Here in England the name "Hillsborough" is synonymous with a football crowd tragedy that happened in Sheffield Wednesday's home stadium on April 15th 1989. Soon after the Liverpool v Nottingham Forest F.A. Cup semi-final match kicked off, it became clear that something was not right in the Leppings Lane end of the ground where Liverpool fans were located. Late arrivers had squeezed forward causing a fatal crush.
Ninety seven fans died that day and in the decades that followed it felt as though the heated debate about what had happened would never cease. Fingers were pointed. Judicial enquiries were held. Journalists wrote endless screeds. Crowd security measures changed.
Hillsborough Walled Garden
Even today, when Liverpool families hear the name "Hillsborough" they feel a mixture of sadness and anger. For them. the name will always have tragic associations.
At Hillsborough Corner
But here in Sheffield, Hillsborough is like a town within a city. It is a vibrant district, not just the name of a famous old football ground.
Today, I rode on one of our "Supertrams" through Hillsborough to Middlewood. My idea was to leave the tram at the terminus and walk back home - a distance of some six miles.
Hillsborough Park
It was a lovely day - surprisingly warm for late September - and of course I took quite a few photographs as I strolled along. I wanted to share images of Hillsborough that have nothing to do with the football stadium tragedy. After all, the suburb existed long before Sheffield Wednesday F.C. came into existence in 1867. Today, around 20,000 people live in Hillsborough.
It is a lively community with plenty of independent businesses, successful schools, eateries, pubs and decent homes. Though it contains one or two pockets of deprivation, on the whole the suburb is fairly affluent. There are certainly far worse places to live within the boundaries of this city.
By Langsett Road
A safe friendly bustling place to live in and visit and celebrate.
ReplyDeleteOnce there were places like Hillsborough everywhere in Britain.
To think that families waited 27 years for the truth to come out.
Senior police officers brazenly lied and sought to lay the blame on the
supporters, falsely citing drunkenness and fans arriving late.
Police incompetence caused those deaths. Then years of cover-up.
Police today do nothing about speeding pavement cyclists many of whom
ride electric bikes. Drug dealers swarm our neighbourhoods like filthy rats.
The police should be disbanded and entirely replaced as Peter Hitchens said.
With hindsight we can see that the policing operation was lazy that day. With hindsight we can also see that fencing supporters in and having standing terraces was a disaster waiting to happen. However, it remains true that inebriated late arrivers did the pushing from the back and caused early arrivers to be crushed to death. It was not the police who did the pushing in.
DeleteYou're entitled to the last word on your own blog, Neil.
DeleteBut the independent report and the 2016 inquest squashed the myth
of aggressive fans and late arrivals.
Overcrowding, certainly. Gate C (exit) was opened to relieve pressure.
Police failed to close a tunnel. Causing the fatal bottleneck. 2000 fans.
Police said Liverpool fans didn't have tickets and were drunk, and that
in surging ahead they battered down Gate C, and so rushed the stadium.
Chief Constable Peter Wright (died 2011) made up a false story.
Had he lived Wright would have been charged with gross misconduct.
Chief Inspector Norman Bettison, Chief Superintendent Donald Denton,
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Foster all lied to MPs and the media.
Peter Metcalf, solicitor for South Yorkshire Police, removed hundreds of
critical comments by lower rank police officers. Lies by omission.
Under present laws 12 senior officers would now face charges of gross
misconduct as well perverting the course of justice.
It's not just my opinion. A significant number of Liverpool fans were still drinking in local pubs minutes before kick off and then stormed the turnstiles at the Leppings Lane end of the ground. Of course the police operation was not fit for purpose and of course the people who died were not to blame in any way. They had entered the terraces well ahead of kick off time looking forward to a great game. They had no expectation that a few hundred of their own fans would push from behind.
DeleteI remember this very sad story of fans being killed.
ReplyDeleteIt might have been better to demolish the stadium afterwards.
DeleteI don't remember that fatal day, it must have been on the TV news, but 1989 was one of those years where I barely had time for TV at all, working long days, kids in school, housework.
ReplyDeleteWell - it wasn't in your country either Elsie.
DeleteHillsborough looks a good place to live. I especially like the library and walled garden.
ReplyDeleteSuch walks like you did that day are some of my favourites; taking public transport for the way there and walk back, or the other way round.
It's nice to mix up the kind of walks we do.
DeleteIt's easy to forget that a place carrying such heavy tragic weight in the news is also just a normal, thriving suburb where 20,000 people go about their daily lives. A six-mile walk back from Middlewood on a surprisingly warm September day sounds like a great way to see that other side of Hillsborough, Neil.
ReplyDeletehttps://canalsandcitrus.blogspot.com
Indeed it was Diana.
DeleteI hope those cars at Hillsborough Corner do not impede the progress of your Supertrams.
ReplyDeleteI looked rather too much at the Hillsborough disaster, and the disgraceful at the time and the aftermath police behaviour, and the media, especially the disgraceful Murdoch media.
Mistakes were made and lies were propagated but it was late arriving fans who did the pushing and shoving.
DeleteI do not like to be in crowds. I suppose this is a good example why- you lose your autonomy in a crowd of that size. Which can be very dangerous.
ReplyDeleteI have been in football crowds where I spent more time worrying about the surging people around me than watching the match.
DeleteI was noticing the tracks and the overhead power cables, and thinking trams, and then you mention them. The DC area tore all the trams out 75-80 years ago. Sad, they are nice way to get around. DC tried building a new modern one, in an area that didn't want it and where it was not a good fit, and it failed, it was shut down this year.
ReplyDeleteSheffield had an older Victorian system that was dismantled in the 1960s. It covered much more of the city.
DeleteWhat a horribly, needless way to die. I vaguely remember this happening but didn't realize it was due to police negligence and failure to respond to the disaster as it was happening. Those poor people.
ReplyDeleteThe police were too complacent but they did not do the pushing and shoving from the back of the terrace. The Liverpool fans who died had all arrived at the match with plenty of time to spare - unlike the late arrivers who pushed their way into the jammed crowd.
DeleteOh, what a sad story.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering if I could do a 6 mile hike - not sure if I could anymore. Good for you, Neil.
Go on, give it a try Ellen - at your own pace. Or start off with a three mile hike.
DeleteI remember that happening. Such a tragic event.
ReplyDeleteIt shook this city almost as much as it shook Liverpool.
DeleteThe first photo , just right at the end of those shops with the attics was my road Wynyard Road…my happy home
ReplyDeleteI walked up there. Sorry to report there was no blue plaque.
DeleteI know Hillsborough very well, my daughter lives there. Also from childhood memories of Rivelin walks and my driving buses days. I'm not in a position to comment on the disaster but one day I might.
ReplyDelete