Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the seventh chapter of the book (a 10,500 word section). This focuses on football as a business (yes, it was a business even then!), the move into league football for Manchester’s clubs and the relaunch of them as Manchester City and Manchester United.
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Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the sixth chapter of the book (a 10,000 word section). This focuses on the earliest Manchester entrants in the FA Cup, as well as Ardwick AFC and Newton Heath.
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Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the fifth chapter of the book (a 8,200 word section). This focuses on the establishment of clubs in the 1870s and 1880s, including City and United’s predecessors.
Subscribing costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or you could sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year. Every subscriber gets access to everything posted on the site.
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the fourth chapter of the book (a 11,000 word section). This focuses on the footballing communities that developed during the mid to late 1800s.
Subscribing costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or you could sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year. Every subscriber gets access to everything posted on the site.
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the third chapter of the book (a 11,500 word section). This focuses on the mid 1800s and the development of Manchester’s earliest known association football club Hulme Athenaeum and its long term impact.
Subscribing costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or you could sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year. Every subscriber gets access to everything posted on the site.
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the second chapter of the book (another 5,000 word section). This focuses mainly on the early to mid 1800s and talks of the development of Manchester and the sporting growth occurring at that time, including forms of football as well as cricket and horse racing etc..
Subscribing costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or you could sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year. Every subscriber gets access to everything posted on the site.
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the first chapter of the book (a 5,000 word section). This focuses mainly on the middle ages up to the early 1800s and talks of the 1608 ban on football in Manchester, Peterloo and leisure activities such as cockfighting and early cricket activity, as well as football of course. There is material in every section of the book that should interest fans of Manchester football, no matter which team you support, or academic researchers/historians.
Subscribing costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or you could sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year. Every subscriber gets access to everything posted on the site.
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the introduction to the book. There is material in every section of the book that should interest fans of Manchester football, no matter which team you support, or academic researchers/historians.
Subscribing costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or you could sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year. Every subscriber gets access to everything posted on the site.
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
Every Monday starting on 3 August 2025 I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. There is material in every section of the book that should interest fans of Manchester football, no matter which team you support, or academic researchers/historians.
Subscribing costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or you could sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year. Every subscriber gets access to everything posted on the site.
Years before Manchester City created the Maine Road stadium and housing filled all sides of the street a field on the road was used for football and other sporting activity. The area was quite rural in the 1860s and 1870s but gradually housing and industry swamped the area. Maine Road itself was originally called Dog Kennel Lane and it used to continue past its current end point with a bend in the road changing its direction south towards the area of Hough End (see below for map etc.).
I’ve talked about Dog Kennel Lane a lot over the years and include its story and why the name of the street changed in Farewell To Maine Road and elsewhere on this site. Here’s an early mention of Dog Kennel Lane in relation to football. Manchester Association were the city’s prominent team in the mid 1870s and early 1880s. They promoted the game extensively and subscribers can read their story here:
I explain a lot more about them in The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919.
The brief newspaper cutting from 1882 mentions their Dog Kennel Lane ground. On the following I show where Maine Road was later built but the Manchester ground was probably further up the road/lane towards what became Great Western Street.
An early 20th century interpretation of an older map, showing modern streets (dotted) with the original roads.Manchester Association at Dog Kennel Lane, 1882
If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:
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