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..
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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 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.
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Although most Mancunians were unaware at the time, one of the players with Ardwick AFC (Manchester City’s predecessors) was actually the first overseas international to play in the Football League. Walter Bowman was born in Canada during 1862, and arrived in the British Isles in August 1888 as a Canadian international.
The Canadians were playing a number of friendly fixtures against sides in Ireland, Scotland and England, and they even faced Newton Heath winning 2-0 with Bowman scoring. Whether this appearance was witnessed by any of the Ardwick officials at the time isn’t known, but Bowman returned to Canada with his team mates shortly afterwards.
A second tour followed in 1891 – including a 3-1 Ardwick victory on 12th December 1891 – and Bowman remained behind after the rest of the Canadians had returned home. He joined Accrington, making his debut in January 1892. That match made him the first overseas international to play in the League and on 25 August 1892 he signed for Ardwick. He didn’t manage to make his Ardwick debut until 18 February 1893 when he scored as Crewe were defeated 3-1.
Bowman became a Manchester City player when the Club was re-established and he remained with the Blues until the close season of 1900, with one of his most significant matches being the 11-3 record victory over Lincoln on 23rd March 1895, although Bowman failed to make the scoresheet.
After City little is known of Bowman’s life. An article in April 1929 talked of a reunion in Toronto of the touring side but Bowman did not attend. It was believed he was living in the USA in a copper mining city in western Montana called Butte, but he was never traced. No matter what the final resting place of Bowman, his place as the Football League’s first overseas player means his name will never be forgotten.
Following on from yesterday’s Ardwick AFC feature, here’s another one. This focuses on the Manchester Cup… As football in Manchester developed, so did Ardwick’s desire to become one of the regions elite clubs. The Manchester Cup had been established in 1884-5 and this was quickly perceived by the majority of Mancunians as the most prestigious competition around. The Football League was not in existence until 1888 and even then Manchester failed to have any representatives, while the FA Cup had been established since the 1860s but was not seen in a positive light by Manchester’s sides. Entry into the Cup required great expense as games could be played anywhere in the United Kingdom – during the 1880s sides from Ireland competed in the FA Cup, while Scottish sides had been amongst the earliest supporters of the competition. The cost of travel clearly limited Ardwick’s ability to play beyond the Manchester region.
In April 1891 Ardwick reached the Manchester Cup final for the first time in their history. This was a major landmark and it was also the first major meeting with Newton Heath, present day Manchester United. Newton Heath had previously played in every final of the competition since it was created in 1884-5 and so this was seen as a real test for the Ardwick players.
Despite the fact that Newton Heath were the more experienced side, Ardwick took the lead thanks to a seventh minute goal from the influential captain Davie Weir. Reports simply stated that “Weir scored with a long shot”, however they did give a little information before that to suggest that the goal owed much to the earlier persistence of Bob Milarvie. Milarvie had challenged the Newton Heath goal a couple of times and had clearly surprised the Heathens. Then, after gaining the ball following a Newton Heath attack, Milarvie “got on a splendid run but was badly fouled.” From the resulting free kick Ardwick attacked and Weir netted the goal.
Ardwick did actually have another goal disallowed – they were awarded an indirect free kick and the taker blasted the ball straight into the Heathens goal without any other player touching it – but the trophy was won by the Hyde Road side for the first time.
Success in the trophy perhaps went a little to their heads when at the 1891 Football League AGM Ardwick – along with Darwen, Newton Heath, Nottingham Forest, Stoke, and Sunderland Albion – applied to join the newly expanded Football League. All the applicants, with the exception of Ardwick, were members of the Football Alliance – a league originally set up to rival the Football League. Not surprisingly, Ardwick failed to gain admittance, with the new places were filled by Stoke, who had won the Alliance, and Darwen. There was a consolation prize however and Ardwick were admitted to the Alliance League for the 1891-2 season.
The Manchester Cup had proved to be the Club’s major breakthrough and it had also proved the Ardwick were already perceived as Manchester’s club. Although Newton Heath had been the more successful club so far, Ardwick were perhaps seen as being more progressive and were already the better supported of the two. The Hyde Road derby in the Alliance League attracted a crowd of over 10,000, whereas the Heathens home game at North Road was watched by around 4,000. Even the Hyde Road derby attendance was bettered by Ardwick on two other occasions in the Alliance that season.
As well as their large support, Ardwick managed to prove their ability to live with the best when they won the Manchester Cup again. This time they convincingly defeated Football League side Bolton Wanderers 4-1. The dream of playing League football was getting closer and the Manchester Cup successes had helped that dream. One man who was proud of this achievement was Walter Chew (image below), who was with St. Mark’s in their first season of 1880-81. In 1888 he joined the Manchester FA Committee and remained an influential figure there until his death in 1949.
