Three men and two villages: the influence of footballers from rural South Yorkshire on the early development of the game in Sheffield

Abstract

This article adds to the narrative of the early Sheffield football subculture. It suggests that there were three main strands of diffusion through which the game developed in and around the city – the ideas of the former pupils of Sheffield Collegiate School, one of which, Nathaniel Creswick, became a co-founder of Sheffield FC, the first club side; the minimal influence from the major public schools, with whom members of Sheffield FC communicated; individuals involved in local forms of the game in the Penistone/Thurlstone area to the north of the city. The authors highlight the part played by several individuals, specifically John Dransfield, in this process.

Notes

1. Elias and Dunning, Quest, Introduction.

2. Dunning, Sport Matters, 72–9.

3. Ibid, 38.

4. Young, Football in Sheffield, 15.

5. Steele, The Countrymen, 6.

6. Walters, History of Sheffield F.C., 4; Russell, ‘Sporadic and Curious’, 194.

7. Harvey, ‘Epoch’ Curry and Dunning, ‘Power Game’; Curry and Dunning, Association Football, Chapter 4.

8. We are thinking here of Morris Marples (1954) and, indeed, Dunning and Sheard (1979).

9. Harvey, Football, 93.

10. Harvey, ‘Curate’s Egg Pursued by Red Herrings’.

11. Sheffield’s early football development was not a long-term social process in itself; rather, it was part of the long-term process of the modern English football figuration.

12. Collegiate opened in 1836 ‘to cater for children of those who had increased their wealth in the industrial changes and were not satisfied with the old Grammar School’. (Wallis, Preface). The grammar school had been founded in 1604 as a sectarian school, and opposed Wesley College, which opened in 1838 and was favoured by non-conformists.

13. The Collegian, 1881. Sheffield Collegiate School magazine.

14. Interestingly, most sets of public school football rules had not been written down by that date. By 1857, only Rugby (1845), Eton (1847) and Shrewsbury (1855) of the major public schools had codified their game, so it might be reasonable to assume that the founders of Sheffield FC could only have received complete examples from these institutions.

15. The FA seem not to have employed the ‘rouge’, though they did use a differential scoring method or minor point system when they played as ‘London’ against Sheffield on 31 March 1866. The FA, or ‘London’, won the match by two goals and four touchdowns to nil. Their reluctance may have arisen from an attempt to distinguish themselves from public school practices. However, it should be noted that the most influential figure at the FA, Charles Alcock, was an Old Harrovian rather than a former pupil of Eton College, where the ‘rouge’ was employed in the Field Game. His lack of familiarity with the practice may have counted against its adoption.

16. Bell’s Life in London, quoted in Goulstone, 2001, 31.

17. The close links between the three are illustrated in the 1861 census, which shows a Thirza Moorhouse as housekeeper for Shaw.  Thirza Moorhouse, born in Thurlstone, was the twin sister of Elizabeth Moorhouse, mother of John Marsh. 

18. Steele, The Countrymen. Page references for Steele’s book are those of the more widely available second edition, which was published in 2010.

19. Neill and Curry, ‘John Marsh’.

20. Post Office Directory of Yorkshire, 1851, 701. Penistone Poor Law Union was created in 1849 and consisted of 15 parishes of which Thurlstone was the largest in population. Poor law unions existed for the administration of poor relief.

21. The vast majority of the information on Dransfield has been gleaned from the ‘Dransfield Cabinet’ at Penistone Library and the ‘Dransfield Box’ at Penistone Archives.

22. John Ness, Thomas Henry, Sarah Elizabeth, Lucy, William, Fanny Gertrude and George.

23. Dransfield, History of Penistone, 37.

24. Dransfield Box, Penistone Archives.

25. Atkinson is noted as attending Collegiate in the UK 1841 census.

26. Curry, ‘The Trinity Connection’.

27. Dransfield Box, Penistone Archives. It should be noted how their game appeared to be one against one.

28. Dransfield Box, Penistone Archives.

29. Ibid.

30. Curry, ‘Up’Ards, Down’Ards and Derbies: Intense Enmity in Pre-Modern Mob Football’, Soccer and Society, forthcoming.

31. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 17 March 1885

32. Steele, 2010, 21. A cordwainer is a skilled shoemaker who makes shoes from new leather as opposed to a cobbler, who simply mends old shoes.

33. Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 22 December 1860.

34. There is some disagreement as to when the Hallam Steeplechase was first run. Certainly, a race of some kind took place prior to the commencement of Hallam FC’s 1862 season. However, this appeared not to constitute the beginning of the Great Hallam Steeplechase from Sandygate, Hallam’s football ground, to Stannington church and back, which officially began in 1863. It is probably of significance that the race centenary was recognized in 1863. See Piper, Peds of the Past, 186.

35. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 17 March 1885. The game took place on 16 March 1885 and handling by the veterans appears to have been a feature. The reporter noted that ‘Mr. J.C. Shaw, getting a grip of the ball, when … he had no business to, found one of the enemy looking at him. Holding what footballers call ‘the sphere’ in his hand. He bowed “politely, most politely.”’

36. Steele, The Countrymen, 23.

37. White’s Sheffield Trades Directory, 1868, 249, 1879, 562. Also, see Slater’s Commercial Directory for Sheffield 1887, 1888, 1893, 1895–6, all of which list Shaw as Honorary Secretary of the Provincial Council for the Yorkshire Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations. By the time of the publication of Slater’s 1898 directory, there was no listing for Shaw. His move to Birmingham probably took place around 1896/1897.

Shaw was married three times to Mary Ann Garnett, Ann Waterfall and Louisa Glover. Mary and Ann had both died.

38. See Neill and Curry, ‘John Marsh’.

39. Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 30 October 1875.

40. Farnsworth, Sheffield Football, 36.

41. Wisden, 2014.

42. Holt, Sport and the British, 128.

43. Tony Collins, in his article entitled ‘Early Football and the Emergence of Modern Soccer’ (2015, 1133), claims that ‘No team from Penistone appears to have played football in Sheffield during the period of the Sheffield FA’. This claim seems to be contradicted by the fact that Dransfield became Vice-President of Penistone Football Club in 1875.