I took a few pictures at the time. Heart breaking.
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At that time I worked for Sandwell Council in the Cradley Heath/Old Hill area. My journey home typically involved getting off the motorway at Junction 9 and driving down Hillary Street to Wednesbury Road then through the town to the north end (Pelsall area) where I was from. I was extremely upset by what I used to see on a daily basis with the demolition, and I often used to stop and take a look at what was going on. Iâve said this before on here, but I categorically dispute the clubâs claims and in particular those by Roy Whalley that the cowshed roof collapsed due to âweight of snowâ. Days before the alleged collapse I drove and stopped, and walked onto the ground at the Steet End and there were fires set in that area and work ongoing.
Iâve said this many times on here, Iâve worked on demolition sites and to me the cowshed was clearly being demolished deliberately. Unless Iâm mistaken those roof supports were upgraded in the early 80âs. They would have been set in concrete to a depth that anything involving a lightweight corrugated roof and a fall of snow above would have been the civil engineering equivalent of a guinness fart, and yet they are displaced and buckled in the area of the collapse.
No way that happened due to any âsnow on the roofâ.
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I wish you could get aromavison on a computer
Maybe I should patent it ?
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Sorry if Iâm missing something really obvious, but didnât the ground need to be demolished, so the supermarket could be built? By 1991 Bescot was built.
There was a similar thread to this last year called âold photos of Fellows Parkâ on which we went through this I think.
But to be clear, the move to Bescot nearly broke us. Post Terry Ramsden a group of people became involved with the club. Their background was properly development. At around the same time Jeff Bonser became a director. There was a chain of events that led to the club going from owning its own ground, selling it for around ÂŁ5m, building an identikit ground to Scunthorpeâs which had cost ÂŁ2.5m, but paying lots more than Scunthorpe for lots of convoluted and opaque reasons, nearly going to the wall and then becoming tenants in our own ground thus creating the financial albatross we have today. In the middle of this, around Christmas 1990 as the club genuinely looked like it could fold, Walsallâs ex Chairman mooted a return to Fellows Park which was still largely in tact. Of course this would have scuppered firstly the lucrative contract to build the new supermarket (a contract one of our current directors had a financial stake in) and it would have also prevented the freehold finding its way into our current landlordâs hands. Lo and behold, just weeks after Wheldon mooted his idea, half the old ground falls down due to âweight of snowâ. The old place apparently had decided to begin demolishing itself. The popular side with a double alex roof which had stood for thirty years through far worse weather just folded.
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Everything started with Ramsden, who was basically a criminal and who went bust. Before then, we had Buckleyâs marvellous team. Coakley got us promoted but, even at the time, the style of play was less pleasing and we spent a lot of money. In financial straits, we were ripe for the developers to come in.
Lessons? Well, at least LP is a supporter and we nearly folded because the people in charge did not have the club at heart.
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The problem with Terry was that he said heâd cover the bills, but then couldnât because heâd been scuppered by the â87 stock market crash. So Walsall were in deep and it cost Ramsden nothing. Didnât even pay the club back when he sold it to the Denglen/Davenmanor vultures. From then the move was set in stone.
The falling roof is a fanciful tale but would have made no difference.
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Well, it wasnât just the crash - he was jailed for fraud and later got into trouble for withholding assets when he was made bankrupt. He was essentially a gambler and, like Merson and most other serious gamblers, eventually he came unstuck.
The lesson is that being flash seldom works in football and even less in the business world.
The authorities of more than one country were closing in even before the crash, and him buying Walsall. My guess is that he thought being a larger than life," man of the people" would protect him. Heâd already made a name in horse racing both as an owner and a big punter. Walsall would have been another tactic in the same strategy.
I remember them naming some sheltered accommodation âTerry Ramsden Houseâ on the corner of Bescot street, it didnât take them long to take it down and name it something else after it was seen as unfitting with his shady dealings, yet we are still stuck with the âThe Bonser Suiteâ 
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The effect might not have been too different, but Bonser isnât a convicted criminal. I donât think , however underhand, anyoneâs ever claimed his wheeling to buy the freehold was actually illegal.
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Ye i get that, maybe itâs more of a moral thing
I just hope i am about when they open his cupboard/closet 
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A bit off topic but I did not want to start a new strand, but can anyone name all the players in the photo on the November page of the Walsall Legends 2020 calendar? I can get a few but others are a mystery. All of them played at FP at least!