New football blue plaque celebrates Kiveton-born Herbert Chapman, ‘managerial genius, innovator and inspiration’.
One of South Yorkshire’s greatest football exports is being recognised with a blue plaque in his home village next week (Saturday 17th January 2026)
Herbert Chapman is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time-and arguably the greatest says historian John Stocks, a trustee of the charity, Sheffield Home of Football, which has erected 11 blue plaques in the city over the last two years. Only his fellow Yorkshireman, Brian Clough, can match his achievement of winning top -flight titles with separate clubs, and Clough had Peter Taylor by his side, Herbert did it twice at both Huddersfield and Arsenal.
Chapman was born in Kiveton, (Now called Kiveton Park & Wales) in Rotherham, a village that has produced 30 first class professional footballers, fine cricketers and a world super-bike champion, James Toseland. Like Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Sir Bobby Robson and Jock Stein, he was part of a coal mining community and worked at the pit as a young man.
Herbert Chapman’s vision and attention to detail delivered new levels of physical fitness on the pitch and administrative innovations such as floodlighting, white footballs, and electronic scoreboards-the holistic approach even stretched to the renaming of a local tube station as Arsenal. Herbert Chapman was not just a football manager; he was a remarkable human being. When I visited Hendon recently for a commemoration of the100th anniversary of him joining Arsenal, I saw how his memory is cherished in his adopted home.
We are pleased to be unveiling our 12th blue plaque in association with Kiveton Park & Wales History Society, whose secretary, Jon Spacie is Herbert Chapman’s great, great, nephew. We’d like to thank the blue plaque sponsor, Steve Hann, a London based lifelong Arsenal fan who got in touch with the charity, offering his support for this memorial.
The Blue Plaque will be unveiled by members of Herbert Chapman’s family at 11.00am on Saturday, 17th January 2026 at the Kiveton Community Hub, The Old Colliery Offices, Colliery Road, Kiveton Park, Sheffield, S26 6LR.
