Chapter 4: Death on the Midland Road (1887-89)

The Origins of Bradford City

By David Pendleton

Chapter Four: Death on the Midland Road

1887-89

Manningham commenced the 1887/88 season in fine style with four wins from the opening five games. However, by late November a slump in fortunes was reflected by the Bradford Observer who said ‘Manningham seem to have gone down the ladder of fame very quickly’. By December fortunes had improved and crowds of between four and nine thousand flocked to Valley Parade.

Seven thousand were attracted for the visit of Leeds Parish Church in the First Round of the Yorkshire Challenge Cup. Manningham fell at the first fence and received ‘a most unmistakable thrashing’. Being out of the Cup several ‘special games’ were arranged. Leicester (then described as ‘a little known Midlands team’), Kendal and Neath met the Paraders.

The authorities recognised Manningham’s rapid emergence when they awarded Valley Parade the Challenge Cup semi-final tie Halifax and Huddersfield. 12,000 crammed into the ground to see Halifax emerge victorious. The scenes on Manningham Lane were so chaotic that they were compared to a kind of northern Derby Day.

Manningham visited the North East for an Easter Tour. Newcastle, Sunderland and Durham were all defeated. 5,000 saw the conquering heroes return when Barrow were defeated at Valley Parade on 3 April. The season ended the following week with a disappointing defeat at York.

Although Manningham hadn’t hit the heights of the previous season on the field, off it £1500 had been taken at the gate, as a result £750 was shaved off the debt incurred during the construction of Valley Parade. On the field 17 of 36 games had been won, with 11 defeats and eight draws.

The 1888/89 season opened on 8th September with a victory over Liversedge at Valley Parade. However, three straight defeats left many wondering whether the club would make a serious impression on the new season. By late October Manningham were back on track with two comprehensive victories over Hull and Leicester. Only one defeat was suffered on the run up to Christmas.

The games were played against a gruesome backdrop as the country was gripped by the ‘Whitechapel Murders’. Jack the Ripper was beginning his reign of terror in London’s East End, every twist and turn was heavily reported in all the Bradford papers and doubtless the attacks would have been a hot topic of conversation on the Valley Parade terraces. The media was in a frenzy. Indeed when a young boy was found murdered in an alley off Burlington Street - almost in the shadow of Valley Parade - the Bradford Observer made immediate comparisons with the Ripper case, reporting that so mutilated was the unfortunate boys body, that the Manningham murder ‘out Whitechapeled Whitechapel’.

Valley Parade was once again handed a high-profile representative match when Yorkshire met the Maoris on 12 December. According to the Bradford Observer ‘the weather was cold and dull and the ground, which had been carefully covered with sawdust, appeared very soft’. 7000 spectators saw Yorkshire ‘decidedly outplayed’. Edward Holmes was the sole Manningham player selected to represent his county.

Despite Valley Parade’s growing reputation as a top class venue, its shortcomings were cruelly exposed on Christmas Day, 1888. Tragedy struck on the Midland Road side during the local derby with Heckmondwike. There was only one central entrance into the Midland Road and the large crowd (estimated at 16,000) packed the central part of the open ash bank. A number of boys had been passed over the heads of the spectators to be placed in front of the barrier. Seven minutes into the game spectators surged forward and the barrier collapsed, trapping the boys beneath it. Play was stopped as players and spectators rushed to extract four boys from the melee. The injured were taken into the dressing rooms to receive attention. One boy, 12 year old Thomas Coyl of 6 Diamond Street, Wakefield Road, was pronounced dead as a result of a broken neck. The other three (John Varley of 39 Wood Street, White Abbey; Charles Racher of 6 Wood Street, White Abbey; Harry Marston of 3 Westbourne Road), suffered various injuries, the worst being a broken limb.

The game was restarted but as word of the fatality spread through the crowd there was a clamour for the contest to be abandoned. The officials of the two clubs retired to the Belle Vue public house where it was agreed that the gate receipts of £115 should be donated to the dead boy's relatives.

Three days later on December 28th an inquest was held at the Town Hall where evidence was given in front of a jury of townsfolk. The jury heard that that a twenty yard portion of fencing adjoining the fatal portion had fallen the previous season, albeit without injury. The wood of the posts was inspected and declared to be in remarkably good order. Such was the robustness of the fence that it was remarked that the forces that caused it to collapse must have been 'considerable'. The jury recommended that the central entrance be closed and two opened at either end of the Midland Road enclosure. Parallel barriers (similar to contemporary crush barriers) were also recommended. The club promised to act on both counts. In its defence the club said that its officials had made protestations to the crowd on the day to the effect that there was accommodation specially reserved for boys elsewhere in the ground. A verdict of 'accidental death' was returned.

Back on the field, February saw Manningham embark on a mini-tour. London Welsh were defeated at Richmond, the following day the team broke their journey north to defeat Leicester. Form remained fairly good, however the Bradford Daily Telegraph noted after a loss at Hull that ‘the Manningham men found that a nights dancing is not the ground work on which to play a football match’. The Maoris returned to Valley Parade on 24 February in one of the last games of their lengthy tour of Britain. 12,000 gave them a great send off as they saw off the challenge of the homesters. Two days later the game abandoned due to the Christmas Day tragedy was replayed when Manningham defeated Heckmondwike.

March brought the annual highlight of the season - the Yorkshire Challenge Cup. Windhill were easily defeated in the first round, the second hurdle was Manningham Rangers - who played their home games on little more than a field off Beamsley Road. The tie should have been a formality, but in what was seen as the biggest shock in the history of the competition Rangers defeated Manningham. The following week Manningham travelled to Brighouse where they stuttered to a disinterested defeat. Manningham Rangers had been given the use of Valley Parade for their third round Cup tie with Wakefield Trinity. Sadly, there was no repeat of the previous weeks heroics and Trinity over ran Rangers challenge.

Given the tragedy of Christmas Day and the humiliation in the Cup, the season probably couldn’t end soon enough for Manningham. The visit of Welsh club Pen-Y-Graig was a welcome diversion, before Rochdale Hornets were defeated at home on the last day of the season, 22 April.

Despite the poor start to the season, 23 of the 39 games played had been won, with 13 defeats and 3 draws. The season was overshadowed by the tragic death on the Midland Road, it was with sadness that the club entered a welcome summer break.

Chapter One: Genesis (1872-80)

Chapter Two: Carlisle Road (1880-86)

Chapter Three: Valley Parade's first season (1886-87)

Chapter Five: For Club and Country (1889-90)

Chapter Six: Trouble At The Mill (1890-91)

Chapter Seven: Football Begins to Cast Its Shadow (1891-92)

Chapter Eight: Semi-Finalists and League Pioneers (1892-93)

Chapter Nine: Champions! (1893-94)

Chapter Ten: The Last Season of Rugby Union (1894-95)

Chapter Eleven: Champions of the Rugby League (1895-96)

Chapter Twelve: Death of a Hero (1896-97)

Chapter Thirteen: Dark Clouds Gather (1897-98)