Lost League Grounds: No.9 - Holker Street

This is the programme for Barrow's last home game in the Football League. I think I bought it from a long-gone programme shop in Sidwell Street, Exeter shortly after the game was played and before Barrow failed to win re-election. I then realised its' significance and kept hold of it. The link with the Torquay United reserve programme - on another thread - is the presence of John Rowlands.

For those not aware of the process, the bottom four teams in Division 4 in those days applied for re-election. They could be opposed by any team from outside the league which wished to stand (although, towards the end, the stronger leagues organised themselves to limit the number of applicants). Over the years there were some pretty frivolous candidates.

When The End notes were compiled Barrow did not know its' fate. "The End" merely refers to the conclusion of the season. The final words are those heard in many a small town at the end of a railway line!

Barrow must have been pessimistic because Hereford had beaten Newcastle United in the FA Cup that year and had finished runners-up to Chelmsford City in the Southern League.

Northampton, Crewe and Stockport were safely re-elected. Barrow and Hereford tied; Hereford won the second ballot.

The unsuccessful applicants were Bradford PA, Cambridge City, Wimbledon, Bangor, Bedford, Boston, Hillingdon, Romford, Telford, Wigan and Yeovil. Where are they all now?

(source of much of this information: Simon Inglis's centenary history of the Football League).