With our Play-off adventures now concluded, we return to our series celebrating the twenty year anniversary of supporters forming the Valley Party, and standing in the local elections in an attempt to help the Club return to its spiritual home.
Scotty Kingsley spoke to a number of the activists involved.
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Given how much it achieved, it is easy to forget that The Valley Party was very much a grass roots organisation created from scratch.
Only a few months from an original idea, it then took on the established parties at their own game. People from a whole range of backgrounds were drawn together to fight for what they saw as an important cause. The only common factor was that they were all Charlton fans.
In the 20 years since the May 1990 Council elections, much has changed for Charlton and for the candidates and organisers. Unfortunately, a few have since died, others moved away, but most can still be seen at the ground they fought for every match day.
We spoke to just a few of the Valley Party activists to get their recollections of that time. We started out by asking them what made them get involved.
Perry Bartlett, then a 25-year old paper merchant, told us “
I had started to follow the Addicks while they were at Selhurst. I managed to persuade my Charlton-based company to take up an executive box, and therefore got to meet a lot of the people behind the scenes at the club. I soon realised how important it was to get back where we belonged. I was also an avid reader of Voice of the Valley (the main Charlton fanzine at the time) and when I found out about the campaign it seemed such a unique and worthwhile idea. I couldn’t not get involved".Craig Norris, who was 30 at the time added
“I wanted to contribute to resolving the future of the club. We had to get our own ground and obviously, The Valley was the number one option. I didn't know the quality of the people involved and part of me expected a rather low key, amateur approach. When I saw Richard Hunt’s (see Richard’s Article on Charlton Life) posters I realised this was a different thing altogether. The first meeting energised me”. Wendy Perfect (then 25 and working for Bexley Council) was equalled surprised.
“I expected to be greeted by a group of enthusiastic Charlton supporters who were prepared to give up some of their spare time in the pursuit of getting Charlton Athletic Football Club back playing at The Valley once again. What I didn’t expect was the professionalism of the people who were leading the campaign.”Steve Reader, then as now a painter and decorator, felt like many that the fans and the Club were coming up against a brick wall.
“I believe the council didn't really have any interest in getting the club back to the Valley. And they didn't take us seriously either”
For
Alex Hayes, then 24 and a print buyer,
“getting involved was the obvious thing to do. I didn’t know what to expect, but was surprised that there were only about 10 people there at the very first meeting. Roy King, Rick Everitt, Steve Dixon, Barry Nugent, Del Wooley, Steve Reader, Me, and my brother Danny. I apologise to the other people I can’t remember. Steve Dixon played a really big part in the whole campaign and was often its public face which I think gets over looked a lot now"”
With the Party set up the hard work began. For many, new to politics, the prospect of leafleting and asking for votes was daunting but the response wasn’t at all negative.
Perry Bartlett remembers that
“the reaction was really positive, even those who were not intending to vote for us were behind the principal. Fans of all clubs were very supportive. Many people said they would be using one vote for their traditional party and one for us”. Craig Norris tells a similar tale “
CAFC fans were obviously pro, as were local neutrals. Only Millwall fans were hostile, and not all of them.”Alex Hayes echoes this “
The reaction was pretty good, most people liked the idea of fighting the council on a local issue, and supported our right to do so even if they disagreed with us.”
One of the key points of the campaign was emphasising the importance of a football club to its community.
Norris says “
The most memorable thing was canvassing at the Blackheath Standard Safeway. I approached an old lady and asked for her support. She said "Of course I will vote for you, young man. My late husband was a regular and my son and grandson go. When they were at The Valley they would park by my house, pop in for a cup of tea and then go to the game. When they moved away I don't see them so often." It brought home just how wide the ripples of what I thought was a narrow sectional interest went.”
Other encounters were more high profile and confrontational.
“After the match against Sheffield Wednesday at Selhurst we were aboard the campaign bus in the car park” said
Bartlett,’’ when Roy Hattersley (Wednesday fan and Deputy Labour Leader and Shadow Home secretary at the time) appeared, walking back to his car. Never a one to miss an opportunity, I grabbed the loudhailer and from the roof of the bus I loudly asked Mr. Hattersley for his opinion of the activities of his party in Greenwich, why the peoples party was so against the peoples game, and so on until he reached the safety of his limo”.
On the day of the vote Charlton fans were doing everything they could to get the vote out. People were allocated to polling stations or different railway stations to leaflet voters on the way home, while others took on more intense roles.
