Hebden Bridge & the Manchester Corinthians

In December 2021 I staged a talk at Hebden Bridge on the FA ban of women’s football. The night was sponsored and supported by Geoff Matthews and his company Cansquared Ltd. It was a wonderful night and lots of attendees asked about the future and what they could do to help promote the stories of the women who played at a time when the FA tried to kill female participation in the sport. Well, after that night a lot has happened to recognise the Manchester Corinthians.

As part of my longstanding project into female participation and involvement in football in Manchester I have been researching and writing Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History. The book will be of a similar scope to my Manchester City Women: An Oral History on City’s women’s team.

Margaret Shepherd and Margaret Whitworth with me prior to the Hebden Bridge event

A lot has been written on the Corinthians (see the section on women’s football on this site for a few examples) but not nearly enough, plus there are some inaccuracies out there that need to be corrected (even now there are some that keep on being repeated). Basically, this team possessed a talented group of players who toured Europe and South America promoting football, female endeavour and Manchester.

I talked quite a bit about Corinthians at Hebden Bridge and we were fortunate to have three Corinthians as guests that night. Margaret Whitworth, Margaret Shepherd and Lesley Wright between them covered every season of the club’s life from the 1950s through to its demise. Since that night I’ve also tracked down a player from the club’s very first season of 1948-49 who, together with detailed archival research, has helped me piece together for the first time several people who were instrumental in the birth of the club. Again, this is not something that has appeared in any of the articles or films connected with the club in recent years. This will be explained properly for the first time in my book.

I’m still trying to track down other Corinthians to include in the book. To date I’ve identified over 230 players. See:

Ask Your Mam or Nan if She Was a Footballer…

After the Hebden Bridge night it was clear that we needed to recognise the Corinthian players further. On that night I mentioned my idea of having a plaque erected for the Corinthians in a significant/related location in Manchester. Several members of the audience thought this was a wonderful idea and asked if they could support the wider promotion of the Corinthians – one more or less suggested we should march on Downing Street to persuade them to do something about it!

In 2019 I’d written articles for a variety of publications suggesting the same and urging the FA and others to recognise the Corinthians. In the Manchester City men’s match programme as well I highlighted my desire to get a plaque erected about their achievements.

The talk at Hebden Bridge


Via Manchester Council I was put in contact with the Friends of Fog Lane Park and we ultimately set up a successful appeal in their name. The FA made a significant donation which funded the plaque and our fundraising efforts raised enough to allow the Friends to commission 2 murals and other tributes to the Corinthians as well.

Those present at Hebden Bridge in December 2021 helped raise the profile and that event was significant in highlighting the incredible achievements of its female footballers. Now, the authorised history of the Corinthians will tell the story of the club from its birth right through to the blue plaque appeal. It will use the voices of the women who represented Manchester and England in a positive manner and who won trophies in South America & Europe and who toured North Africa. They won a significant European competition before either Manchester men’s team yet their achievements were not recognised by the city until the blue plaque appeal started.

I am immensely proud of how this has all happened. The event at Hebden Bridge was free to attend and was made possible by the support of a locally based business, Cansquared (Geoff Matthews – who co-hosted the evening). We felt it was vital we made this free to attend to spread the word.

If anyone runs a key Manchester venue and would like a Corinthians celebration event then please get in touch. The more we can do to promote their story the better.

Thanks for reading this. If you would like to find out more about the Corinthians then follow the tabs on this site or use the search function. If you’d like to know more about the FA Ban then you can download for free an article I’ve recently co-written here:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17460263.2021.2025415

You can find out more on the Corinthians book here:

Help the Authorised History of the Manchester Corinthians Get Published

Copies of my book on Manchester City Women are still available. This tells the history of City Women via the voices of the women (and some men) involved. The book has been heralded as a model for oral histories by the Oral History Society.

