Author: nigelfreestone1960

On Saturday, 5 November 1892, a tragic accident occurred in Barrow, Leicestershire, resulting in the death of William Charles Palmer (36), a labourer from Woodhouse Eaves. Palmer was driving a…

Leicester Chronicle – Saturday 26 February 1876

Leicestershire Football Association ruled football in the county with a rod of iron. Crimes and misdemeanours by players, officials and clubs were severely dealt with. A small selection of the…

This newspaper photograph shows the Leicester Fosse team in 1904-05, standing in front of the Manor House Hotel on Woodhouse Road in Quorn. The hotel was run by keen Quorn…

The idea of using goal nets came about in the 1890s from John Brodie, an engineer from Liverpool, England. It is said that had the idea after watching a Football…

In 1879, the Belgrave Road Cricket and Bicycle Ground Company was established with £10,000 in share capital. By November of the same year, they secured an 8-acre plot under a…

The Football Association compiled a list professional footballers registered at the start of the 1894-95 season. Leicestershire had 84 professional footballers – playing for eight clubs – Coalville Albion (6),…

The northwest Leicestershire colliery town of Whitwick staged a Football League Division 2 fixture on Saturday 31 March 1900 – between Loughborough Town and Burslem Port Vale. Three weeks earlier…

The following “Call to Arms” poem, written by Edward Oppenheim, encouraging footballers to take the King’s shilling, appeared in many newspapers during November 1914. Edward Phillips Oppenheim, born in Leicester…

An illustration of the British Ladies’ Football Club’s first public match which took place at Crouch End, London on 25 March 1895, between teams representing the ‘North’ and the ‘South’,…