Friendship Inn lives up to its name
ITS club may only be small but Glossop is at the centre of a very big footballing world, as one cyclist found out when he suffered a puncture on a 10,000-mile charity bike ride.
Former footballer Bjorn Heidenstrom from Norway was cycling between Sheffield and Stockport as part of his Oslo to Cape Town charity bike ride when he suffered a flat tyre in Glossop and wandered into the Friendship Inn.
Unknown to him it was the perfect place to help him with his journey collecting thousands of footie shirts from around the world to turn into a banner for the opening ceremony of the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
The pub is run by former Glossop North End player Michael Howard and drinking there when Bjorn arrived was GNE manager Steve Young and his player son Dave.
When the men heard about Bjorn’s challenge – which will raise money for orphans and refugees in Africa through friendship in football – they not only managed to get hold of a GNE shirt for Bjorn, but also took him out for an Indian meal and put him in touch with clubs including Stockport County, Oldham Athletic, Stalybridge Celtic and even clubs as far afield as Spain.
“I think it would be great for there to be a Glossop shirt in the banner, and I don’t like to say it, but a New Mills shirt and a Chapel shirt and a Buxton shirt — the four teams that played in the High Peak Cup,” said landlord Michael, who has put up Bjorn in his spare room since Sunday. It was completely out of the blue, he just walked in here. They (Steve and Dave Young) don’t normally drink in here on a Sunday. He ended up here for no other reason than he had a puncture at the bottom of the road.”
And for Bjorn, who has already toured Russia and Scandinavia, the welcome he received in Glossop is one he’ll never forget.
“I’m very pleased to have come to a place like Glossop, it was fantastic,” he said. “Someone asked how many shirts I was planning to get. I said 2,000, and she said ‘don’t you mean 2010?’ so that would be very nice.”
To catch up with Bjorn’s 12-month journey visit www.theshirt2010.net
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Finding Karen [Johnson]
I currently live in China, but I’m looking for Karen [Johnson] who used to live in Glossop; I’m sure her house was on or near King Street, Glossop. In 1987 Karen Johnson attended the Northern School of Fighting Arts Tae Kwon Do club in Glossop run by a guy called “Pete”, who was a friend of Alan Horton. Karen used to live not far from the club, which was an old community hall. Karen’s house was near the pub formally called The Trap, which was a very large pub, as I recall.
Karen’s husband had recently died in a motor accident at work and is buried at Glossop. She had a brother who was a car mechanic, a sister who was a solicitor and a younger sister.
I would like to contact Karen [Johnson]. Can anyone help me find Karen [Johnson]? She made many friends who attended the Tae Kwon Do club.
You can contact me by email: jtayli@yahoo.co.uk
Hi! Thanks for putting it out there! Glossop is the best place on the planet to get a flat tire…:-) Hope you can tell the mates in town that I had my best days on my trip there! I went england, wales, ireland to nortg and Scootland and then and now, Newcastle, before taking the ferry to Holland on wed.
If anyone have a mate whit a old shirt in europe or africa, please let me now…. you find adress under “how to help”
Hope to se you all waining in Cape Town with a cold beer!
Bjorn @ twitter.com/heidenstrom I’ll be back… in Glossop … and telling my new friends about you on the road!
This kit IS nice, but nothing except the patches jogs my memory with the celebration, it really should happen to be retro azteca styling