FOOTBALL HISTORY ON THE DOORSTEP Mike Ebdy shares with us some of the football secrets hidden in our City’s streets
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ost sports fans are well aware of the prominent role that Preston North End played in the early years of the Football League. In the League’s first season, 1888-89, North End won the League without losing a match and the FA Cup without conceding a goal. Champions again the following year, they finished second in each of the next three seasons. Sadly, such glories have been in short supply in recent years. The drinkers in the wine bars in the City may well be watching the football on the big screens, but very few of them will know that their watering hole played a crucial role in the early years of the league. In the first years the league secretary was Harry Lockett of Stoke City, but in 1902 the job was taken on by Tom Charnley of North End. He worked from his home at 248 St Paul’s Road, but soon found that larger premises
were needed. In 1903 the league moved to 13, Winckley Street, just off Fishergate. The building is currently taking shape as an upmarket bar. After ten years in Winckley Street, the League moved to Castle Chambers in Market Street, and then successively to 30 Winckley Square, 102 Fishergate, and 6 Starkie Street. In 1959 the headquarters moved to Lytham St Annes, coincidentally next door to the League’s secretary Alan Hardaker.
history of the League, eight are in Preston and one in Lytham, which illustrates the importance of this area in the genesis of the game. Here is a quote from the Lilywhite magic website which sums this up nicely: “As a Preston man and PNE fan I take special pride relating how Preston North End played a leading role in forming the Football League and how the town of Preston itself was the cradle of a league now copied throughout the world” – Dave Bond.
AS A PRESTON MAN AND PNE FAN I TAKE SPECIAL PRIDE RELATING HOW PRESTON NORTH END PLAYED A LEADING ROLE IN FORMING THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE
However, in 1999 the EFL moved back to Preston Docks, and finally, in 2017, to brand-new purpose-built premises at the junction of West Cliff and Fishergate Hill. Remarkably, of the nine Headquarters in the
Even before all this happened, Preston was at the centre of the major football controversy of the day, which was professionalism. The early years of the game were dominated by public school teams, Royal Engineers and Oxford University, whose players were either gentlemen of leisure or professional salaried men who
