Telford Street Park - were you caught on film?

[Charles Bannerman]

Smee... you've now got me wondering if I have a distant recollection of an old Clacher once telling me that the original wine shed was the one to the right of the old stand and the current one at the end of the pitch inherited the title when the first one was knocked down.

[Kingsmills]

Grant Steet Park was bigger still prior to the 1960s when the first chunk of land was sold off for the houses built opposite what was the main stand.

[caley89]

has anyone got any pictures of kingsmills park or grant street park before alot of it dissapeared? i was never in kingsmills sadly and only went to grant street recently.

[Charles Bannerman]

C4L if you can get a hold of a copy of Against All Odds there's a picture of Kingsmills, literally as it disappeared! Ken MacPherson happened to be on hand that Sunday afternoon when the stand burned down and took a great photo. There may be one or two other photos of the old grounds in there which may interest you too.

Kingsmills! You've just budged a long dormant brain cell of mine! I now remember as a kid being at a match at Grant Street with a huge crowd (Inverness Select v one or other of the OF?). I was on the far side of the pitch and I do recollect a lot more depth behind it than there is now. Presumably a strip of that was sold in order to build Kilmuir Road..... the houses which I now reckon have the highest density of satellite dishes in Western Europe - TWELVE between the two penalty boxes!

[Scarlet Pimple]

This is the first time that I found out that all three stands burnt down --at Caley, Clach and Thistle.... my my, I wonder why ?

I do remember watching the smoke and flames at the Caley Park (Telford Street) looking  across Howden's Nursery  as a youngster and wondering what was going on but do not recall the other two incendiary events. Maybe they happened aftyer I left Inverness.

Dpo you have dates Charles by any chance? :023:

[Charles Bannerman]

Caley, I'm fairly sure, was 1950, Clach was around 1988 and Thistle was definitely late July 1995.

[RednBlackComeback]

Make that 4 Inverness stands......

The original main stand at Jags Park burned down in 1939 !

If a serial arsonist was responsible then he/she'd be around 85 years old by now surely!!! :007:

[Kingsmills]

Thistle played a number of matches at Grant Street in the aftermath of the 1939 fire for which Clach charged what the Thitle committe  regarded as the extortionate sum of ?5 per match.

[The Mantis]

Clacher- sorry I've fallen behind in this thread. I'll look up the Lilywhites book for photos to scan.

C4L- I'm sure there's a photo of Pigswill Kingsmills on my site if you look under 'Grounds for Nostalgia'

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

I can recall the last stand fire from the striking of the match to the glorious blaze.  :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

[DJS]

I remember the Distillery End rusted iron cover well.  It was red with rust all the time I went to Telford Street.  With poles and posts going off at every angle it made a great climbing frame / adventure playground for kids.

I was always led to believe that it was hastily erected to supply a bit of shelter after the Telford Street stand burnt down in the early 50s.

One of my abiding memories of all three grounds when growing up was that when you arrived, and players were out on the pitch warming up, the smell of linament would knock you flat.  Warming up consisted of 11 men with several footballs which they would kick back and fore between each other.  Nothing too strenuous.

[Charles Bannerman]

I can recall the last stand fire from the striking of the match to the glorious blaze.  :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

Given that it was in 1950, you're probably the only person who can!

DJS... these smells were so memorable. I don't know what Tokely embalms himself in before games but the whiff of it as he ran past me to warm up on Saturday took me right back to changing trooms in the 1960s. I doubt if it was the horse linament of these days though.

Ther other abiding smell of the Caley Park was that of pies drifting out of the tunnel just before half time. It was perhaps the subtle blend of pies and horse linament (hopefully from separate sources!) which was particularly distinctive.

Oh, and also whisky fumes of the entire gamut of vintages from seconds ago to the previous night as you walked through the packed Howden End. In the days when the Distilleries were still there you could add them in too.

[Danny Sinclair]

Does anyone remember a little old man that used to turn up to most Caley home games always well oiled.

He used to be a street sweeper and it was an entertainment in itself just listening to his banter.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Pick any 1 from 100

[SMEE]

4 hours ago, Danny Sinclair said:

Does anyone remember a little old man that used to turn up to most Caley home games always well oiled.

He used to be a street sweeper and it was an entertainment in itself just listening to his banter.

I was wondering for a minute if you were referring to "Blondie", who was always tanked up, in the Howden end...usually just in front of the Tea Hut. But he worked for Scottish/Brittish Gas.
He used to be involved with Caley way back in the day and once supposedly, was helping to take an injured player off the park on a stretcher, only to drop him, and resulted in a broken bone for the player. Whether or not that is true..i couldnt say

[Scarlet Pimple]

You didn't need to stand in the distillery end, which incidentally I never did, to get the whiffs. Even walking on Dunain Road  the tantalising fumes titillated your tonsils.

[Caley Mad In Berks]

There was a supporter back in the 50s who we youngsters at the time nicknamed "Rummel them up".  He favoured the Distillery end where he used to stand at the rail just by the goal, and encourage the team by bellowing several times a game , especially if the opposition were playing well ,  "Come on Caley, rummel them up and baffle their science".  We all thought it was great, and of course would attempt to join in. Happy days.