Barrow AFC: volunteers refurbish rooms in the stadium

The ground maintenance volunteers, who started putting their spare time into doing work at Holker Street 12 years ago as fans of the club, have spruced up the players' family room and the corporate corridor. 

Before and after with the FA trophy room (Image: Submitted)

The Bluebirds' fans are also on hand to fix urgent repairs, said volunteer Ian Rainford. 

"Everybody that goes down has to be a big supporter of the club, and it is a good thing we all get on," he said. "Even on Boxing Day the lads are out litter picking," he added.  

The crew volunteer their time to take on maintenance projects at the stadium (Image: Submitted) Even fans living outside the area have contributed to the club. "A lad from Manchester in a kitchen workshop made all the orders to measure for us," he said.

They also replaced 'a few old tables' in the corporate area. 

The kitchen units donated to the club (Image: Submitted)

On Sunday mornings, around 12 will go down and help with maintenance projects in the stadium. "We have saved [the club] an absolute fortune. Even something as simple as litter picking," Ian said. 

Mike Else, son of Fred Else, looks at the photo of his father. Mike is one of the volunteers and officially opened the Fred Else corporate room (Image: Submitted) Ian is well aware of the finances of a League Two club. The volunteers want to pay homage to a group of businessmen who saved the club from extinction back in 1999 by putting up a picture of Brian Keen and Steve Leonard in the players' family room. They are currently looking for good photos of the '99 generation to blow up and put in the room. 

Paul Hornby, the chairman of Barrow AFC (right) joined Mike Else to officially open the Fred Else room (Image: Submitted) Brian Keen, who was given the role of life president, died on August 13 and took a final trip past the stadium as part of his funeral.

In 2021, the ground maintenance volunteers unveiled a newly refurbished press box after a donation from the Barrow National Supporters Club. 

The refurbished players' family room (Image: Submitted) Levi Gill, the former Bluebirds Trust director at Barrow AFC, said in 2019 after work on The Cross Bar and the West Terrace: "Some of the ‘non-essential’ work simply wasn’t affordable had we paid commercial rates, and our ground maintenance team deserve huge recognition for the work that they’ve done."