Here’s a link you can follow to order a signed copy of the City Women book:

Shop

Watch this space for more on the Corinthians and women’s football over the coming months. Thanks – now use the tabs and search to learn more on women’s football in Manchester. Ta!

Manchester City in the 1990s

Following on from the series of articles and features on the 1970s and 1980s over the last few months a new series on Manchester City in the 1990s will be starting in March. As with the 1970s & 1980s there will be different content posted each day from indepth articles on each of the seasons through to on this day reminders of games, players and more.

Some of the material will be available for subscribers only and some will be free for anyone to read. If you’d like to know how to subscribe and read all the incredible content on here then see:

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Feel free to send in ideas or areas that you’d like me to discuss on 1990s Manchester City. I’m always open to adapting stories or content based on feedback. Thanks for reading.

The 1970s: Tueart Penalty as City Beat Everton 3-0

Today we have another 1970s flashback. This is of the day when a Tueart penalty helped Manchester City to a 3-0 victory over Everton. This happened at Maine Road on this day (21 February) in 1976. You can see film of that and all the goals here:

This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January and February with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. Every day offered something to enjoy.

Subscribers have access to everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 5,320 word article is on the 1975-76 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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Ask Your Mam or Nan if She Was a Footballer…

Research into the pioneering women who played for Manchester Corinthians and its sister clubs is ongoing for the authorised history which will be published this summer. So far over 230 players have been identified for the club and their names will be included within the book. BUT I don’t want to leave anybody out so if you know of someone who played for the team or its sister clubs that I may have missed then please get in touch.

Ask your mam or your nan if she played – you never know what you’ll hear! I have had players talk to me during my years of research into the Corinthians who had kept it quiet from their own families, so granny may well have been one of the club’s pioneering figures but just hasn’t talked about it!

I really don’t want to leave anybody out.

As well as asking your mam or your nan, how about helping the book get published by subscribing to it? You will get a copy of the book (posted before it appears in the shops) and your name will be included in a special roll of honour published within the book if ordered by 31st March 2024 here:

Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History

The story of a pioneering women’s club as told to Gary James by those who were there

£19.95

Opportunities to buy multiple copies, sponsor the book or donate to ensure it’s published to the size and standard the women who played deserve exist. Please email Gary@GJFootballArchive.com for more information on those opportunities.

This book is a must for anyone interested in Manchester or women’s football and will consist of over 300 pages. It will be fully illustrated throughout and subscribers can order it now for £19.95 (including UK postage and packaging). All orders received before 31st March 2024 will have the purchaser’s name included within the special roll of honour at the back of the book. You can order the book for someone else – all details will be checked and confirmed before publication.

The book will be published this summer.

If you live outside the UK then please contact for details of additional postage costs.

You do not need to have a PayPal account to order – use the ‘Pay with PayPal’ button above and it will give you the option to pay by credit/debit card without creating a PayPal account.

The book will include the story of the club as told by the women involved, alongside a significant amount of archive material. Myths will be corrected and the facts of this pioneering club will be told in an easy to read format.

Guided by founder Percy Ashley, the club went on to represent Manchester, football and female endeavour for decades, winning major international tournaments in Europe and South America. The Corinthians are, without doubt, one of the most important football clubs ever to come from Manchester and they were a prominent and pioneering club in so many ways.

As well as the interviews and dozens of archive trips there’s been a concerted effort to compile as comprehensive list as possible on women who played for the club. I’ve managed to compile a list of around 300 women who played for the club. Objects and trophies have also been rediscovered. This is the type of detailed research I enjoy. It’s time consuming, difficult and often frustrating but occasionally you find a little gem that adds significantly to our knowledge. There have been quite a few of those.

The Hebden Bridge talk when the campaign for a Blue Plaque and other tributes was publicly announced, December 2021

I’m still keen to hear from any former player who can add their voices to the history of the club, though the research and writing stage will be ending soon, so please get in touch as soon as possible. Please email Gary@GJFootballArchive.com with your name, rough dates you played and contact details.

