Your Story, Your Club, Your History

Thursday 28th May - 10:30 to 12:00 - The Crossbar - Holker St

125 years of memories, and we want yours

Got Barrow AFC memories gathering dust somewhere in the back of your mind? A story about a goal, a game, or a goalkeeper that you've been dining out on for decades? A moment that meant everything to you but never made the back pages? Well, clear your Thursday morning, because this one's got your name on it.

Fan historians from the Barrow AFC 125 steering group are setting up shop at the X Bar, Holker Street, this Thursday from 10.30am to 12pm, all welcome, brew included. Come and have a look at what's being digitised for the website, lend a hand, or just feed back on what you see. It's that kind of morning.

The group are part of a wider team working hard to digitise the club's history ahead of the update of the official 125 website, an ambitious project pulling together over a century's worth of Bluebird history into one proper home. That's 125 years of promotions and relegations, cup shocks and near misses, legends and nearly-men, and moments that made grown adults shout 'get it forward'. We've all been there.

And there's plenty of detail to get stuck into. The Heritage Trail is taking shape nicely, with pages on the website corresponding to each stop along the way. The Town Hall stop, for instance, covers Wilkie, Daz and Dave, the trophy wins, and the remarkable story of saving the club in the aftermath of the Vaughan era. Holker Street itself gets two stops, one dedicated to supporter culture, volunteers and the fans who've kept this club alive, and one for the on-pitch stuff: Wolves at home, Ian Evatt, the moments that live long in the memory. Meanwhile, Douglas Street on Walney zooms in on the legendary Brian Arrowsmith, with a touch of New York Cosmos thrown in for good measure.

The thing is, a project like this is only ever as good as the people who show up for it. Official records only tell you so much. The real stuff, the stories passed down from your dad or your gran, the memories that never made the back pages, that lives with supporters. With you, in fact. So if you've got a tale that belongs to the wider story of this football club, Thursday morning is your chance to tell it. And if you've got something that needs a digital copy, or you want to hear about possible events coming down the line, pop in for that too.

Even if none of the above applies, if you're just missing it already and fancy talking Barrow Soccer with people who get it, honestly, that's reason enough.

So have a lie in, make yourself a brew, and then get yourself down to Holker Street. The X Bar. Thursday. 10.30 to 12. All you need to bring is yourself and whatever's rattling around in that head of yours.