‘There’s a lot more to a football club’s history than just the games,” says Steve Doyle. Where Carlisle United are concerned, he has the evidence to prove it. Steve was the man behind the camera that captured a particular period of dramatic change at Brunton Park. Three decades on, the footage has re-emerged.


Brunton Park: A Transformation on Tape


Steve, with the blessing of the club, visited Carlisle’s ground numerous times between 1994 and 1996 to document the demolition of the old Scratching Pen terrace and the construction of the modern all-seater East Stand, which opened for the first time 29 years ago this weekend.

With his handheld camcorder, Steve filmed each stage of the process. The result is a poignant story of something lost and something gained – and Brunton Park going through a changing era. At the time he gave copies of the original footage to Michael Knighton, the club’s then chairman and owner, as well as long-standing director Andrew Jenkins.

Otherwise, it had never appeared publicly until Steve and his son Paul last year rediscovered the films he made, and decided it was the right time to share them. The East Stand, over the last year, has been subject to a dramatic renovation of its own under the Piatak family, Carlisle’s current owners. That, and the passing of three decades since the old ‘Scratcher’ was no more, made it feel appropriate to introduce the footage to a wider audience.

Steve's film shows the Scratching Pen in its final days before demolitionSteve's film shows the Scratching Pen in its final days before demolition (Image: Steve Doyle)

Steve gave a copy to the club, who have had the film remastered with help from the University of Cumbria and made it available through their CUTV subscription platform – and also shared everything with the News & Star. He invited me to his home to sift through the visuals and talk about the process, as well as the heart of what was, quite profoundly, a labour of love.

“I’d stood with my dad, my grandad and friends in the Scratching Pen for many, many years,” says Steve, who is 80. “To me, knocking it down was not good. Sacrilege, in a way.

“So I got in touch with Michael Knighton and said, ‘Can I film it before it goes?’ And he said yes, so long as he could have a copy. So he gave me complete access to the ground, and I did it in 15 sessions.”

Steve's film shows the east side of Brunton Park how it used to be...Steve's film shows the east side of Brunton Park how it used to be... (Image: Steve Doyle)

Steve began filming before the work started on Brunton Park’s east side. In the early sections of the footage there are shots from a distance, showing the full sweep of the Scratcher, and close-up walkarounds inside it. On the screen, the old terracing – its steps, its basic catering facilities, its signs and shapes, what lies beneath – is restored. For the first time since I stood there, I can see the place from which I watched my first United game, against Liverpool in 1989.

Fans of several generations will be similarly rapt. Steve’s own story on the Scratcher goes back immensely. “I was two,” he says when I ask when he was first on there. “It will have been a reserve game. I’ll show you where I used to stand,” he adds, as the camera pans along the terrace from its interior.

“There – behind the second post in from the Waterworks End. Later that became the away support area, so we had to move to the third post in. I wasn’t happy about that, either, but that’s the way it was.

Some of the facilities at the back of the 'Scratcher' are brought back to life by Steve's footageSome of the facilities at the back of the 'Scratcher' are brought back to life by Steve's footage (Image: Steve Doyle)

“When I was recording this, I would stand behind my second post and remember Ginger Thompson scoring a goal there, Alf Ackerman’s hat-trick against Birmingham City in 1957…the emotions of doing it were immense. There’s no other word to describe it.”

Steve was an experienced filmmaker, having produced numerous wildlife films, some of which won awards. Capturing the changing side of Brunton Park – part of its own life force, when the Scratcher was busy and loud, but come the summer of 1995 quiet and doomed – was a different case of looking, and recording.

Steve's footage shows the demolition of the Scratching Pen ahead of the East Stand's construction, in 1995-1996Steve's footage shows the demolition of the Scratching Pen ahead of the East Stand's construction, in 1995-1996 (Image: Steve Doyle)

Each chapter of the story on Steve’s film stirs the memory, from the shots of the Scratcher in all its glory, then without its roof ahead of its demolition. The time when it all started coming down was the hardest for Steve to watch. “It was absolutely awful. I was just thinking, ‘Please don’t do it!’ Eventually, all I did was stand on the other side of the ground, by the tunnel, and say, ‘It’s gone. It’s gone’.”

We see workers clearing out the Scratcher, then the framework being put into place for the new East Stand, followed by footage inside and outside of the development, and views from the executive boxes which, until last year, were left uncompleted. Along the way we see other relics of the time: the old training pitch around the back of the Scratcher, and advertising boards for the ‘United Bond’, one of Knighton’s failed schemes.

Steve's footage shows the East Stand taking shapeSteve's footage shows the East Stand taking shape (Image: Steve Doyle)

We are taken along the road to the East Stand’s eventual completion, its first game in use – a 2-1 defeat to Wrexham on April 13, 1996 – and then its official opening, that summer, at a pre-season friendly against Bolton Wanderers. Steve, and his camera, were on the pitch for the ceremony, involving Knighton, Nat Lofthouse, David Dent, Martin Hudson, John Halpin and other officials. A cheque from the Football Trust, pledging £1.125m to the stand’s construction, is brandished and tape is cut to mark the new stand’s birth.

Steve says he spoke to the great Lofthouse that day, and found the Bolton and England legend “very proud” to have brought his team to Carlisle on such an occasion. Knighton himself? “We had loads of cups of coffee in the main stand. I got on well with him. There was a lot of buzz about the club and the city at the time.”

The filmed journey from Scratching Pen to East Stand was also evocative for Steve’s son Paul. He remembers areas on the old terrace that “used to bounce a little bit”, and also recalled, as a seven-year-old on the other side of the ground, being able to see the M6 traffic from beyond the top edge of the old Scratcher, and that view being gone for good once the new stand rose.

One of the old floodlight pylons, which was taken down recently, stands proudly again in Steve’s film. Anyone who watches the footage will find their own memories restored, and may find it a little hard to square what they see, and what they remember, with what stands there now: an East Stand equipped with lounges and executive facilities as a result of the Piataks’ multi-million pound investment.

After unearthing the three-decades-old footage, Steve shared it with the club and the News & StarAfter unearthing the three-decades-old footage, Steve shared it with the club and the News & Star (Image: Ben Holmes)

As Steve methodically categorised each part of the story, he ended the film with some written narration. This, he says, is his “own stamp” on it all and it very much takes us back to those lost boyhood years in the 40s and 50s when he mentions “the rust dropping down on our heads as the ball bounced on the roof”.

“I saw the end of the Scratching Pen,” the words go on, at the conclusion of this account of structural change and emotional upheaval. “Gone but not forgotten. Goodbye, old friend.”