A CLICKING turnstile salvaged from the demolition of Burnden Park is to become the gateway to a fantastic journey through the glorious history of Bolton Wanderers to the evolution of the fabulous Reebok Stadium.

It will be all hi-tech and inter-action but, when Nat Lofthouse opens the new £550,000 Museum and Visitor Centre on April 6, nostalgia will be the real name of the game.

The highlight will be an eight-minute video, running continuously through the day in the 48-seat lecture theatre, taking visitors back in time to the birth of the Wanderers, through the glory days of the Twenties and Fifties to memorable highlights from the modern era, including 'that' Frank Worthington goal from April 1979 and, of course, the emotional Farewell to Burnden.

Dramatic footage of the giant bulldozers and the construction work that turned the old Red Moss site at Lostock into one of the most impressive football grounds in Europe brings the story right up to date.

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ut it's more than just a tale of two grounds. The new attraction at the Reebok, which includes Cafe '58, commemorating the last great FA Cup triumph, and the already successful study support centre, opened by Education and Employment Secretary David Blunkett last week, is a celebration of a football club's past and its evolution into a force for the new millennium.

There is a special tribute to the Wartime Wanderers, who marched off together to volunteer for service in September 1939, while the oldest exhibit is a season ticket from 1885.

Yet there are ultra-modern 'hands-on' experiences with visitors able to call up a clip of their favourite goal on a state-of-the-art. touch-screen display while those with a sense of history can examine the trophies and gifts Wanderers have collected on their travels down the years.

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any of the hundreds of exhibits were found in dust-filled cupboards or long-forgotten nooks and crannies when Burnden Park was cleared. But they have been salvaged to offer fans and outsiders alike a peep into the Wanderers past.

Design consultant Andrew Hobson has seen the project through from start to finish with the help of Wanderers' historian, Simon Marland, and press officer, Alan Fullelove.

An adopted Boltonian, Andrew reckons: "Whether you are a Bolton fan or just a football fan, you'll be impressed by what's on view.

"It was incredible to find so many relics of the past gathering dust in dark cupboards at Burnden Park but there has never been anywhere to display them before."

Museum admission prices will be 3.50 for adults and £2.50 for juniors and pensioners with combined museum and stadium tour tickets at £8 and £5.

Family tickets, including up to three children, will be available at £10 for the museum and £19 for the museum and tour and reductions will be available for goups of 6-10 with extra discounts for groups of 11 and over.

For details and bookings telepone 673650; from April 6 the number will changfe to 673670.

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