Millmoor opens up as a museum to football

Millmoor has been described as a ghost ground and is the only former football league stadium in the country still standing, its buildings broken into and damaged, its floodlights often climbed since its closure in 2008.

On Friday though it was much more that that as its doors were opened to the public who – many wearing shirts they would have sported at games there – flocked to look at the old ground and conjure up old memories.

Millers legend John Breckin was, of course, there, as were old favourites Dave Watson, Gerry Forrest, Seamus McDonagh, Glynn Snodin, Richard Finney, Trevor Womble and Ronnie Moore, and former Leeds United and Sheffield United midfielder Tony Currie.

John, who played for Rotherham Boys and juniors at Millmoor before making more than 400 appearances for the first team, thanked the Booth family for breathing life into the ground and opening it up, and said: “I have great memories here from playing and from my coaching days with Ronnie Moore.

“I used to drive past on my way to Meadowhall and It was looking really tired and I used to think it would be wonderful if something could be done for it. The last time I came here there were trees growing on the terraces. All at once the idea came up and the Booth family opened it up. I think it’s a fantastic gesture. They’ve done a great job.

“It’s like a museum. Whenever football clubs move out they knock the grounds down and start building on them within a week or two, but this is like a shrine. It has hardly changed and it’s great to see it looking so good and it bringing back so many memories for people.

“Dave Watson is here and he is 78 today and has dementia. We have a few of the Memory Club lads here and it’s sad as it’s such a terrible disease, but we gave Dave a beautiful cake and he’s happy. It’s bringing back memories for them and getting their brains working a bit.

“I am going to walk on the grass and find the exact spot I scored that wonderful goal from against Peter Bonetti when we beat Chelsea, and I only scored eight altogether. I can remember every one of them. I knew every cupboard here – and every hiding place.”

The ground was first used by Rotherham Church Institute in the 1890, then Rotherham County from 1907 and Rotherham United from 1925 until they left for Don Valley in 2008 and the purpose built New York Stadium in 2012.

An immediate observation is the pitch looks good again. Wickersley Youth play there now. There’s even a groundsman and a willingness to bring it back into regular use.

The last league game it hosted saw the Millers defeat Barnet 1-0 in a match refereed by Michael Oliver.

Fan Steve Tucker (65) and his son Ryan were there and have so many memories. Steve remembered he sat in the Tivoli four rows from the front to the right of the net, and said: “It’s a massive part of my life, right back to when I started coming here in the 1970s and you could walk from one end to another. The nights under the floodlights when you had to queue up for half an hour to come in, the pies that used to scold your mouth when the jelly ran out.

“I first came here in about 1971 and regularly from about 74/75 and only remember missing a handful of games. The best player I saw here was Tony Towner, without a doubt.

“Walking round here today it feels like going back in time but it’s only 16 years since the last game. It feels like 50 or 60 when you look at how much has changed.”

Ryan (41) said: “I had a birthday party here as a young lad. We had a game of football in the gym, then they took you into the players’ lounge and you could choose a player to come in. I chose Des Hazel.”

It may have been cleaned up, cleared of debris and made safe with changes enabled by Ken Booth jnr, son of ex-Millers chairman Ken.

However, some things haven’t changed. The CF Booth scrap firm looms over the ground, the Derek Dalton clock has been refurbished and remounted, the dugouts repaired, the directors lounge is still there, as are the police control room and, somewhat spookily, the old cells, the refreshments hut, toilets – last used by fans who had enjoyed a pre-game pint in the Millmoor Hotel, The Moulders or The Travellers Inn - and the turnstiles.

Ex-Millers director Carl Luckock, who supported the event, said: “We expected a couple of hundred people but about 1,000 turned up. We were gobsmacked.

“It was continuous and even later in the afternoon there were still people coming to have a look because dads and grandads were bringing their kids from school. We opened about 1.15pm and there were still people in the ground after 4pm.

“It was fantastic and the coverage in the Advertiser before helped rev everybody up. We had lots of old players there.

“A Sheffield United female team are now interested in playing ten games a season at Millmoor and there is already Sheffield Wednesday Ladies, Rotherham United boys and girls teams, Wickersley Youth and others using it. It’s incredible.”

Grown men – mostly men – look wistfully in the direction of their old seats, pointing and trying to remember exactly where they stood or, towards the end, maybe sat. They talk of their favourite games, players and goals, recall pubs, restaurants, shops that used to be on the walk to the ground, nights in the Tivoli club.

Youngsters, with their parents and grandparents, are told stories of the past and kick a ball around.

I can’t resist taking a penalty and scuff it into the corner of the net. I’m not the only one who will leave and tell others I have scored at Millmoor.