Curator’s Column Feb 25

Photo: Swindon Heritage Blue Plaque on the house in Durham Street, Swindon, lived in by the footballer Harold Fleming. © Shaun Sheep, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I want to begin this column by repeating the thank you in the STFC Club Programme for the generous support TrustSTFC give to the Museum Trust donating five thousand pounds to us every year. This enables us to be able to purchase rare items which may become available on auction sites. Of course we can only bid for them if we know about them. This leads me to mention a few items that we would be very anxious to secure if possible and if any readers of this column come across them being available at auction or on eBay please let us know.

It seems that all members of the team were presented with clocks to mark winning the Southern League. I must admit to me they are Victorian monstrosities but given that we know one was given to Peter Chambers, and a grandson of Bill Silto was sure there was a similar one in his father’s house before they had some building work done and it disappeared. Another item from this period we would love to acquire is a Southern League representative medal. We do have one awarded to Harold Fleming but it would I feel important to acquire one of Bob Jeerson who on more than one occasion was outside right when Harold was playing inside him.

We are of course interested in any medals won by Swindon players in any competition and I want to say to any former players who are thinking of putting their medals up for auction to enjoy a holiday or raise some money for their children please let us know. We might be able to help. I will tell a story which will explain this.

A medal from the Anglo Italian Tournament came up for auction. We decided to make a bid but it was sold for more than we had decided to go to. When the player concerned found out we had been interested, he said if he had known he would have let us have it for far less than he actually received.

Can I ask former players putting items up for sale to get an auctioneers estimate and then contact us. It might well be the Trustees would give you the going price saving you auction costs etc.

Shooting on a semi tangent I personally am interested in acquiring notices of AGM’s, Annual accounts etc. this is because my project for 2025 is to write a book entitled Robins in the Red. This is a play on words in that it will be a financial history of the club and while on the pitch they have played in red the accounts at the Bank have also been in the Red.

Lastly another personal request does anyone know if Arnold Darcy is still alive? If he is, I doubt he would be up to coming to the County Ground, but even if he is not I would love to have his daughters as my guests at the County Ground. John and Don legends of 69 are the latest to pay tribute to him as someone who taught them so much.