I remember in the dim and distant days when I was teaching history, a primary school head and publisher said “A memory is something that makes you cry..” Such a moment came on our ground tour this month. It was the first tour when we were able to visit the John Trollope Suite which now houses a display of memorabilia relating to the 1969 Cup Triumph. Among those with us were Stan Harland’s daughter and granddaughter. They were moved to tears as I was. It makes me feel all the time and effort in setting up the Museum Trust was worthwhile and hats of to Steve Mytton, Vic and the rest of the crew who have done such good work in recapturing and preserving memories of 69. We are very grateful to the Club for making this display possible and Chief Executive Anthony Hall attended our last Trustees meeting as a result of which you will be seeing some of the shirts and other memorabilia in the redecorated Legends Lounge.

This leads me on to my second topic this month which I term Desert Island artifacts. What have we not got that we would love to have to display or have access to when the Museum eventually opens. I have put down a few thoughts

1. Minute books. We have a number covering the mid forties to the late sixties and even a couple from the turn of the century. It would be great to fill in the gaps.
2. Medals from Cup or League triumphs. A bid was made for an Anglo Italian Cup Winners Medal but was unsuccessful. The seller later said if he had known what we were willing to pay he would happily have given it to us.
3. Years ago, I remember Cecil Green being extremely angry when he saw something up for auction which he was sure belonged to Swindon but had no way of proving. It was a model of a railway engine we a string of carriages bearing the names of the team that won the Southern League and reached the F. A Cup semi-final before World War One. I had a cutting with a picture of it but alas can no longer find it. If somebody else remembers this and can confirm its existence I would love to have confirmation it’s not my memory playing tricks on me.
4. Caps It is not just full internationals that caps are awarded from. Caps used to be awarded to schoolboy internationals as well as playing for the County and I think even regimental matches.
5. Boots there has been a huge change in boots over the last hundred years. We have shirts that we can identify to specific seasons with boots it is much more difficult to pin boots down so accurately. However, if we know they belonged to a particular player we can at least pin it down to the dates they were playing. There was a Swindon player, Titus Okere who was signed on having been seen playing for the Nigerian national team side. They did not wear football boots but neither did they play in bare feet. They wore a very light foot covering more akin to ballet shoes. I would love to have a pair of those to put on display.

I am going to end with something that is frustrating me.  Some months ago the club past to me a request for information about a family member who they thought had played for Swindon. I was able to find that not only were they right but it was their ancestor, Billy Batty, who had scored the first ever League goal for Swindon. My joy at the thought of relating this turned to dismay when I found the address information although it had a postcode the address seemed very vague. Hoping the first line of the address, Staveley was some stately home which would give me a postcode I found it was actually the name of a Town or civil parish within Chesterfield. If anyone with connections to the area who knows a Mr Karl Hartman or any other relative of Billy’s I would love to hear from them.