Piece of Featherstone history stolen

James Gordon

Featherstone have appealed for the safe return of a photograph stolen from the club’s heritage display.

The item is a panoramic Melba Studios of Sydney photograph of the Great Britain Colt’s side that Tony O’Toole played in when he was at Rovers. The photograph was donated by O’Toole himself, and a club statement said he was “very hurt that someone (would) want to steal this item of immense sentimental and historical value.”

Rovers’ Heritage Officer, Chris Westwood responsible for the display and interpretation of Rovers’ history along with colleague Terry Jones said: “It’s hard to believe that anyone would want to steal this. 

“It certainly can’t be anyone who cares about Rovers and the achievements of people like Tony. This kind of thing hurts, but there is no way an act like this can put us of the work that we do in reminding Rovers’ fans and anyone who visits the club what a proud history we have. 

“We’d like to appeal to anyone who has any information about this theft to get in touch with the club on 01977 702386. I would urge anyone who cares about Rovers to keep their eyes and ears open and to ‘put the word out on the street’, so that we can recover the photograph as soon as possible, again confidentiality is assured.”