Turn Right at Mottram Roundabout - Episode 30
Tue 21st February 2017 | General | By Stewart Taylor
The last episode took us, for the second time in this series, to Ashton-in-Makerfield and, specifically, to Ashton Athletic FC.
The photo is of the gates, painted in the club colours, at the end of the recently improved driveway into Brocstedes Park.
The quick link gave a motto in Latin which was translated into English as God is My Hope. If the motto is translated to French we get “En dieu est mon esperance” which is the motto of Ashton Athletic.
To continue the odyssey. Much is said these days about the number of players playing football at the highest level in this country who are not qualified, by reason of nationality, to play for any of the home countries. To narrow that down to English qualified players it was revealed in an article last year that on a particular Premier Division weekend only 31% of those starting the matches were qualified to represent the national team.
If we drop down to levels below the top flight we can see something similar and it seems to be an increasing trend. We could speculate why that may be but the major cause is likely to be that old “root cause of all evil” – money.
The old nostalgics amongst us will regale any willing audience with tales of how footballers of yesteryear were all from the town they represented. They worked half a shift in the pit before coming up for air and getting on the local bus with the fans to travel to the ground. They then played the match before retiring to a local hostelry and downed several pints of good local ale as Saturday night became Sunday morning; all for the then maximum wage which wasn’t enough to fill a modern day players expensive car with petrol – not that they pay for that themselves, probably.
Far be it for this old nostalgic to try to turn back to those less enlightened times but, every now and then, the question arises about local players and if a decent team could be put out simply from players born in the town. With more than a little bit of poetic licence we could construct a very good side from footballers born in our destination today. It may look something like this:-
- Andy Oakes
- George Daniels
- Glyn Pardoe
- Tom Brittleton
- Gareth Griffiths
- Jack Oakes
- Alan Oakes
- Simon Davies
- Nicky Maynard
- Sam Brittleton
- Stan Wood.
The poetic licence comes from the eras that these players played in and that one of them was born in a neighbouring town but played for this town’s team. However, all of these were professional players in their time with at least three of them representing their country at full international level.
The town they would have theoretically represented is a lively place with decent road and rail links to centres with larger populations. As we have seen previously, this type of set up tends to mean that such towns become commuter towns and, in doing so, lose something of their history which, in the case of this town, goes back to the Middle Ages. However, a number of sites of historical interest remain including a half-timbered building which is now a children’s nursery.
One legend associated with this town is worth recounting. The oldest place of worship here is St. Chad’s Church which is said to occupy the site of a pre-Christian place of pagan worship. Legend has it that the church was originally built elsewhere but such was the disgust of the devil at the use of the church that he decided to fly off with it.
The monks at a nearby abbey were said to have seen him so rung the abbey bells thus scaring the devil into dropping the church in its current location. A fanciful story perhaps, but certainly the product of an imaginative mind and who am I to discount it?
The football club we are visiting this week comes with a history which goes back to the latter part of the Victorian era. Indeed, I recall visiting this ground many years ago (but not quite in the Victorian era) as a very young supporter of a side currently playing at Step 2 in the National League System.
As with many of our clubs, there have been good times and not so good times here but, on the positive side, the many highlights include winning the County Senior Cup on three occasions in the latter half of the 20th century and an appearance against Peterborough United in the First Round of the FA Cup. The name of the stadium, before a recent addition, honours the man who led the committee to re-establish the club after the end of the First World War.
Quick link - What links this town with the highest village in England which lies just 28 miles away?
Turn Right at Mottram Roundabout - Episode 30
Tue 21st February 2017 | General
By Stewart Taylor
The last episode took us, for the second time in this series, to Ashton-in-Makerfield and, specifically, to Ashton Athletic FC.
The photo is of the gates, painted in the club colours, at the end of the recently improved driveway into Brocstedes Park.
The quick link gave a motto in Latin which was translated into English as God is My Hope. If the motto is translated to French we get “En dieu est mon esperance” which is the motto of Ashton Athletic.
To continue the odyssey. Much is said these days about the number of players playing football at the highest level in this country who are not qualified, by reason of nationality, to play for any of the home countries. To narrow that down to English qualified players it was revealed in an article last year that on a particular Premier Division weekend only 31% of those starting the matches were qualified to represent the national team.
If we drop down to levels below the top flight we can see something similar and it seems to be an increasing trend. We could speculate why that may be but the major cause is likely to be that old “root cause of all evil” – money.
The old nostalgics amongst us will regale any willing audience with tales of how footballers of yesteryear were all from the town they represented. They worked half a shift in the pit before coming up for air and getting on the local bus with the fans to travel to the ground. They then played the match before retiring to a local hostelry and downed several pints of good local ale as Saturday night became Sunday morning; all for the then maximum wage which wasn’t enough to fill a modern day players expensive car with petrol – not that they pay for that themselves, probably.
Far be it for this old nostalgic to try to turn back to those less enlightened times but, every now and then, the question arises about local players and if a decent team could be put out simply from players born in the town. With more than a little bit of poetic licence we could construct a very good side from footballers born in our destination today. It may look something like this:-
- Andy Oakes
- George Daniels
- Glyn Pardoe
- Tom Brittleton
- Gareth Griffiths
- Jack Oakes
- Alan Oakes
- Simon Davies
- Nicky Maynard
- Sam Brittleton
- Stan Wood.
The poetic licence comes from the eras that these players played in and that one of them was born in a neighbouring town but played for this town’s team. However, all of these were professional players in their time with at least three of them representing their country at full international level.
The town they would have theoretically represented is a lively place with decent road and rail links to centres with larger populations. As we have seen previously, this type of set up tends to mean that such towns become commuter towns and, in doing so, lose something of their history which, in the case of this town, goes back to the Middle Ages. However, a number of sites of historical interest remain including a half-timbered building which is now a children’s nursery.
One legend associated with this town is worth recounting. The oldest place of worship here is St. Chad’s Church which is said to occupy the site of a pre-Christian place of pagan worship. Legend has it that the church was originally built elsewhere but such was the disgust of the devil at the use of the church that he decided to fly off with it.
The monks at a nearby abbey were said to have seen him so rung the abbey bells thus scaring the devil into dropping the church in its current location. A fanciful story perhaps, but certainly the product of an imaginative mind and who am I to discount it?
The football club we are visiting this week comes with a history which goes back to the latter part of the Victorian era. Indeed, I recall visiting this ground many years ago (but not quite in the Victorian era) as a very young supporter of a side currently playing at Step 2 in the National League System.
As with many of our clubs, there have been good times and not so good times here but, on the positive side, the many highlights include winning the County Senior Cup on three occasions in the latter half of the 20th century and an appearance against Peterborough United in the First Round of the FA Cup. The name of the stadium, before a recent addition, honours the man who led the committee to re-establish the club after the end of the First World War.
Quick link - What links this town with the highest village in England which lies just 28 miles away?
