Supported by Darlington Borough Council

Farewell to Feethams is a community and photography project to mark the end of Darlington FC at Feethams (1883-2003) - and the move to the new stadium.

An exhibition and events was held at Darlington Arts Centre, July 12th to August 24th 2002 and another is planned for the Green Dragon Gallery, Stockton-on-Tees, March-May 2003.

We're grateful for the financial assistance of Northern Arts' lottery funding.

© Darlington Supporters' Trust and Darlington Camera Club

Memories in sound and text

Due to the shortage of surviving archive photographs before the 1960s, Farewell to Feethams includes a 10-minute sound recording from a few of those who remember Darlington FC between the 1930s and that period.

KEN SYKES, aged 76. Joined Darlington in 1944 as an 18-year-old striker, while also working on the railways. “They were very good at the North Road works. I used to get one day off a week - Tuesday, do a full day and then go training on the night, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, six o clock ‘til eight,” he said. Ken scored prolifically in the reserves, then joined Middlesbrough, where he again played in the reserves and was loaned out to Hartlepool for three years. He gave up the game at the age of 28.

ERNIE CUTHBERTSON, aged 80. He was brought up a Darlington fan and saw his first game in the 1930s. “The away spectators used to mingle with you, even Hartlepool, “ he recalls. “You’d stand with them, and shook hands after the match, there was no bother.” He played amateur football in the town and was later behind the scenes with manager Eddie Carr in the 1960s and a scout for former Darlington player Ken Furphy when he moved into management. He was the north east spotter for him at Watford and Blackburn. He still does some scouting for Blackburn now.

HARRY JOHNSON, 75, Darlington season ticket holder. Saw his first match in the early 1940s, the War years, when the f orces brought internationals like Scotsman Bob Thyne and future Busby Babe goalkeeper Ray Wood. “If you were lucky a lot of Catterick lads used to play,” says Harry. “There was Jimmy Mullen, a left winger for England and Wolverhampton. He didn’t play every week, just when the Army let him out from the garrison.”

DOUG EMBLETON, 56, Darlington season ticket holder. First saw Darlington in the mid 50s and started going regularly from 1957, including the famous 4-1 FA Cup replay win over Chelsea: “That was pre-floodlights and most kids managed to get around their parents and get the afternoon off school. There were 15,000 there for the game. The extra time was completed in almost darkness, with an orange football.”

There are Ken’s tales of Darlington as a Wartime amateur player, working for the railway with one day off a week to play and when training meant running around the cricket pitch in the dark. Ernie remembers standing in the Park End in the 1930s, while Harry recalls as a teenager standing in dirt in the War years when local lads helped fill in in the side – usually called A N Other in the programme.

Then we hear about some Feethams characters – trainer Dickie Deacon from the early 60s, who led the squad on training runs from his bike, while smoking Woodbines. A “jack of all trades,” he worked from eight in the morning until 10 at night; Wartime manager Jack English and his dentures - and expenses. Lance Robson (1960-1963), centre forward and dentist – who had a novel way of taking teeth out; “hard men” like Roy Brown (1946-1955) and Brian Henderson (1952-1963), the tale of Keith Morton and his broken neck against Hartlepool (1958) and Darlington’s “complete player” Ron Greener (1955-1966), centre back and holder of the club’s record for appearances.

There is also selected text from Ray Simpson and Andrew Wilkinson from their book, compiling fans' and players' recollections "Farewell to Feethams - A Collection of Darlington FC Memories :"

“I started to watch Darlington in season 1927-28 when I was 11-years-old, and entrance to the ground was one shilling six pence for juniors (7 1/2p). I was present at the last game of that season when Darlington had to win to save relegation. We played Chelsea who included the famous Andy Wilson. We were leading 1-0 with only a minute to go when Chelsea equalised, and so Darlington were relegated. The crowd were stunned with some men actually in tears.” - Alf Buckle

On Darlington 0 Southport 7 (Jan 6 1973): "One of the worst ever seasons when we finished rock bottom of Division Four. I can’t comment on how well we performed because I couldn’t see anything. A thick fog descended on Feethams that afternoon and from behind the goal you could just make out the halfway line. The ball would disappear into the gloom at the other end of the pitch and then the Southport players would come jogging back, congratulating each other. Fans could change ends at half time then – it didn’t make any difference. There were seven goals scored, and I didn’t see any of them!" - Simon Weatherill

Other words from elsewhere on Feethams:

"The paddock had a high codger quotient I need to really enjoy a game. They were men with rosy faces and caps the colour and shape of cowpats all around me...The codgers are the authentic taste of an area...the codgers at Feethams were premier cru." Harry Pearson in The Far Corner (1994)

"As I peered across the pitch from the dark recesses of the East Stand I could make out a steel structure (at the end of the West Stand) which looked as if the club had begun to build a new stand and had then run out of money. "What's that rusting steel at the end there?" I said to one of the Darlo faithful. "That's the stand we were going to build until we ran out of money," he said...In the end the only use they made of the steel was to erect a TV camera platform." Ken Ferris in Football Fanatic (1995) on the Teeside Park racecourse stand, originally intended as a South Terrace roof in the early 1990s.

Exhibition posters available for just £1 from the Trust All proceeds to project funds