Inside the Everton FC Heritage Society in St Luke's Church next to Goodison Park.
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00:00The Heritage Society was the brainchild of David France along with the former players
00:08association and also the Everton collection which was formerly the David France collection
00:14which is probably the best collection of football memorabilia programmes badges caps and everything
00:21in the world. The guys who started it started on a table outside having meetings before we got to
00:28St Luke's and then it's progressed through all the hard work of the members starting with Paul Wharton,
00:37George Orr, Brendan Connolly and Paul Kelly and then after them myself, Steve Blee's, the Rulateros,
00:48Gaz Jones, Reg, Tom, Toffee Art, Tom Regan, so we usually come here three or four hours, it's like six
00:59hours today because we're getting that many responses and people want to come in to see what we do.
01:04We do this for the fans and we'll always do it for the fans before and after we leave St Luke's
01:13and Goodison Park. We do a lot of stuff you don't see on a Saturday, a lot of videos on our website,
01:21a lot of really good researchers and authors who do a lot of articles about Everton, our past history,
01:30past players. We've spent a lot of time putting time and effort into getting former players whose
01:38gravestones either fell into disrepair or never had a gravestone because they never ever could afford it.
01:46I think one of the first ones we did just before I came was Alex Sandy Young who scored our winning
01:58goal in the 1906 FA Cup final against Newcastle and he had a pauper's grave and so he was like our first
02:07main big goal scorer in like the turn of the century. Prior to that we had Fred Geary who was
02:16just another awesome goal scorer and I think Everton have prided themselves on goal scorers,
02:21obviously Dixie Dean being the number one that everybody talks about but you've got to remember
02:26from the 84-85 and onwards after Graham Sharp, other players were at Romelu Lukaku, Duncan Fergus and Joe
02:35Royal. You can name and keep on going about the number nines but we need to celebrate it.
02:41I've been watching Everton since 1951. My first game was in the 29th of December 1951. We played Leeds
02:49and we won. I recycle stuff, metal, wood, plastic, we have all kinds of stuff for the Heritage Society,
02:57brings people in and the stuff I've sold you wouldn't believe. People have got man caves, log cabins
03:04everything and it's really good it keeps the society going, attracts a lot more people.
03:11We've actually got a new place now down by the docks right facing the new dock. The guy who owns the
03:17new blue house has kindly given us a whole floor of his warehouse which we're hoping to take access for
03:24next weekend. It'll be amazing, absolutely amazing and potentially open seven days a week because
03:33there won't be just football, there'll be concerts and all kinds there. So we bring a lot of people in
03:39here and it's sad to see it go but we had to move. We need the finances as you've seen from the new
03:46stadiums now it's bringing lots of people. You've got rugby coming, concerts coming, fashion shows,
03:52everything about it. So it's just looking forward to it all. It's Home and Away Everton programmes up to
03:59modern day era. We're a charity so we live off donations from supporters who want to come in and
04:08donate a lot of their programmes which are in the loft or are about to get thrown away on a rubbish tip
04:14and they want them to go to good homes of fellow collectors really and we have a huge every single
04:24home game collectors coming in and increasing their collection and getting programmes that they need.
