On this very day, 26th October, exactly 50 years ago photographer Daniel Meadows was at Borough Park to see Workington AFC v Doncaster Rovers. He took a picture of a young lad standing on the terraces between two older supporters. Above them sat five women, some elderly gentlemen, and a very young baby. I expect that this was taken at half-time given that no-one seems to be watching any action on the pitch.
At this point in the season Workington had lost their previous three matches, and a 0-3 defeat to Doncaster would continue their pointless run. Just two seasons later, at the end of 1976/77, Workington lost their League status - and have yet to return.
The man wearing a white overcoat standing on the right side of the photo is reading the matchday programme. As is the man sitting above him. It's a 16 page issue for 5p, with 10 pages of adverts, and no photographs within. The only photograph is wrapped over the front and back covers. It depicts the first team squad, and is printed in light red behind the team line-ups which feature on the front cover. This was the format that was used throughout the 1974/75 season.
Daniel Meadows had embarked on his photographic journey the previous year. He travelled across the nation from September 1973 in a second hand double decker bus, part of which he'd converted into a darkroom. He dubbed the vehicle the 'Free Photographic Omnibus', with the plan to give away free copies of his hand printed photographs to the subjects. These were people doing everyday things up and down the country - like attending a football match on a Saturday afternoon.
The Workington section came towards the end of Daniel's odyssey which wound up in the North West about a week after this photograph taken at Boundary Park. This image featured in the subsequent book called 'Living Like This' which was published by Arrow in 1975. It's a book that is now considered a classic in the field of documentary photography. In the subsequent years Daniel has been able to track down some of his subjects, though this group of football supporters have never been identified.
The match day programme had proved elusive for some time, but I managed to track down a copy. The adverts evocatively capture a time in a place. Daniel's photograph asks the viewer many questions. Did the younger male fan know the two men either side of him? What was the chap on his right saying? And how come such a young baby was taken along to a football match on a chilly Autumn day?
Questions we may never find out, unless someone stumbles upon the photo who was either in it, or knows any of the people who were snapped on film as they attended a football match in Workington on 26th October 1974.
