Looking back at Wycombe's first Wembley appearance
Ahead of the trip to Wembley tomorrow, I thought I'd dig out the programme for our first trip there - in 1957 for the Amateur Cup final vs Bishop Auckland. Supposedly we took 30,000 fans there that day.
I've scanned the programme and published it via the Internet Archive for anyone interested - see https://archive.org/details/wycombe-wanderers-bishop-auckland-programme-1957-04-13/001.jpg The community song sheet at the end might be worth trying tomorrow...
Chairboys.co.uk has the full story of the match http://www.chairboys.co.uk/history/wemb1957.htm Fingers crossed for a better result vs north easterners tomorrow.
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Thanks you so much @Carthorse, this is great!
I had no idea it used to be called Empire Stadium.
A few Gasroom regulars switching to "incognito browsing" as we speak
Thanks so mcuh @Carthorse - absolutely amazing stuff
Next to the Empire pool, (now the arena, some of the rancid water only removed relatively recently) all built for the great exhibition. There should be an eiffel tower there too but it started to cost too much and sink so half of it is now deep under the pitch somewhere apparently
@floyd and @eric_plant my pleasure! I've been meaning to digitise my programme collection for a while, so this is good encouragement.
Wonderful stuff!
Watkin's Tower - demolished 1907. @micra probably remembers it.😉
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watkin%27s_Tower
I have a programme from the final. I don't recall any hassle over getting tickets or bother about segregation. I seem to remember getting the tickets from Eric Wakefield's ticket agency in the High Street. It was part of the old Wheatsheaf pub that has just been restored.
As an aside, on an average weekly wage in 1957 (figure from Hansard I think) you could have bought 241 programmes.
On an average weekly wage in 2022 you could buy 61.
(yes I am that sad to distract myself by looking into it)
Great Exhibition!!! That was 1851 in Hyde Park, think you mean Tjr Empire Exhibition of 1924. The tower, which reached only the first observation level was much earlier turn if the century, anyway, back to the footie…..
Ha, was a good few years ago I went on the tour obviously.