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.
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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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Continuing here: the story of Manchester City’s origins. Today’s feature is a 3,300+ word feature on the earliest known game, played in November 1880. Have a look elsewhere on the site for other content on this period.
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These articles will be available to subscribers to this site. It costs £3 per month (cancel any time) or sign up for a year for the discounted price of £20 per year (works out about £1.67 a month to access every article on this site). To date in excess of 1,500 articles/features have been posted including interviews, talks and more.
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
I did several interviews about Manchester’s early football history a decade or so ago. Most of these seemed to revolve around the story of Hulme Athenaeum. This is one of those interviews which I hope subscribers will be interested in. Sadly, I cannot recognise which radio station I did this interview for, nor can I find the exact date I did it (I’m guessing it was about 2015).
I hope subscribers enjoy it. If you do I’ll post more like this over the coming months. I’ve lots of interviews (of me and by me interviewing fans, players, managers etc.) which I’d like subscribers to listen to – if they enjoy them of course!
Anyway, here goes…
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On this day (17 April) in 1888 the Football League’s first meeting was held in Manchester. Despite stories that often circulate no Manchester team was invited to this meeting. If one had it would probably have been Manchester Association Football Club as they had the highest status at the time.
The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 1100 word article on Ardwick’s exploits in the 1891-92 season. The last season before the club joined the Football League.
Ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC? Well, now’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick and the birth of Manchester City.
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?
The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 1300 word article on Ardwick’s exploits in the 1890-91 season. This team image has been coloured to show the club’s colours of that season. Note: the story of City adopting blue and white for the first time due to Masonic influence in 1894 is a myth. The Club had been wearing blue and white from as early as 1887.
Ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC? Well, now’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick and the birth of Manchester City.
Subscribe to get access
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?
Starting today: A new series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s! Ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC? Well, now’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick and the birth of Manchester City. It starts with the second half of the 1889-90 season for Ardwick and includes a story of a floodlit game.
Subscribe to get access
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?
For well over a century football has been a crucial and popular aspect of Mancunian life. It’s been part of the city’s identity. So for today’s piece I’m taking a look at football’s early years. Here is a 1800 word overview of the major Manchester clubs that existed before today’s giants, followed by the origins of Newton Heath and St. Mark’s, who both played their earliest known games in November 1880.
This article is available to subscribers to my site.
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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £20 a year (or £3 per month if signing up a month at a time). Throughout your membership you have full access to everything on this site including interviews, recordings and PDFs of a couple of my books that have been long out of print. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think? I commit to 4 new lengthy articles per month, though in practice it’s been much more than that.
Gary James' Football Archive 