May 11 2008

Only the coming and goings of the buses disturbed the sunny Sunday morning. A row of empty microphones in front of the memorial seemed fitting, the empty space reminding us of those who never made it back from the match.

The long robes of the clergy and the glittering chains of civic office stood at the centre of the crowd. A mix of sombre suits of mourning and vivid claret and amber shirts. A shock of bright ginger hair marked out City stalwart Wayne Jacobs, the more muted tones of Stuart McCall to his left. Towering above the crowd was David Wetherall. We are used to cheering Wethers heading the ball away among a mass of bodies, in striking contrast, here he was standing silent and still.

In the crowd of familiar faces there’s noticeably more greying hair. Our tragedy, one of the great landmarks in the story of Bradford, is slowly, but steadily, slipping away. I glanced across at the memorial to the Bradford Pals and wondered whether one day our memorial will be bereft of mourners?

Slowly at first people come forward to place their flowers. Some stop to find the name of a loved one. They touch the name, closing the gap between the living and the dead. A brief moment of public grief, a sharp reminder that the aftermath of the fire is yet to run its course.

And so, once again we heard the litany of prayers and hushed tones. The bells rang out from City Hall and we melted away leaving the ghosts of 11 May 1985 at peace for another twelve months.

Gem Added to Gallery

A rare image from the 1940s has been added to our gallery of team groups: Season .

Sports Grounds Section Returns

After a brief period lost in cyberspace, our section of the website devoted to the sports grounds of Bradford has returned The text is back at least and the images will return soon. You can find it here.

Amazon and bantamspast

In order for us to pay our costs in running this site we ask visitors to buy their Amazon goods through the link below. This will earn us a small percentage of the goods' value. It means that you can help us at no extra cost to you, and we don't resort to placing annoying sponsorship pop-ups! So far we have raised over £60 in two years of operation, which may not seem a huge amount, but it all helps.

Many thanks to all of you who have bought items through our site.

bantamspast.co.uk is an ever-growing record and celebration of the history of Bradford City Football Club: from FA Cup victory to the fire disaster, the depths of Division 4 to the Premier League, it's all here. And alongside accounts of such big events are reminders of players and matches perhaps less remarkable in terms of success or failure. They are however no less significant in our collective memory and in what makes us all supporters of what we believe to be the world's greatest football club.

bantamspast.co.uk evolved from the highly successful ‘100 Years of Claret & Amber’ exhibition, held to celebrate Bradford City’s Centenary at the Bradford Industrial Museum. Over 10,000 fans visited the exhibition, which ran from 21 September-16 November 2003. We’ve combined text from the exhibition storyboards with images of the exhibits to give a virtual tour and allow the exhibition to live on. We hope this site will become a focal point for those interested in the history of Bradford City. Indeed, we expect that the site will evolve and expand. Contributions will be the lifeblood of this project. Scanning programmes, photographs, recording interviews or researching the missing history of the club takes valuable time. We welcome with open arms all who wish to help in anyway they feel fit. This is your project, one for and by ordinary Bradford City fans. The sole aim is to record City’s history and make it available to as many Bradfordians as possible.