“
As I lived and worked outside the borough, I was not qualified to stand (annoyingly I had worked in the borough until a few weeks before the campaign began)’’ recalled
Perry Bartlett,
“So as a regional organiser during the day I did a stint at the polling office asking who people had voted for as they came out and organised last minute campaigning. I seem to remember running people here and there in my car, and generally dashing about a lot. In the evening I was at the count as an observer, and then in the main hall for the announcements of the departure of Simon Oleman (the Chair of the Planning Committee who lost his seat). I recall a fuming Ben Tegg (another organiser) enlisting my help to explain to a Labour activist exactly why we had every right to stand in an election, and that perhaps it would lead them to understanding that politics is about the people and not their own private little game.”Steve Reader, then 25, remembers the unseating of Oelman as one of the highlights of a very long day.
“During the day I was leafleting, driving my car with posters stuck all over it. In the evening going to the count at Woolwich town hall and leaving at 5.30am the next day with a huge smile on my face having seen the Chair of the Planning Committee getting arrested after losing his seat”.
Continued below.....
Comments
So how do those most closely involved view the Valley Party and their contribution now?
Alex Hayes, now a production manager thinks “The Valley Party had a lot bigger roll in getting us back than it is given credit for. I know that the people who put the money in did the most, but I don’t think Greenwich council would have ever had us back if we hadn’t fought the election. I’m very proud of what we did, it changed Greenwich Council’s policies and attitudes. Look how they work with the club now as a part of the community to be proud of.”
For Craig Norris, then as now a Civil Servant only a bit more senior, it was “Integral to the return to The Valley, and the presence of so many able people prepared to contribute has continued to be a central part of the club's progress; VIP, Target 10,000 and other aspects have contributed to the club's development and this all came from the Valley Party. Aside from my family, it is the thing I am proudest of in my life. It made a great contribution to overcoming dubious undemocratic decision making in the London Borough of Greenwich and saving my Club. Personally, I made new friends, and opened up opportunities to join the Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Club and eventually to become a VIP Director. It was interesting and enormous fun.”
Wendy Perfect, who has since served as a councillor in Bexley and worked for Charlton. “For me it was the best campaign I’ve been involved with. Nothing comes close. It was about ordinary people saying to the politicians you’ve got this wrong, and you need to do something about it.”
“I still have great affection for the Valley Party, particularly as I’ve been involved in local politics since, which has given me a greater appreciation of how fantastic the Valley Party campaign was. “
Steve Reader felt that “this was something that had to be done, nobody else was going to bring the Club back to the Valley. I still feel very proud to have played a part in the return of the Club. Without the Valley Party would we still have a Club, would we have this ground and would we have this support? I believe this is a big part of Charlton history to people who have supported the club before the move to Sellout Park and the return, but with many new fans they probably don't know the history.”
Perry Bartlett, who now runs his own bar in the Algarve, appropriately called Floyds (www.floyds-bar.com), sums up his feelings as “Immensely proud. To be so involved with something so truly historic in both football and political terms was very gratifying. People are still genuinely fascinated and amazed by the story even now, as many of our customers in the bar are from all over the country and were not aware of the story – I have the framed copy of the posters that the club produced proudly displayed on the wall of the bar. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say it was as important as those fifteen year old kids playing in Seimens Meadow in 1905”.
And twenty years on, the fans of 2010 are immensely grateful to each and every one of those involved.
A full list of our commemorative Valley Party articles can be found
HERE
Charlton Life would like to thank the many people who helped contribute towards these series of articles.
Well done on the articles they've been a great read and again thank you to everyone involved.
Great read again. thanks.
great night got pissed in the bozzer opposite the town hall when it finally got agreed.RedArmy you are just a young pup son
This Alex Hayes bloke sounds like a right gobby so and so.
On the day? Giving out leaflets to homecoming commuters at Woolwich Dockyard station. I was a mere foot solider.
Lol, "Your just a ******* football hooligan" then tried to punch someone!
Politician's hypocrites? surely not.
Floyd's bar
What about him? most likely another gobby so and so.
Perry, you are a hero mate as are the hundreds of others.
Loving this series, please don't let it end AFKA.
I was a foot soldier as well. I was with David Fox in New Eltham putting leaflets through doors. We had a great time chatting up the women and barracking the local labour candidate.
Too much (unsuccessful) chatting up me thinks - only 81 votes! Then again it was a Liberal held ward, so that's always been my excuse.
Ha Ha....You should've kissed a few babies
Was working at Wembley a couple of years ago.
I've seen him a few times this season in The Upper North.
Happy Days!
Thanks for the kind words Chicago, I am sure most people on here would have been involved if they could.
I had done my arm in so I was off sick GET IN!!!!
saw him last sunday, he plays in the same Vets side as Steve Gritt and John Bumstead, still goes I believe.
Me and Mark Anderson to name 2 i think - if it was the one in Bexleyheath in the Kings thingy - most early meetings turned into a political arguement with Rick and Steve being from either side of the spectrum as it were if memory serves me right.