Everton Goodison Park: Heritage society prepares for ‘gut-wrenching’ Goodison goodbye

Ahead of Everton’s final game at Goodison Park - the stadium which has been the club’s home for over 130 years - we visited the Everton FC Heritage Society.

Everton FC Heritage Society - St Luke’s Church, Goodison Road

Based in St Luke’s Church, situated on the corner of Goodison Park, the Everton FC Heritage Society offers a range of memorabilia displays and stalls for matchgoers to browse before the game.

For the last few home fixtures, the team - made up of volunteers - have been spending six hours at the church, compared to their usual three hours, due to the massive interest in the society.

Richard Gillham, Secretary of the EFC Heritage Society, said: “We do this for the fans, and we'll always do it for the fans before and after we leave St Luke's and Goodison Park.

“We do a lot of stuff you don't see on a Saturday, a lot of videos on our website, a lot of really good researchers and authors who do a lot of articles about Everton, our past history, past players.

“We've spent a lot of time and effort into getting former players whose gravestones either fell into disrepair or never had a gravestone because they never could afford it. I think one of the first ones we did just before I came was Alex ‘Sandy’ Young who scored our winning goal in the 1906 FA Cup final against Newcastle.”

Everton de Viña del Mar in Chile

Steve Nolan, from the Ruleteros Society, the fan society between Everton and Everton de Viña del Mar in Chile, said: “I'll tell you what I think it's pretty unique and you hear that from away fans who come in here because it's always packed with Evertonians but when away fans come in they go, ‘I wish our club had something like this’.

“I think a lot of people come in here as a bit of a ritual before the game. There's people I see every home game come up here. There's a guy who lives up in Burnley who comes in with his granddaughter and I speak to them, fans who arrive from America and it's a lovely atmosphere.”

Ray Owen, Everton fan, said: “Being in this church, in the Everton Heritage Society, means a lot to me. I've got friends from all over Europe and they actually love coming here to visit. A lot of them say, if not all of them, it's their favourite away ground. They love the experience of being here, the knowledge that people give them, they can pick their own Everton programme and souvenirs up and it's a good experience for them. It'll be one of the good things that we can take from Goodison with us to the new stadium.”

St Luke’s Church fundraiser

Gaz Jones, from the heritage society, said: “I've been looking to raise money for the church, it's been badly damaged, so there's been the floorboards have sadly risen, the tiles off the roof, the commercial boiler has gone, so it's been badly impacted so we're trying to raise money to help out because it is key for the community.

“I walked 83 miles recently from Goodison Park to Molineux, Wolverhampton, to try and raise further funds so it's been a full-time job, relentless but been really great. It's absolutely amazing that everyone's been helping out and really appreciate it.”

To donate for Gaz’s Walk for St Luke’s Church visit his fundraising page here.