04:32The last few seasons we've seen a lot of young children with their nans and granddads and their
04:38mums and dads who've become Everton programme collectors which is quite special in itself because
04:46you know that the hobby is going to carry on with those young Everton collectors and
04:52it's a really nice special feeling. In the church here I represent the Ruletero Society
04:57which is the fan friendship society between Everton here and Everton of Viña del Mar in Chile
05:03and every match they hear we do a stall with a display of stuff about Everton in Chile and all
05:11the other Evertons in South America there's six of them we've got a map there showing where they are
05:18and we sell we sell stuff we sell t-shirts badges and so on. I'll tell you what I think it's pretty
05:23unique and you hear that from away fans who come in here because it's always packed with Evertonians
05:29but when away fans come in they go I wish our club had something like this. It's because well let's
05:34face it we're very proud of our history and there's a lot of it. I think for a lot of people they come
05:39in here and they come in here as a bit of a ritual before the game. There's people I see every home
05:45game come up here. There's a guy who lives up in Burnley comes in with his granddaughter and I speak to
05:50them. Fans who arrived from America and all points west south east and north calling here as well and
06:01it's just it's a lovely atmosphere. Me personally I don't want to go to be honest. I'll get excited
06:08once we're there but at the moment I'm just dominated by Goodison, my heart and soul in that place and
06:15this place actually because we've been in here a long time in the church doing this but Goodison
06:19particularly I don't want to leave it. I don't even want to think about the last game. I know one
06:24thing for sure I'll be weeping. Mainly we're here to promote the club. Obviously we sell a lot of
06:33memorabilia and a lot of programmes that we either get donated to us or we buy at a reduced rate off
06:44off the club through the through the princes. The idea the money all goes to either charities that we
06:50run we actually send stuff a lot of stuff out to Kit Aid in Africa and all over all over the world to
06:57be honest with you now and we're here in St Luke's before every home game three hours before kickoff we
07:04open up and then we close just before kickoff. The whole idea of us is to promote the history of Everton
07:11football club and the beauty of the place here is that there's somewhere for the fans to come
07:17before they go into the match and they can either spend some money or not spend any money but just
07:22have a good look around at all all the shirts and all the different things and the kids come in and
07:26they just they think it's fantastic it's like an Aladdin's cave. When the Southampton game is completed
07:32and if anybody wants any Southampton programs come in here they're only a tenner apparently and they're
07:39going to be a special very special special one for goodbye to Goodison. So yeah we'll we're here
07:46and we'll hopefully be there and carry on what we do. It's amazing how many friends we've met in
07:53here. I mean I used to coach at Everton. I was at the Centre of Excellence at Wigan and then the Academy
08:01at Everton and it's been in my blood all my life. Being in this church in the Everton
08:07Everton it means a lot to me like I've got friends from all over Europe and England
08:12and they actually love coming here to visit. A lot of them say if not all of them it's their favourite
08:17away grounds. They love the experience of being here the knowledge that people give them you can
08:23pick their own Everton versus whoever knowledge or whatever programs and souvenirs. It's a good
08:29experience for them so it'll be one of the good things that we can take from Goodison with us to
08:34the new stadium. It's a unique club Everton football club it's not got the old cliche saying it's a family
08:40but it literally literally is it's like an institution so I go now with some of my mates sons
08:46Tom Act is half my age and all that and they're always asking to tell us all the stories and all
08:51the games about the club and that they love it. For this calendar year I've been looking to raise
08:55money for the church it's been badly damaged so there's been the floorboards have sadly risen
09:00the tiles off the roof the boiler which commercial boiler has gone and so it's been badly impacted so
09:06we're trying to raise money to help out because it is key for the community not just of course it's
09:11got a lot of ties to Everton and that's incredible but it is also a local community they used to have a
09:15nursery down here they've also used to have karate classes things like that for youngsters but can
09:20no longer do due to the damage so been looking to raise money there so I've been doing bits online
09:25I've got a photo exhibition we've got now we've had the FA Cup so people can get photos of that
09:30and then yeah I walked 83 miles recently from Goodison Park to Molyneux Wolverhampton
09:38to try and raise further funds so it's been a full-time job relentless but been really great
09:43I think we're around about 15,000 so far so it's absolutely amazing that everyone's been helping
09:48out and really appreciate it. It's going to be strange it's all I've known I've been coming here
09:52since I was like seven year old and so and yeah getting close to my 40s now so to be doing the same
09:59thing every every every second weekend for 30 years who else can say they were doing the exact same thing
10:04that as they were 30 years ago so it's it's going to be so strange and it's exciting lots of new things
10:11to come with and but yeah just trying to embrace the change but it will be quite gut-wrenching on the
10:17last day
10:23you