On Friday 15th August 2025, Sheffield Home of Football will unveil its latest blue plaque in the city.
This special plaque marks the location of Park House, which was Sheffield FC’s first club house & changing rooms. ‘All organised football clubs need somewhere to change & meet. The world’s first modern football club, Sheffield FC was no different, so this was truly the Birthplace of Modern Association Football,’ says Steve Wood, historian and one of the trustees of the charity.
‘When the club formed in October 1857, they played at East Bank in Turners field adjacent to Mr Thomas Asline Ward’s house called PARK HOUSE’. ‘Nearby was the Creswick family home, East Hill House, making getting to football for Nathaniel Creswick, the club’s co-founder an easy walk across East Bank Road.’ ‘The potting shed of Park House became the nearby convenient space to form the world very first changing rooms & club house for a modern association football club.’ ‘This was the age of very early football administration and so being a potting shed the club members sometimes made use of the discarded potatoes lying around on the floor to ballot members or take votes during meetings held in there.’
‘For the first year of play at East Bank Sheffield FC’s club members experimented with various football rules, discussing their ideas of how to play the game in the potting shed and then putting them to practise out on the pitch besides Park House. thus, making this area the world’s biggest sport’s conception location.’
‘Park House no longer stands, but in 1857 it could be found located on the junction of Olive Grove Road and East Bank Road’. MFH’s Ltd’s south yard & the northern end of the Sheffield College building now currently occupies the area where the house & garden once existed.’
‘We believe the field the players ran out onto was directly south of Park House, now the area covered by the Sheffield College building, the Olive Grove bus depot staff car park and the Midland railway.’ ‘A few years after starting life at Park House, Sheffield FC started to use another field at East Bank just west of their first.
‘This became a convenient opportunity to build a new club house along what was Strawberry Hall Lane and allowed the club two playing areas using the original “top” field when the “bottom” field, nearest the Sheaf River, became too boggy. ‘Strawberry Hall lane is now Queens Road, and this second pitch would have covered most of the southern end of the current B&Q car park, concludes Steve.
We believe, this area is so significant in the history of the game that it merits commemoration with a Sheffield Home of Football Blue plaque, which will be our tenth and quite a milestone for us.’
The unveiling will take place on Friday 15th August at 11.00am outside MFH Hire, 38 East Bank Road, Sheffield S2 3PS and we hope you will join us to mark this occasion’,
