The Burning Question: Are we guilty of forgetting Bolton’s tragic past?
Tuesday March 10th, 2009
Image by Bolton Museum & Archive Service via Flickr
The Burnden Disaster is slowly being erased from history
Yesterday marked the 63rd anniversary of the Burnden Disaster, when 33 Bolton Wanderers fans lost their lives after a crush during an FA Cup game against Stoke City.
Shamefully, I could find no mention of the anniversary on the official club website. Nor was there anything marking the occasion on The Bolton News.
In fact, from my trawl of the web, Vital Bolton Wanderers stood alone in paying tribute.
When I looked on the Bolton Wanderers Wikipedia page I was astonished to find no mention of the Burnden Disaster, except for this rightly surpsied comment in the ‘Talk’ section, where contributors can discuss what changes should be made to a particular page…
I find it amazing and sad that an encyclopedic article on Bolton Wanderers carries not so much as a single word of comment on the Burnden Park disaster of 1946. This surely is a major event in the history of Bolton Wanderers Football Club, albeit for very sad reasons. There should be at the very least a mention here with a link directing readers to an article. I also think that the fixture against Stoke should be included in the memorable games section.
On the Burnden Park Wikipedia page, the Burnden Disaster gets four lines. That’s the same amount of space as is devoted to an explanation of all the different chain stores that now occupy our former home.
By contrast, Liverpool’s Wikipedia page mentions Hillsborough no less than 15 times and Heysel five times. The Rangers and Bradford City pages also feature sections on their tragedies.
Of course, those events occured much more recently than the Burnden Disaster, but I can’t imagine that Liverpool fans will ever allow them to be virtually erased from history, even when 63 years have passed since they happened.
So… are we guilty of forgetting our tragic past? Should the club be doing more to keep the memory of that tragic day in 1946 alive?
Have your say in the comments below…
UPDATE: At 3.10pm yesterday, The Bolton News website published a brief news story about the minute’s silence that took place at the ASDA on the site once occupied by Burnden Park. That’s a full 24 hours after the minute’s silence took place. Don’t you just love the speed at which you can get news on the web? For whatever reason, they also decided that this should be published in the news section of their site and not on the Bolton Wanderers page. Go figure…
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4 Comments to The Burning Question: Are we guilty of forgetting Bolton’s tragic past?
I was there with my father and brother. i was 10 at the time and as soon at the wall gave way the men were passing the boys from one to another overhead to safety. I have lived abroad for many years and I am very suprised at the attention paid to Liverpool with no mention of Bolton. I suppose it old news and Liverpool will suffer the same fate
A Stoke fan here, the disaster was before my time, but felt it appropriate several years ago to do a piece for my site..includes a list of those who sadly died.
sue smithApril 17, 2009
my dad was there that day, it affected him deeply until the day he died – he still couldnt talk about it without getting choked up, going to watch the match with your friends and seeing people die in front of you, not being able to help – he also felt guilty because he always stood on the embankment but his mates always stood in the other stand so he went in with them
must say very surprised about the lack of coverage/ interest – but suppose since they moved to the reebok, burnden park and their history there isnt as important
Howard CromptonApril 28, 2009
Sad but true, its a part of our club history that is only remembered by the odd newsreal footage dragged out by the media as the first real football crowd disaster.
A location for a simple memorial at the old Burnden Park and Reebok should be made as a respectful reminder of those fans who lost their lives on that sad day .
Some of my family where there that day and lived to tell the tale , sadly others cannot and we need to respect this .
Some come on BWFC , what are you doing about it or are you saving the penny’s for a satutue of Nat when he pops his cloggs!!
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April 15, 2009