Farrer Street Stadium Middlesbrough

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I have a 1936 Relwyskow show here at Redcar about 7 miles from Middlesbrough

21st December 1957 Lou Thesz beat Norman Walsh in Middlesbrough in a world heavyweight title match, source Ray Plunkett.

Not Farrer Street, but the National Sporting Club Main Mask mentioned. I've just seen on the home page that on 9th April 1934 wrestling was cancelled at the National Sporting Club in Middlesbrough due to poor ticket sales.

Well that didn't work !

Ron said :- Here is a world heavyweight championship match, you don't see many of those.

What about the Lou Thesz tour Ron? There were a few then in a short space of time.

Ron Said :- Here is World Championship Match. You don't see many of those at heavyweight.

What about the Lou Thesz tour Ron?

Thanks Adrian , just as I said Relwyskow before the war.

Got me to thinking , as this place was closed in 1965 due to it's poor state , I wonder if it was a bit of a Blood Tub like the Ardwick Stadium that became a Car lot.

Here is World Championship Match. You don't see many of those at heavyweight.

Thanks again for the contributions and today is April 8th. Although I have put these bills on the daily thread they could also sit on here.

It's 1950 . St James and Farrer Street on the same Saturday night. Morrell spreads his wrestlers and guests to put on two good shows.

Bernard makes a great point about not pairing the Ghoul with Norman Walsh in Norman's home town. certainly did not happen in 1949 and 50. I have bills for 51,52,and 53 but not sorted them yet , so we will see. My money is on Bernard though.

We often forget such far back times , often complaining that the 60's TV footage is almost completely lost bar a small percentage. But what about 1949. How much would we pay to see footage of Bernard's Ghoul v Anglo's Garfield.

Thanks Bernard, I used to use the station regularly in the 1990s, so roughly knew the area, being so close to the station would have been an advantage to getting people in from outside the town. I always thought that St James was deceptive size wise, first glance you would never have thought it had a capacity of 4000.

Sorry for the delay.

Regards the capacity. I think that it was definitely smaller than St. James Hall.

It was tucked round the back of the railway station, but I wouldn't hazard a guess on capacity.

One thing that I did notice was that The Ghoul v Norman Walsh did not appear on any of Ron's bills. As I have said before The Ghoul was Morrell's top drawing card in the 1950's , but Walsh was a Middlesbrough man and the crowd would not have liked to see him go down there. I know that he lost to The Ghoul at many other stadiums.

Promised Bernard THE GHOUL 1950....Look at how he was marketed and he fought most of the main Morrell men.

I know they are small but remember if you right click on the image it opens bigger in another screen and you can use the magnifier.

We are slowly piecing it together and thanks Ian. I think Boxing there was the same Time Scale. A picture is elusive and thus far I am astonished that we don't seem to have the capacity. Large crowds are mentioned in the papers. Many of the bills I have found eluded Ray P , so finding all this stuff so late is quite gratifying. The Saturday night slot seems to be one of the jewels in Morrell's crown. A 1950's Ghoul seems to have been a massive draw.

Hi Ron, regarding Farrer St. stadium Middlesborough. The last bill on aSaturday was Dec. 26th 1964. Itwas ALLAN& TAYLOR V ARRAS& KRAMER FU MANCHU V B. RAWLINGS E. HART V D. SPIKING. The first Wednesdy bill was Jan. 6th. 1965 as follows. ROYALS V CADMANS WALSH V MITCHELL MASAMBULA V ALLAN COLBECK V PURVEY.

P.S.The fourth bout on Dec 26th was BREAKS V DENNISON.

Middlesborough council condemed the building so they said no more Saturday wrestling. Nothing was mentioned regarding week days they put it Wednesdys. That continued untill June & then the council cottoned on. I think how they got away with it for so long was that the three directors of the stadium were MORRELL & the other two were councilers.( tells a story i think ) Hope that was some help for you Ron.

Kind regards Ian P.

Another one from 1939, May

The Ghoul was on 16 times in 1950 out of 52 shows , almost a centre piece. Just getting some bills ready and will show you who he worked with. How big was it in relation to St James Hall Bernard.

Looks like the Stadium was 1938-1964. Pre war and during war Relwyskow was promoting and started again after the war by Norman Morrell who started putting his name on the bills in 1950 but I think was promoting in 1949 as well.

I went there 2 or 3 times in 1955-6.

I used to have a bill where Dicky Swales was fighting ME top of the bill.

Unfortunately, being in the RAF I had to do as I was told and I was called up that morning to do that night shift on radar. So I had to call off and missed my big chance.

Unfortunately the poster has also gone missing.

Norman Walsh was to referee in this charity bill for Guide dogs for the Blind.

Some of the boys who trained at St Lukes in Middlesbrough might remember going there.

I know originally it was boxing only, I don't know when wrestling was introduced at the hall but as the boxing was only once a week I would imagine it would have been within a year or two to make the hall more cost effective. As for photos I have found none, what about trying the Middlesbrough Gazette and the local authority archive they should have information , bills and possibly photos.