Those subscribing to the book will receive a copy signed by author Gary James and posted out to subscribers before it appears in any shop or is distributed to any retailer. This is the ONLY way to guarantee your copy.

Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History will include interviews with players from every era of the club from a founding player back in 1949 through to those playing for the club in its final days over 40 years later (yes, that’s right – over 40 years later!). The book will finally tell the story of the club from start to finish via the voices of the women who played. Via these voices the entire history of the club will be explained with the key figures identified and remembered. There’s a remarkable trail of women linking the first game with the last.

The book will be published to a similar style and quality to the acclaimed Manchester City Women: An Oral History and is destined to be another landmark publication on a major, pioneering women’s football club. Dozens of former players have been interviewed for this book and their remarkable stories and memories will be supported with an amazing array of photographs, newspaper articles, match programmes, trophies and other items of memorabilia from every era of the club’s existence.

Alongside chapters chronicling the history of the club there will also be features on founder Percy Ashley, who dedicated his life to promoting women’s football, and on Gladys Aikin (a key figure not only with the Corinthians but also with the early years of the Women’s Football Association) and George Aikin, who continued to take the Corinthians on tours into the 1980s. There will be special features on the major tours of the 1950s and 1960s when Percy Ashley led the Corinthians to major international success.

The cover of the book will be worked on by the designer over the coming months but following feedback from former players the maroon has been replaced with a darker blue, more reminiscent of the colour most frequently worn by the Corinthians (based on the reports, programmes and other material found so far and the majority of comments from players). This may still change of course (‘The Authorised History’ will probably change colour too). The back will contain later images and wording.

If you’d like to purchase my earlier book on women’s football then a limited number of copies, signed by me, are still available. You can order here:

Manchester City Women: An Oral History book

The first history of Manchester City’s women’s team, taking the story of the club from formation in 1988 until 2019-20 season. £16.95 including UK postage (outside UK contact for additional postage costs)

£16.95

The 1970s: Corrigan Congratulates Opposition ‘Keeper

On this day (20 February) in 1971 Manchester City played out a goalless game at West Ham United. Often games without goals are perceived as dull but this match was full of goal action – even if no actual goals were scored. The brilliance of West Ham’s ‘keeper ensured Manchester City could not score and at the end of the game City’s Joe Corrigan ensured he congratulated Ferguson, even if Malcolm Allison joked that he had no idea who journalists were talking about when they asked him about the Hammers’ goalie. Here’s a report of the game:

Every day in January and February so far has offered something to enjoy in this series focusing on Manchester City in the 1970s. Subscribers can access everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 5,200 word article is on the 1970-71 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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The 1970s: Liverpool Frustrations Again

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with this brief flashback to today (19 February) in 1973. There wasn’t a first team game that day but the Liverpool Echo did publish this article about their local club’s frustrations at facing Manchester City. This followed a 1-1 draw at Maine Road (Tommy Booth had scored shortly before half time; Liverpool equalised in second half).

The two clubs had met three times in 2 weeks with Malcolm Allison’s Blues defeating Bill Shankly’s Liverpool 2-0 in the middle meeting and both other games ended in a draw. It’s a long time ago now but modern football tends to forget that for much of the 1970s City and Liverpool were considered major rivals, more so than LFC-MUFC for many years. In fact Shankly had already said in the late 1960s that he considered City to be Liverpool’s main rivals – it was probably all about who he saw as the greatest team LFC faced in terms of quality, but there were many seasons, including 1972-73 (through to the end of the decade except 1977-78 & 1979-80), where the Anfield crowd for the game with City was greater than it was for a game with United. In 1973-74 it was an incredible 10,000 higher for City than United and at other times around 6,000.

Ah well! Football perceptions change over time but that’s why it’s important to do the research and find contemporary material. Memories fade and change.

1,700 word article on the entire 1972-73 season – a season of major change which saw one man who didn’t want to be manager told to take the manager’s job or you’ll be leaving yourself! Oh City! You can read this below. This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. Every day in January will offer something to enjoy.

