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Old footage of The Valley

mattaddickmattaddick
in General Charlton
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/home-and-away

Apologies if this has been posted before but I just stumbled across this piece of footage on Pathe News. I'm not a fan of Sky but one thing that I applaud them for is their commitment to capturing on film other elements of the matchday experience such as fans arriving at grounds, teams disembarking the coach etc. This will be very valuable in years to come. There is hardly anything prior to the mid 1990s aside from the games themselves. The link here is of a video produced in 1963 to commemorate the FA's centenary. The opening minute or so appears to have been taken outside the Valley and shows a peanut seller and some fans rushing to the match. Some quick detective work - courtesy of Colin Cameron's Home and Away leads me to deduce this was taken on 6 March 1963 prior to a Monday night 4th round Cup tie against Chelsea. This was the winter to end all winters with hardly any matches played between Boxing Day 1962 and this date when they started to cram fixtures in playing catch up. It's a tantalisingly brief clip but I enjoyed it all the same. Were any Lifers there perhaps? There were nearly 38,000 in there that night so it's possible some older Addicks were.

Comments

  • soapy_jonessoapy_jones
    Stunning capture of the Valley rammed for a match. Book marked it, thanks.
  • Vienna_AddickVienna_Addick
    I saw that one. We lost 4-1, I seem to remember. I think Chelsea won the Second Division Championship that year with a team composed of "home-grown" young players (Tambling, Bridges etc.). How times change!
  • RobRob
    edited August 2013
    That is a great clip. Nice to see us included in a film commemorating the FA's centenary. Alongside some heavyweights there. I think it was the next year (1964) that we had a real push for promotion. Finished 4th I think behind Liverpool and Leeds. Is my memory correct?
    Edited: Just looked it up. We did come 4th but Leeds and Sunderland went up. Preston were 3rd.
  • seth plumseth plum
    I'm sure I was there, but I think we lost 0-3.
  • Tutt-TuttTutt-Tutt
    Great film. The old Champion Hill Ground, which held 20,000, is on at 7-05, showing a Dulwich Hamlet home game.
  • ViewfinderViewfinder
    edited August 2013
    Great stuff. Some of the scenes remind me of David Storey's novel 'This Sporting Life' (1960; film directed by Lindsay Anderson released in 1963), which is about Rugby League but conveys the same tough, gritty, monochrome atmosphere.
  • east terrace peanutseast terrace peanuts
    seth plum said:

    I'm sure I was there, but I think we lost 0-3.

    Didn't Tambling get a hat-trick......?

  • Six-a-bag-of-nutsSix-a-bag-of-nuts
    No, Tambling got a hattrick in the league game I think. I was at that one
  • ViewfinderViewfinder
    seth plum said:

    I'm sure I was there, but I think we lost 0-3.

    We did indeed lose 0-3 to Chelsea in the fourth round of the FA Cup, having beaten Cardiff City 1-0 (Glover) at The Valley in the third. We lost the Division 2 league game at home to Chelsea 1-4 (o.g.) on 22 December 1962, having been beaten 5-0 at Stamford Bridge on 25 August. Unfortunately I have no record of the Chelsea scorers.

  • redlaneredredlanered
    Finally got round to watching this. Noticed one of our ex-managers too - pretty sure there's Andy Nelson getting a briefing (from Alf Ramsey) on continental tactics, round about the 10 minute mark.

    Great footage...
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  • IsawlearyplayIsawlearyplay
    What wonderful footage too - Gordon Hurst not often caught on film was a fine player . Bartram shown in short clips is exactly as remembered. And how about the crowd -lot of noise and excitement ........East Stand now by comparison resembles a morgue !
  • _MrDick_MrDick
    SporadicAddick said:
    Interesting footage, with German prisoners of war hacking ice off the East Terrace:-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpQC-W6Y26I


    Mr Chumley-Warner definitely commentating on that one ...
  • charltonbobcharltonbob
    Only time to watch the first minute or so (will come back later) but how slow were Real Madrid ?
  • StigStig
    edited April 2019
    SporadicAddick said:
    Interesting footage, with German prisoners of war hacking ice off the East Terrace:-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpQC-W6Y26I


    What a wonderful clip, thanks for posing it @SporadicAddick, so many interesting things about it:
    • The state of the pitch - what a mess.  Charlton's league season stretched up to 31st May. Of course, our best ever cup run would have helped that, but surely that terrible pitch did too.
    • Clearing ice on the 1st March. No wonder 1947 is in the record books as one of the worst winters ever. 
    • Preston were the only team that Charlton faced in both Cup-final runs. The previous year we beat them 6-0.
    • The crowd 56,340 was our biggest on route to the final that year. Perhaps they were hoping for another six.
    • Prisoners of war clearing the ice. Obviously POWs didn't get sent home the moment that war was over, but this was nearly 2 years after VE day. I wouldn't have expected them to be here by then (other than those who'd made a choice to settle). I'd love to know from one of our military historians, how long did they stay. And what were the conditions like - how much personal freedom (if any) would they have enjoyed 22 months after the war?
    • And finally who'd have thought that Fairbrother's doggy mascot would still be in the goalmouth almost seventy years later?






  • HardyAddickHardyAddick
    Not of The Valley but the open top bus parade of the FA Cup around Charlton.

    https://youtu.be/lXt7Gc6EZc4

  • masicatmasicat


  • StigStig
    HardyAddick said:
    Not of The Valley but the open top bus parade of the FA Cup around Charlton.

    https://youtu.be/lXt7Gc6EZc4

    Lewis Coaches! Not exactly a proper open top bus either.  No seat's they're literally sitting on the roof. And look at us today - it's health and safety gone mad.  
  • GlassHalfFullGlassHalfFull

    @Stig - this is a fascinating BBC film about German PoWs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXdpPZP7efM&t=33s

  • superclivesuperclive
    love these
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  • CharltonPeteCharltonPete
    Type your https://www.britishpathe.com/video/soccer/query/Charlton+Athletic there are lots of footage of the valley on the British Pathe website 
  • StigStig
    GlassHalfFull said:

    @Stig - this is a fascinating BBC film about German PoWs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXdpPZP7efM&t=33s

    Fascinating film that, @GlassHalfFull. I had no idea of the scale or duration, it was quite an eye-opener. I didn't realise that they were shipped out to America either. Though it must have been a disappointment for that guy being turned around mid-Atlantic and sent to Liverpool! 

    Also interesting how Bert Trautmann and the other guy on the film who stayed still sounded German all those years on, whilst Hans Vallentin sounded like he'd never left Lancashire in his life.

  • GlassHalfFullGlassHalfFull

    For me the immediate post-war years hold an endless fascination. The story of the guys in the film says as much about their hosts as it does about them, of course, and I'm sure that Hans Vallentin's flawless accent  owes plenty to the redoubtable Mrs Vallentin. Some wonderful characters in the film.

  • AddictedoldgitAddictedoldgit
    I would have been at that game, although cant remember it now.

    I remember a day game v Chelsea, almost certainly the game viewfinder mentions when we lost 1 - 4 and Bobby Tambling scored a hat trick.

    I think there is a picture somewhere of three Charlton defenders on their backsides as Tambling pokes the ball into the net. He was some player. 
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