as the others like Bradford, Ibrox and Hillsborough. The question is why doesn't it?

 

[GTFCfish]

The FA Cup game that continued with 33 people dead at the side of the pitch

It is 75 years to the day since Bolton and Stoke City were involved in one of football's first stadium tragedies

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Look at the size of that crowd and the bodies on the pitch,

It's been forgotten by the national press as usual.

That’s shocking that they played on with the bodies on the side of the pitch.
Just awful.

 

[masi51]

I was a bit hesitant to say I'd never heard of it but now I see that I'm not the only one, though there's a good reason for our 'ignorance' as the incident doesn't get the same press as the others like Bradford, Ibrox and Hillsborough. The question is why doesn't it?

There is no ignorance it happened before most here were born. Thankfully the was no disasters for 25 years [Munich excepted] until Ibrox in 71.
The was very little media coverage as 33 deaths paled into significance as the war had just ended.
And 30 years prior to this 344 men and boys were killed in a pit disaster in Bolton.
Both the football and the pit disaster have always been commemorated in the town of Bolton.

 

[Back in the DHSS]

Can never get my head round why it was a Referee who made the decision to carry on playing

Think that was the mindset of people of that time, many of whom had lived through the horrors of 2 world wars and carried on in life regardless .

 

[Vanni]

There is no ignorance it happened before most here were born. Thankfully the was no disasters for 25 years [Munich excepted] until Ibrox in 71.
The was very little media coverage as 33 deaths paled into significance as the war had just ended.
And 30 years prior to this 344 men and boys were killed in a pit disaster in Bolton.
Both the football and the pit disaster have always been commemorated in the town of Bolton.

Fair enough but how come we've all heard of the 1971 Ibrox disaster? I would wager that most on here are not 50 - 60 y.o.

 

[FGR Stroud]

Fair enough but how come we've all heard of the 1971 Ibrox disaster? I would wager that most on here are not 50 - 60 y.o.

I suspect television is reason.
No TV is 1946 to record events but available in nearly every house in 1971.

 

[GTFCfish]

Fair enough but how come we've all heard of the 1971 Ibrox disaster? I would wager that most on here are not 50 - 60 y.o.

Strangely I’ve always known about the Ibrox disaster but only found out about the 1985 Bradford fire a couple of years ago, and only because I saw something about the Hillsborough anniversary so I guess it would be 2019, and whilst looking at that it brought up a link to the Bradford fire and I learned about it then.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

There is no ignorance it happened before most here were born. Thankfully the was no disasters for 25 years [Munich excepted] until Ibrox in 71.
The was very little media coverage as 33 deaths paled into significance as the war had just ended.
And 30 years prior to this 344 men and boys were killed in a pit disaster in Bolton.
Both the football and the pit disaster have always been commemorated in the town of Bolton.

Like a few others I’d never heard of it, which surprised me as due to our history I’ve always tried to learn about football history and tragic events like this.

You’re probably right between the war just ending and a lack of TV/mainstream media it probably just got lost to many outside of Bolton.

Hard to imagine for the victim’s families I’d imagine some served in the war, imagine your loved one surviving the most terrible war imaginable only to die at a football match the next year. No one should not return home from a football match.