Free Football Talk at NFM 28th March

[gary james]

I know members of Mancityfans have come to my past talks and thought I'd give an update on what I'm doing in March. As well as a MCFC film show on the evening of Thursday 27th March at Cornerhouse (details: http://www.cornerhouse.org/film/film-ev ... -on-film-3 ) I'll be doing the first in a series of 3 talks at the National Football Museum on sport in Manchester.

All 3 talks will be of interest to anyone keen on Manchester's sporting history. The details are below, but my talk will be on the birth of football in Manchester and will reveal new information on the game's formative years in our region.

Tickets must be booked in advance but they are free. See below. There's a limited capacity for each talk, so if you're keen on any of them it would be advisable to book early. Thanks.

Manchester's Sporting & Leisure History

Sport & Leisure History Lectures at the National Football Museum

28 March 1pm - Manchester's Footballing Birth (Gary James)
25 April 1pm - Pedestrianism and Manchester’s Professional Athletic Circuit (Samantha Oldfield)
23 May 1pm - Motoring (Craig Horner)

Venue: National Football Museum, Urbis Building, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester M4 3BG

TICKETS AND FURTHER DETAILS FROM: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mmu-sport ... s=22007271


28 March 1pm - Manchester's Footballing Birth
Gary James, Manchester Metropolitan University

Association football had become a prominent part of Manchester’s sporting landscape by 1884, when the Manchester FA was formed, and this talk considers how the game became significant in the city. Gary will provide an overview of Manchester’s footballing culture, focusing on the period up to the formal adoption of rules and creation of clubs in the 1860s and 1870s, before providing, for the first time, the story of Manchester’s first properly constituted and organized football club. The club’s existence has largely been ignored by historians. Gary’s recent research has identified that the contribution of this club was substantial, and he will explain how that club helped the sport to grow and develop in the region. This talk demonstrates that the emergence of the game in Manchester during the Victorian period depended significantly on key individuals from varying backgrounds who provided the energy and enthusiasm for the game.

Gary James is an associate lecturer within the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is currently researching the birth of association football in the Manchester region, considering the teams, players, personalities and supporters that helped shape the growth of the game in that city. He has published extensively on Manchester football with his recent publications including 'Manchester A Football History', 'Manchester The City Years' and 'Joe Mercer: Football With A Smile'. He is a member of the MMU Sport, Leisure and History Group (SpLeisH) and is on the judging panel for the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame.



25 April 1pm - Pedestrianism and Manchester’s Professional Athletic Circuit
Samantha-Jayne Oldfield, Manchester Metropolitan University

Pedestrianism, or foot racing, provided sporting amusements during much of the nineteenth century with entrepreneurial publicans being pivotal to the organisation and promotion of these events. By supplying land for athletic endeavours and regulating competitions, local sporting inns attracted large working-class audiences, encouraging the sport to transfer from turnpike roads and racecourses of Britain to their purpose built stadia. In Manchester, rural public houses became hubs for entertainment offering a variety of activities to attract custom such as flower, fruit and vegetable shows, glee clubs, dramatics, sporting endeavours and society meetings with Belle Vue and Pomona Gardens both expanding to attract clientele. In areas such as Newton Heath, Hyde and Salford, where industrialisation had yet to impinge, arenas were built next to and within the grounds of sporting hostelries, with many publicans enclosing their grounds in order to benefit financially through charging entrance fees, drink/food proceeds and betting commissions. Regarded as the mile capital, with the top “spinners” of the period venturing to the city to perform, Newton Heath’s Oldham Road housed the majority of the competitive athletic events, being supported by the ex-professional pedestrians who relocated to Lancashire and proceeded to enter the publican trade. The Royal Oak Park and Copenhagen Grounds, both established by entrepreneurial athletes, promoted pedestrianism until the 1870s when the organisation of amateur sport led to a decline in professional activities. This presentation will discuss the development of Manchester as a well-respected hotspot for professional athletic competition whilst considering the individuals who developed and propelled the sport forward during the mid-nineteenth century.

Samantha-Jayne Oldfield is a lecturer within the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her doctoral research focuses on nineteenth century Manchester pedestrianism and the use of narrative tools in analysing the individuals who promoted and developed the sport within the city and beyond prior to the formation of the Amateur Athletic Association. Her publications include the discussion of biography, collective biography and prosopography in sports history, biographies of George Martin and James Robinson, both Manchester athletic entrepreneurs, and the establishment of running grounds in the city. She is secretary of the British Society for Sports History North West Network and part of the MMU Sport, Leisure and History Group, regularly presenting and researching in the area of sports history.

23 May 1pm – Motoring in Manchester
Craig Horner, Manchester Metropolitan University

This talk by Dr Craig Horner of Manchester Metropolitan University looks at motoring as a sport in and around Edwardian Manchester. The Manchester Automobile Club represented the new clique of wealthy owners and provided opportunities for its members to take part in activities as diverse as hill climbs, days out and trips to Ireland to follow the Gordon Bennett race. The club was also intended to offer support and protection, identifying, for example, the few places where petrol could be had in Manchester. However, while the magazines and newspapers carried articles and pictures of the upper classes at play in their clubs, there was a thriving body of motorists of more modest social station. Motor bicycles, cyclecars, and a huge second/third/fourth-hand market meant more and more people were getting in on the act. It is this group, with their tents, sleeping bags and blankets who were the real advocates of the new motoring.

Dr Craig Horner is a lecturer in the History Department of Manchester Metropolitan University and a member of the Sport & Leisure History Group at MMU. He has published on Edwardian motoring and society and is researching for a biography on Selwyn Francis Edge (1868-1940), a racing cyclist, motoring pioneer and businessman.


For more details on the work of the Sport & Leisure History Group at Manchester Metropolitan University visit: http://www.cheshire.mmu.ac.uk/sport-history/