Column: Rise and fall of 'socker' in the Upper Calder Valley

Sport is a Cinderella in the world of local history research and few teams have retained an archive. Using on-line data throws up challenges too: in the early days ‘football’ meant ‘rugby’ and ‘socker’ (not soccer) was the new kid on the block.

The sport is organised into a pyramid of different leagues, with ‘the rest’ occupying levels from the 11th downward. In theory it seems that movement up and down the pyramid is possible, but in reality clubs from these levels rarely climb up. The current highest placed local team is Ryburn, in the 11th tier.

From the middle of the 19th century football gradually became more organized, but it was still a mostly middle class sport, with public schools providing most of the (amateur) players. Only after 1885 was it possible to have professional players, opening the sport to working class men and in 1888 the Football League was formed.

Growth was helped by people moving to work in the towns, providing players and spectators, and the Factory Act that established a five and a half day week freed up Saturday afternoons for sport. (In Sheffield the half day was on Wednesday –hence the name of the modern team.) Factory owners set up football teams, an act of enlightened self-interest promoting the loyalty and fitness of the workforce. Chapels saw football as a way of keeping youth on a clear moral path, and set up their own teams. Football teams were everywhere. Melbourne Street in Hebden Bridge had a football team and when Portsmouth Rovers were established in 1887 there were already three teams in the little village near Todmorden.

Compared to nearby towns of east Lancashire football grew slowly in the Calder Valley. One reason was geography: in this area of deep narrow valleys flat ground was at a premium. Suitable areas tended to have been occupied earlier by sports like cricket and rugby. Portsmouth Rovers were a successful club but lacked the money to step up to a higher level. One reporter sarcastically described how the ground was a ‘fine receptacle’ for the rain with excellent mud baths. The dressing room was kept warm, he said, ‘at a constant 4 cow pressure.’

The little teams of the Calder Valley did nurture some famous players, notably via Stoke City, whose scout lived in Hebden Bridge. One of Stoke’s all time greats was Billy Spencer from Hebden Bridge. He was one of those local football heroes who were immortalised on collectible football cards. Another heroine was Issy Pollard from Old Town, initially unable to find a local team to play for, but capped three times for England in the 1990s.

Derek had no optimism about the future of local football, but left a strong impression of how community and belonging finds expression in sport.