For all the bad weather, industrial disputes, narrow escapes and even controversy over a new theatre, the most memorable event of 1973 for many happened at the Baseball Ground.

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The sensational resignation of Derby County’s flamboyant young manager, Brian Clough, and his assistant, Peter Taylor, was, undoubtedly the greatest talking point of a busy news year.

It was an episode that has echoes, even 35 years later.

In an age when football managers were still largely in the background, Clough’s high profile, his television appearances and newspaper articles, had angered the game’s rulers, who instructed Rams chairman Sam Longson to keep his maverick manager in check.

Matters came to a head after a 1-0 victory at Old Trafford in mid-October.

Clough and Taylor, already irritated to learn that the Rams had made no provision for their wives in the visiting directors’ box, returned to the Baseball Ground to discover that the bar in Clough’s office had been cleared.

Two days later, Clough and Taylor were handed a letter from Longson, demanding that all future newspaper articles must be submitted to the board.

Clough’s reaction was typical. He and Taylor rang Longson and asked for a special board meeting that night to tender their resignations.

Longson refused, insisting that Clough put his resignation in writing. The board then announced that the resignations had been accepted, although one director, Mike Keeling, had resigned in protest.

An undignified press conference saw both sides holding court in the same room. It ended with Longson being prised away by another director, Jack Kirkland.

What followed was even more sensational. For the next game, at home to Leicester City, the players were greeted by the sight of Longson, in the directors’ box, and Clough, from an adjoining stand, vying for the support of a 32,000 crowd.

Both men stood waving to the crowd, Longson apparently thinking that the cheers for Clough were intended for him.

His point made, Clough left the ground to appear on the Michael Parkinson TV chat show. As public protest meetings were being organised, Rams skipper Roy McFarland handed a letter to the board demanding the pair’s reinstatement.

The players asked Clough and Taylor to meet them at the Kedleston Hotel, where they showed them the letter.

Clough asked the players to take their wives and children to the Newton Park Hotel, near Burton, that evening.

It was there that a staggering suggestion was made – that the players should fly out of the country, so that they could not play for the Rams that Saturday.

It was an outrageous suggestion and would have put the players in breach of their contracts.

Next morning, solicitors acting for Clough issued a High Court writ against Derby County and five directors, alleging libel “in a written statement published on or about 18 October”.

Derby’s directors had already chosen their replacement – former Rams skipper Dave Mackay. The players met at Archie Gemmill’s home and waited for a response from the board.

They heard nothing so, each in turn, telephoned the Baseball Ground, asking to speak to a director. Each request was refused, until they were told all directors had left the ground.

Undaunted, the Rams players drove to the ground. What they saw confirmed their suspicions. Jack Kirkland’s Mercedes was parked outside the directors’ entrance and, in the boardroom, a light was burning.

For four hours, the players laid siege to the Baseball Ground in one of the most amazing episodes in the history of any football club.

Eventually, Kirkland and secretary Stuart Webb emerged from a darkened boardroom with the players just down the corridor and sped off to Nottingham to sign Mackay, leaving a shocked town still reeling.

There would be no comeback for Brian Clough.

The Rams had caused controversy earlier in the year when the club announced plans to move to a new, state-of-the-art football arena on Derby Racecourse, only a stone’s throw from the club’s original home.

Because any such project would eat up so much public open space, Derby Town Council were careful to ally concerns.

Their policy committee chairman, Councillor G.F. Salt, noted plans were “at a very early stage...the directors had no particular site in mind and...no detailed plans had been prepared.”

Rams fans would face a considerable period of uncertainty on more than one front.

In contrast, the town council’s audit and finance committee gave the go-ahead for a £600,000 scheme to build a new theatre. But even that decision had not been unanimous.

Councillor Gladys Harlow admitted: “This expenditure terrifies me.”

Although the Derbyshire Building Society had agreed to loan the project £131,500, it would do so only if the council agreed to be guarantor.

This was in addition to the council’s commitment of a grant of £150,000 and another loan of £150,000. Councillor J.J. Parsons, on the other hand, feared “it would be a tragedy” if the theatre was not built and, in a few years’ time, the town found itself without a theatre altogether.

Alderman A.J. Bussell agreed: “We have got to have the courage to go ahead.”

