First
Half
From here, you move into the First Half part
of the museum which leads you past wall plaques identifying clubs & their end of
season league positions. These are not lit too well & you may struggle to read them.
This is true for some of the other exhibits & it can distract slightly from your
enjoyment at times. Hopefully these will be addressed & rectified at some point in the
future. Walking on further down through you see a corridor of social images & sounds
from various events during the 20th century, this is a taster to put you into
nostalgia mode. Once you come to the end of this corridor, you change direction & this
is where the footie bit starts. Be aware that the museum tries to link the football events
to other issues arising at the time to put the events into perspective. This works well as
dates alone do not always allow you to relate to the timeframe portrayed.
The museum uses text & pictures boards
interspaced with black & white TV footage on screens inset into the boards. Every so
often, there are also themed individual displays, which once you step on the illuminated
floor, triggers a taped interview on the subject in question. These are very effective in
giving you a personal insight into the object displayed. One of the exhibits describes an
early song written to support, if I remember correctly, the Harrow public school football
team. Can you envisage fans now chanting "Play up, good fellows, play up" as the
chorus line of the song !!
There are various shirts on display
throughout the decades, including a priceless first England team jersey, not a shirt, as
it’s made out of wool. You’d have gained a few pounds if this got wet during the
game !
There’s also shirts from various eras
& teams, including a Blackpool top, not much appreciated by myself being a PNE fan
& worst of all, one of Peter Schmeichel’s goalie shirts from the 90s. Check out
the picture to see how bad the design was. A four year old kid could have designed a
better one at playschool.
There’s also various listening booths
that allow you to sit down & this sets off taped exerts describing an aspect of
football life. I’ll not spoil your visit by trying to list everything that’s
here, you need to experience that for yourself. There’s one or two improvements
needed, as one or two of the artifacts don’t appear to be referenced, but these are
minimal & don’t detract from the enjoyment. What did irritate me though was that
some of the display boards were hard to read as they’d used overlaid perspex which
obstructed the printed matter. You can expect the displays will change throughout the year
as currently only 1,000 items are displayed out of a total 20,000 available.
The Ground Café
Exiting from the First Half you come across
the only catering area in the museum. This is called the Ground Café, probably a
reference to a football ground & ground coffee. Personally, I didn’t visit the
café, but can tell you it was a cut above the normal café standard, & from some
reports I’ve heard the prices reflect this as well. It is run by Heathcotes, a firm
owned by Paul Heathcote, who has created a reputation around this area for high class
cuisine. They also provide match day catering for the club as well as any functions held
on the club’s Great Room. The café looks fairly small, but has sofas as well as
normal tables & chairs to relax, & looks out over the front of the ground on to
Moor Park opposite.
Wembley Exhibition
Moving out of the café & on up the ramps
you then enter the Wembley Exhibition room. As Wembley is being re-developed, that have
loaned various items to the museum. Personally, this was the weakest element for me. The
room holds various objects from the stadium & the centre piece is probably the 1966
crossbar which Geoff Hurst’s World Cup winning goal, or not if you’re German,
was scored off. The crossbar is suspended from the ceiling with nets attached & what
surprised most people visiting was the width of the goal that a keeper has to defend. The
rest of the room displays graphics of how the new Wembley stadium will look, dependant on
which design they eventually choose. Running track, no running track, make your choice,
the people in power don’t seem to be able to !! They also show the other events that
Wembley has housed, speedway, greyhound racing (by the way, greyhounds must be thick if
they chased that hare which was displayed) athletics, pop concerts etc.
Deepdale View
Leaving this room, brings you to a corridor
which displays Preston North End’s history. There’s a potted history of the
club, including league positions & attendances over the seasons with some teams
pictures from the past. For any North Enders out there, see if you can name the players
without looking at the key. There’s also a picture of that infamous striker, the one
& only Vernon Allatt, much maligned non goalscoring centre forward of the 80s. I
always thought that John Smith, who played round the same time was worse, but is it only
me who remembers how bad he was? Other items are also on display, including some old
season tickets, silverware, programmes etc. Further on down the corridor, you can view the
ground from a platform built into the floodlight pylon. Wheelchair access has been catered
for by the inclusion of a lift to take you up to the viewing level.
Visions of Football
Going up from here, you enter the Visions of
Football gallery where paintings & pictures depicting football are displayed. Look out
for the picture showing a woman mowing her back lawn. The fence is red & white, the
shed is red & white, the washing line supports are red & white & the bloody
mower has been painted those colours as well !!
Make sure you take in the full size pictures
of Nobby Shufflebottom. He’s an imaginary character dressed up in the kit of the
early 1900s footballer, greased hair, centre parting & big moustache. They are meant
to advertise the benefits of Coffmore cigarettes & educate you with regards to the
subtleties of the great game. They’re hilariously written, so don’t go past
without reading them all.
Update on 17/06/01 - Why have they taken Nobby's pictures down? They were hilarious
.....bring Nobby back.
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