Report to the Business Archives Council by Falkirk Archives: Cataloguing the Falkirk Football Club Collection Lucy MacIver Project Archivist Falkirk Archives June 2021 1 Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Background .......................................................................................................................................... 4 Club Background ............................................................................................................................. 4 Recruitment ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Work Plan ............................................................................................................................................. 8 The Project ........................................................................................................................................... 8 1. Conservation ............................................................................................................................ 8 2. Cataloguing ............................................................................................................................. 15 3. Covid-19 .................................................................................................................................. 19 Outcomes ............................................................................................................................................ 20 Next Steps ........................................................................................................................................... 22 Lessons Learned ................................................................................................................................ 22 Appendices ......................................................................................................................................... 24 Appendix 1: Project Budget......................................................................................................... 24 Appendix 2: Work Plan ................................................................................................................ 25 Appendix 3: Collection Hierarchy .............................................................................................. 28 Appendix 4: Collection level description .................................................................................. 30 Appendix 5: Example of Vernon Descriptions ......................................................................... 32 2 Introduction Falkirk Archives were delighted to receive the 2019 Business Archives Council Cataloguing Grant for a Business Archive Relating to Sport. As an archive with only one full-time and two part-time members of staff, winning this £4000 grant provided much needed funds which were used to pay for additional staffing hours, enabling the in-depth cataloguing of the Falkirk Football and Athletic Limited business collection. In 2018, the “Falkirk F.C.: A Fan’s View” exhibition was held in Falkirk’s Callendar House, the same building which houses Falkirk Archives. This was a collaborative project and exhibition between Falkirk Museums and a museum volunteer who was also an avid Falkirk Football Club fan and historian. Through his contacts with senior staff from the club, he was able to borrow several museum objects and archival documents for display in the exhibition. During conversations with club officials and Falkirk Museums, the archival items of the collection were brought to the attention of Falkirk’s archivist, who voiced concern for the current condition of the collection as well as recognising its importance as a historical collection for the local area. The club was initially reticent to give away its heritage collection, even to a local public archive. However, they were eventually convinced by Falkirk’s archivist to permanently donate the collection, in large part thanks to his intentions to apply for the BAC grant, knowing that it would be thoroughly cared for, catalogued, and made available to all club fans through being held by their local archive service in Falkirk town. This collection represents the largest single sports collection accession into Falkirk Archives’ holdings, considerably enhancing their existing sports and local business holdings. We at the archive feel that the addition of the archive of this nationally significant local football club, brings with it the potential to invite not only new kinds of research within Falkirk Archive, but also to attract new researchers from sections of the community previously under-represented there. After being awarded the BAC grant, this mutually beneficial cataloguing project was able to begin in October 2019. However, it met with unfortunate timing due to the impact of the Covid- 19 pandemic in early 2020. National lockdowns of museums meant that Callendar House (housing Falkirk Archives) remained closed to both staff and the public since March 2020, resulting in staff being unable to access the collection for over 13 months. Despite this and other setbacks with the project, thanks to the bulk of the project already having been completed, the project archivist was able to continue digital cataloguing work from home and the FFC catalogue was able to be published online through Falkirk Archives digital catalogue in April 2020. Following staff gaining access to the collection once more in May 2021, the revised final version is now fully searchable for members of the public. Appointments to consult items from the newly catalogued collection in person within Falkirk Archives at Callendar House were finally possible in May 2021. 3 Background Club Background Falkirk Football Club is a Scottish professional association football club and a member of the Scottish Professional Football League which was founded and remains based in the town of Falkirk in Stirlingshire. There is conflicting evidence regarding the actual date Falkirk F.C. was founded, but the majority of evidence seems to support 1876. In 1883/84, Falkirk F.C. was a founding club in the Stirlingshire Football Association and was admitted to the Scottish Football League in the 1902/03 season. In 1905, the club was incorporated under the Companies' Act as the Falkirk Football and Athletic Club Limited. Not simply a popular local club, Falkirk F.C. became a nationally significant team, winning the Scottish Cup twice in their history; once in 1913 and again in 1957, and having been runners up on three other occasions. Figure 1: Item FFC/M/3/1, showing Falkirk F.C. scoring their winning goal in the 1957 Scottish Cup final. From 1885, the club’s home stadium was Brockville Park on Hope Street in Falkirk town. Brockville Park was demolished towards the end of 2003, having remained largely unchanged for decades, as it was considered unsafe to host matches following several high-profile UK stadium disasters in the 1980s. On several occasions, Falkirk were denied entry to the Scottish Premier League because of the stadium’s inadequate seating and facilities and eventually the club moved to their new Falkirk Park stadium, after a brief stint ground-sharing with Stenhousemuir. Falkirk F.C. are better known as "the Bairns", a nickname derived from the old burgh of Falkirk motto, "Better meddle wi' the De'il than the Bairns of Falkirk." 4 Figure 2: P32340; A photograph of the Falkirk team posing at their first home grounds at Brockville Park after winning the Scottish Cup in 1957. It clearly shows one of the stands for supporters which were considered too dangerous by the 1990s, leading to the demolition of the stadium in 2003. About the collection The Falkirk Football Club (FFC) collection consists of materials which have been produced and amassed by the club almost throughout its entire history, with item production dates spanning over 120 years (from 1882-2007). It largely consists of the club’s financial, marketing, and administrational materials, including several board meeting minute books, with a full run of board minutes from 1924-1956. The bulk of items are promotional materials such as photographs including a great number of press photographs and several large, framed team photographs and hand-drawn portraits which were previously displayed in one of the team’s stadium grounds. There are also more limited documents covering payroll, club shareholders, premises, and operation of SFA Youth Initiative. At some point the papers from the Brockville Development Association, or "The Brockville Club", have also been added to the Falkirk F.C. materials and stored together by the club. The BDA being a fan organised fundraising body distinct and separate from Falkirk Football and Athletic Club. There are materials covering administration of the BDA and their fundraising, along with the materials relating to the running of The Brockville Club’s bar and café premises within Falkirk in the 1950s-1970s. 5 Figure 3: Falkirk’s archivist, Paul Choi, inspecting collection materials in the Falkirk Stadium storeroom where they were stored for years before being moved to Falkirk Archives. Before Falkirk Archives took possession of this collection in 2019, it had been stored under one of the stands at Falkirk Stadium in damp and relatively unsanitary conditions. It is possible that much of the collection