Bolton, Burnden Park
“That’s Widnes there, the chemical town where I was born. There are several versions of this photograph in circulation, and this is the mildest. The others have had additional smoke added: perhaps the photographer knew of worse places, and wished to compete. I came along some 12 years after the Clean Air Acts, and still had acute bronchities and asthma throughout my childhood. Football training in the Victorian and Edwardian periods is subject to an urban myth, one you’ll recognise straightaway: starve the players of the ball during the week, coaches are meant to have said, and they’ll be all the hungrier for it on Saturday afternoon.” (More Than Mind Games)