Wednesday 6 July 2011

The 1984 Carrow Road Fire. Ctd.


I have a bit more information on the Carrow Road Fire of 1984 which burned the Main Stand at Carrow Road. The Main Stand was one of the original 1930s structures of the Carrow Road Ground and the only one originally with seats. The Barclay, the South Stand and the unroofed River End were all standing terracing. The River End Stand was replaced in 1979-80 by the current Norwich and Peterborough Stand.

Geoffrey Watling (0:40 sec) is widely regarded as the man who saved Norwich City after the disastrous end to the Robert Chase era when the club almost went out of business before Delia stepped in.

The man handing some pictures to Geoff Watling is Mike Harper, who used to run the catering at Carrow Road. When Tony Jones of Anglia TV interviews Nigel Pleasants, the Club Secretary (1:16), Ronnie Brooks, the Youth Team Manager is standing in the background.

The chairman, Sir Arthur South, was a local businessman in the days when they weren't expected to put millions of pounds into a club to keep it afloat.

Nigel Pleasants, the Club Secretary, had been Assistant Club Secretary under the long-serving Bert Westwood. Nigel  moved to Leeds in 1990 to take on the Club Secretary role there. He sadly passed away in 2008 at the tragically young age of 59.

The last few seconds on the clip show groundsman Russell Allison mowing the pitch. Russell served as Groundsman for many years and a Lounge at the club was named after him. Is it still there?

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