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.
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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Had your Christmas dinner yet? If not then spare a thought for those days when professional football in England would take place on Christmas Day. In the modern era the thought of playing League football on Christmas Day is totally unacceptable, but in years gone by games were played on consecutive days over Christmas, including Christmas Day, and these were often the best attended matches of the winter.
The last Christmas Day game featuring Manchester City took place in 1957 when the Blues were defeated 2-1 at Burnley. The City team for that landmark game was: Trautmann, Leivers, Little, Barnes, Ewing, Warhurst, Barlow, Kirkman, Johnstone, Hayes, and Fagan. Fionan Fagan was the last City player to score on Christmas Day
The following day City defeated Burnley 4-1 at Maine Road in front of a crowd of 47,285. The only change to the line up was Ron Phoenix, who replaced Bobby Johnstone.
The First Noel
The first League game ever played by City on Christmas Day was at Christmas 1896 against Newton Heath (present day Manchester United). The game was played at Bank Street, Clayton (roughly across the road from the Etihad, the site of the BMX centre behind the present Velodrome) and was attended by 18,000 – a figure described by the Athletic News as being huge for Newton Heath: “The crowd was an enormous one and I never saw so many lads at a football match. They were really the cause of the encroaching in the first half, for they were continually creeping under the rails, and as a natural consequence their elders were bound to follow if they were to get a glimpse of the game.”
Fans streamed on to the pitch on several occasions and the game was almost abandoned at half time: “Mr. J. Parlby, one of the League Management Committee, told the crowd point blank that if they did not keep beyond the touchline, the game could not proceed, and the Newton Heath Club would have to suffer the consequences.”
Parlby, was actually a City director, and his words may have been influenced by the fact Newton Heath were the better side that day! The game ended 2-1 to the Heathens.
The two sides met on two further occasions on Christmas Day, the last (1902) ended 1-1 at Clayton before 40,000 with Billy Meredith scoring for the Blues.
Highest Christmas Crowd
City tended to be away from home on Christmas Day, but the best Maine Road crowd on the 25th was 56,750 in 1930 when City faced Arsenal. The following day a mere 17,624 attended the return game at Highbury.
The previous year a crowd reported as 70,000 watched Aston Villa beat City 2-1 on Boxing Day at Maine Road. This is the highest Christmas crowd at a City League game.
Christmas Thriller
Perhaps the most entertaining – if disappointing – game ever played by the Blues on Christmas Day was the 6-5 defeat by Bury at Gigg Lane in 1925.
Debuts
The following players made their Manchester City League debuts on Christmas Day:
Here’s the Official Programme cover and Manchester City comments (below), published on 27 October 1900 for City’s game with Derby at Hyde Road. Back then the programme was a shared one with Second Division Newton Heath (later United) and a couple of rugby clubs. the comments below on City’s performances and preview of the Derby game are interesting. The 3-0 game it opens with was City’s 3-0 Division One defeat at Sunderland. The Monday game it mentions was a 2-0 victory over Newton Heath in the Lancashire Cup.
The ‘Doctor’ mentioned lower down was City half back William ‘Doc’ Holmes. The preview suggested this would be a tough game for City, though the return of Jimmy Ross was welcomed. Ross, a former Preston Invincible, was a key member of the side and he’d been sidelined for the previous six League games.
The match with Derby ended in a 2-0 victory with both goals scored by Fred Williams. If you’d like to find out more on this season for Manchester City then why not read the following 1200+ word article telling the story of 1900-01? Why not subscribe and read this and all the other content on here? You can even try it for a month at a time if that works best?
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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?
Always a controversial question but back in the early 1900s there was only ever one answer and that was Manchester City who were often referred to as simply ‘Manchester’ in official publications for both City and their Manchester rivals. Here’s an image of the title section of the official programme which directly references ‘Manchester’ (meaning City) and Newton Heath.
Obviously, as there was no Manchester United then I guess it was inevitable that City would be known as Manchester to some. It just surprises me that an official publication for both clubs would use ‘Manchester’ so regularly. Presumably both clubs were happy with this. So if anyone asks ‘which club is Manchester? then the one both were happy to call Manchester must be in with a big shout!
On another topic… notice the opportunity to have your flask filled up at City’s headquarters, the Hyde Road Hotel, before the match? Imagine if that option was brought back at the Etihad!
Gary James' Football Archive 