Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Couple Find Signatures Of Mersey Football Legends Bill Shankly & Ray Wilson In Living Room


Merseyside footballing legends Bill Shankly and Ray Wilson really did leave their mark – scribbling their cheeky signatures on the wall of a home.

Everton FA Cup hero Wilson, 75, was handed the same football club-owned house in Huddersfield Shanks vacated when his managerial career moved on in the 1950s.

Wilson moved everything into his new home only to find the beloved Liverpool FC icon had scrawled “Bill Shankly was here” above the dining room door.

Wilson, then just 18, couldn’t resist adding: “And so was Ray Wilson” in biro underneath.

Remarkably, both signatures still exist on the wall of the family home in Huddersfield.

Retired couple Antony and Sandra Greenwood have lived there since 1964 after paying just £2,000 to buy the house from Huddersfield Town FC.

It was Shankly’s home when he managed the club – famously signing a teenage Denis Law to the West Yorkshire side before he moved on to manage Liverpool in 1959.

The club handed the house to Wilson who played for Huddersfield for 12 years before following Shanks across the M62 to play for Everton in 1964.

Two years later he would play in the Blues celebrated 3-2 comeback win over Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup and lift the World Cup with England.

Former garage owner Mr. Greenwood, 73, was stunned to find both men’s signatures when he stripped the walls and 45 years later they still remain.

He said: “My sister lived three doors away and told me the house was going on the market. It was our first house when we got married,

“We knew Ray Wilson lived there after Shankly. Soon after we moved in we stripped the walls and there above the door it was written in ballpoint in his handwriting, with Ray adding his comment as well.

“They didn’t leave anything else in the house – there were lots of beer bottles in the old garage but I don’t know if they were Ray’s or Bill’s.”

Mrs. Greenwood, 69, said: “They hadn’t really changed the place that much because they would have been tenants of the club.

“Maybe the club sold the house because it was going to cost too much to modernise or the footballers were getting paid enough to buy their own.

“We’ve changed it of course, there’s now an extension across the back of the kitchen and the kitchen and dining room are open plan now.”

Mildred Wadsworth, 86, has been the couple’s neighbour since they moved in.

She has lived in the road for 64 years and remembers the Shankly family well.

She said: “Bill would play football with the local boys and of course it was a great opportunity for them.

“His wife Nessie was in the Huddersfield Flower Arranging Club and they had two girls Barbara and Jeannette. They were a lovely family.

“But I didn’t get to know Bill as well, of course. He was all about football. He wasn’t interested in anything else.”

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