Subscribers will get access to everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 1,700 word article is on the 1972-73 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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The 1970s: Where Do You Get Your Shirts Dyed?

Here’s an interesting article from today (18 February) in 1974 which tells the story of FH Drabble & Sons, Tansley, Matlock. Who? Well look at these wonderful shirts from the 1974 League Cup final – They were that colourful because of Drabble! So who was Drabble & Sons? Read on…

This was an important company in the production of football shirts and they dyed shirts for Manchester City, Wolves and many international teams. In essence, if you had an Umbro shirt (or another British manufacturer prior to the late 1970s) then there’s a good chance it was dyed at their works.

I’ve been interested in football kit production for many, many years and spent some great time about twenty years ago with Umbro people going through collections and spotting unique work etc. There are a lot of people interested in kits today and, rightly so, they define great eras and often show football clubs at their best. Think of a great team and no doubt you’ll remember the style of kit worn.

One area that is often overlooked though is the actual process of kit manufacture, especially the dyeing. This is odd seeing as it’s so often the colour, especially for teams wearing unique or rare colours (I see MCFC as one of these – other clubs have copied City’s blue but for MCFC this colour or a shade of it goes back to their days as Ardwick when they wore ‘quartered’ shirts of pale blue and white), that is the brand or identity as far as many of us are concerned. 

Ah well, I could go on for hours, but have a read of this. Sadly, Drabble’s dye works was derelicht by the 2000s. Maybe polyester football shirts/overseas production put an end to their operation. Did you work at Drabbles? Any memories of their football related dyeing?

This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. Every day in January will offer something to enjoy.

Subscribers will get access to everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 1,700 word article is on the 1973-74 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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The 1970s: Umbro’s John Humphreys

On this day (17 February) in 1979 the Manchester Evening News carried the news that Umbro & Manchester City director John Humphreys had died. His death was a major loss to both organisations. I wrote this about John in my 1997 history of the club Manchester The Greatest City:

This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January and now into February with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. Every day in January & February offered something to enjoy and I’ll continue this series for a little while yet. Thanks for all the positive comments about it.

Subscribers can access everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 5,700 word article is on the 1978-79 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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The 1970s: Favourites For The Title?

Despite drawing 2-2 at Newcastle on this day (16 February) in 1977 and Ipswich heading the table, Norwich’s Ken Brown believed Manchester City were the most likely team to win the title. City were certainly the team with all the flair this season and perhaps deserved success but ultimately it was the grim, more negative football played by Liverpool that was to find trophy success.

You can read a 2,100 word article on the entire 1976-77 season – a season which saw City miss the title by a point – below. This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s has been running throughout January & February with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others.

Subscribers can access everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 2,100 word article is on the 1976-77 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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The 1970s: Power Cut City!

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with a brief flashback to a time when industrial action and power cuts led to us all having to look in the local newspaper to see when our electricity would be available. It feels like an alien world today but in February 1971 (and at other times in the years that followed) electricity was provided at certain times of the day in certain areas. This led to games being re-arranged for afternoon kick offs or postponed altogether.

On this day (15 February) Liverpool newspapers carried the story that LFC’s match with Manchester City would be one game played earlier in the day.

These newspaper cuttings give a brief idea of how it all was. If there’s interest I may do a more detailed piece on this later. There’s a famous gave v Coventry a few years later that I remember being at. That day a generator ensured the match went ahead but we also had a bomb scare. We were asked to look under our seats and around us to see if there was a bomb there (seriously!) and play was halted. Mike Summerbee (in my memory but others say it was the referee) picked up the ball and shook it to see if it was a bomb! More of that another day. Here are the cuttings from today in 1971:

There have been flashbacks to great 1970s games, players and more every day in January & February. Subscribers get access to everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 5,200 word article is on the 1970-71 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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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.

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