Walk #3 – Porterbrook’s Football History – S11
Starting at Montague Street entrance to the General Cemetery this walk will follow the path of Porter Brook, initially take you through Sheffield General Cemetery where we will visit the graves of some of Sheffield’s footballing greats and acknowledge the legacy they left behind.
Have you heard of the following Sheffield football pioneers?
Fred Thompson / William Prest / George Senior / William H Stacey / Mark Firth / Harry W Chambers / Thomas Youdan / James Hoyland / Charles Stokes / JB Wostinholm / Arthur Dickinson
We will then continue following Porter Brook and go onto Ecclesall Road, visiting and hearing the stories about the locations of football grounds used from 1858 onwards and the teams and people that played there. Every ground, team and player making a significant contribution in creating the unique footballing history and heritage of Sheffield.
Our Historians have discovered over 200 football clubs that we know were playing football in Sheffield to Sheffield Rules between 1857 and 1875 (see the list here). Some of these clubs played 14-a-side and had 2-3 teams playing and training regularly so that’s potentially 100+ games of football every week during the months of October to March!! Where did they play??
On this walk come and here the stories of the pitch, grounds, teams, matches, rules, and people who moved football on through 1860 to 1890 and beyond. We will talk about the following grounds:
Broomhall Collegiate School Ecclesall Road
Hunter’s Bar Brocco Bank Endcliffe Park
Endcliffe Crescent Sharrow Vale
Stories involving Albion F.C. with Billy Mosforth and the Cleggs; Collegiate Club and the salvation of Sheffield FC; Thursday Wanderers, The Wednesday; Oxford F.C.; and more Youdan Cup. Again providing evidence as to why Sheffield moved football from being a ‘game of catching, hacking, and weird offside rules’ to a more organised and structured game. Eventually leading to professional teams, sporting stadiums, and the World’s biggest and greatest sport … football.
You Will Discover
The walk will include visiting the locations where several clubs (at least 14) that played in the S11 area from 1858 to 1890, including Broomhall FC, The Wednesday FC, Thursday Wanderers FC, Ecclesall United FC, Albion FC, Oxford FC, Cemetery Road Church FC, Lockwood Brothers FC, and more.
You will need to go on Walk #2 – ‘Lost Grounds and Youdan Cup’ to find out about another 14 grounds and at least 16 teams.
We will also share more stories about the Youdan Cup; the expansion of the professional game; the Napoleon of Football; and the ‘new order’ from Sheffield that took the FA forward into the 1900s. This was a time when Sheffield established itself as the ‘CRUCIBLE’ of modern association football, not only in England but across the World.
All of this in 90-minutes plus of course the EXTRA TIME option.
Check availability & book here
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