By the time Evening Telegraph theatre critic Geoff Hammerton began his review of 1973, work on the new building had begun.

He felt “a sense of anticipation of the adventure ahead” and a move from a street he described as “a mouldering ruin”.

It was not just the buildings of Sacheverel Street that could be so described. In early February, a dustmen’s strike over plans to make them clock on and off meant that many business and private premises had not had a refuse collection in over a week.

According to the Evening Telegraph: “The men’s action is causing a growing health and fire hazard with heaps of rubbish blocking some town centre pavements.”

There was little comment on the dispute from either side, with both putting up what the Evening Telegraph called “their wall of silence”.

Councillor George Salt, chairman of the establishments committee, refused to comment other than to confirm that the matter had been discussed at a sub-committee meeting.

As the dispute continued, Derbeians were surely grateful that it had not begun in high summer.

A gas workers’ strike in the middle of a cold winter gave additional cause for concern. With the strike affecting only supplies of manufactured, or town, gas, Derby residents were assured that their supplies were safe, save for the possibility of a loss in pressure.

For other areas, like Ilkeston, Chesterfield and parts of South-East Derbyshire, all of which had yet to switch over to natural gas, there were grave concerns.

Schools made plans to provide cold meals for pupils in the event of partial cuts and head teachers were warned that if supplies failed entirely, they would have to close their schools.

Meanwhile, 14-year-old Kevin Lucas was sent home from Noel Baker School, not because of a gas cut, but because of his “long, shoulder-length hair”.

Headmaster, Mr G. John, told the Evening Telegraph that he had spoken to a number of pupils about the length their hair but that Kevin had refused to cut his.

The young lad’s father, window cleaner Alfred Lucas, argued: “It is a matter of principle. If I kept him away from school, they would soon come knocking on my door.”

But Mr John was steadfast: “With 1,760 pupils, you must have rules and maintain standards.”

For his part, Kevin told reporters that, given the choice, he would rather be transferred to another school, or leave school entirely.

Of great interest to historians was the discovery, during work to lay a sewer, of two large hippopotamus teeth at Boulton Moor. Subsequently the remains of straight-tusked elephants, brown bears, red deer, hyenas, oxen and an extinct form of rhinoceros were also unearthed in the area.

In August, rising temperatures – as high as 79.9F according to local amateur meteorologist Mr M. Matthews, of Brayfield Road, Littleover – led to record ice-cream sales and to the Queen Street Baths being “packed solid” for several days.

But, when the heatwave was broken by hours of torrential rain over much of the county, reservoirs were soon full and rivers began to burst their banks.

Many main roads became inaccessible due to surface water, several houses at Glossop were flooded out and there were forced evacuations at Woolley Bridge and Dinting Dale.

One Derby family were just grateful to be alive. In February, a quick-thinking mother-of-six and her neighbours averted tragedy at a house fire in Grey Street.

Jennifer Millward had been sleeping downstairs in her terrace house with her baby, Lisa, and her four-year-old, Wesley, when she was awoken by the cries of her other children upstairs.

“I could hear the fire. I went to shut the kitchen door because I thought the flames were coming from there but they flung me back. My only thoughts were for the children”.

She quickly brought three-year-old Robin downstairs and told the older children to go to the window. She woke neighbours across the road and 19-year-old Alan Crossley climbed on to an outhouse roof to help the remaining children escape through a rear bedroom window.

Nine-year-old Adele and Mark, eight, came out willingly, but six-year-old Patricia would not climb out, so Mr Crossley had to kick in the window and pluck her from the burning house.

By the end of the year, industrial and economic uncertainty had returned. In October, the OPEC Middle Eastern oil-producing nations announced a limit to the oil they would sell to countries they saw as allies of Israel.

With the prices of petrol and oil sky-rocketing, manufacturers took steps to cut back on unnecessary expenditure.

By Christmas, these cutbacks had begun to filter down to workers’ pay packets.

In Derby, the Evening Telegraph reported a “Workers’ Christmas Pay Energy Cutback”, although only British Celanese at Spondon took immediate action, cutting overtime and implementing a 40-hour week.

Rolls-Royce, Aiton and Co, and Leys Malleable Castings elected to keep a close eye on the developing crisis before making any announcements.

With a three-day working week about to be imposed by the Government, Derby’s workers looked to 1974 with bated breath.

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