1895–96 Thames Ironworks F.C. season
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:''"In the summer of 1895, when the clanging of "hammers" was heard on the banks of Father Thames and the great warships were rearing their heads above the Victoria Dock Road, a few enthusiasts, with the love of football within them, were talking about the grand old game and the formation of a club for the workers of the Thames Iron Works Limited. There were platers and riveters in the Limited who had chased the big ball in the north country. There were men among them who had learned to give the subtle pass and to urge the leather goalwards. No thought of professionalism, I may say, was ever contemplated by the founders. They meant to run their club on amateur lines and their first principal was to choose their team from men in the works."'' :: –
Syd King Ernest Sydney "Syd" King (1 August 1873 – 14 February 1933) was a footballer and manager, and one of the most important figures in the early history of West Ham United. Playing career Born Chatham, Kent and educated at Watford Grammar School ...
, ''Thames Ironworks player and West Ham United manager 1902–1932.'' The 1895–96 season was the inaugural season of Thames Ironworks, the club that would later become
West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
. The club was founded by Dave Taylor and
Arnold Hills Arnold Frank Hills (12 March 1857 – 7 March 1927) was an English businessman, sportsman, philanthropist, and promoter of vegetarianism. Biography Hills was born in Denmark Hill, Surrey, son of a manufacturing chemist. Arnold Hills was also ...
in 1895 as the
works team A works team (sometimes factory team, company team) is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business. Sometimes, works teams contain or are entirely made up of employees of the supporting company. Association footb ...
of the
Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited was a shipyard and iron works straddling the mouth of Bow Creek at its confluence with the River Thames, at Leamouth Wharf (often referred to as Blackwall) on the west side and at Cannin ...
. Taylor was a foreman at the Ironworks and a local football
referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...
. Thanks to Ironworks owner Arnold Hills' financial backing, he was able to announce on 29 June 1895 the following in the company's weekly journal: :''"Mr. Taylor, who is working in the shipbuilding department, has undertaken to get up a football club for next winter and I learn that
quoits Quoits ( or ) is a traditional game which involves the throwing of metal, rope or rubber rings over a set distance, usually to land over or near a spike (sometimes called a hob, mott or pin). The game of quoits encompasses several distinct vari ...
and
bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...
will also be added to the attractions." – Thames Iron Works Gazette.'' Fifty would-be players paid half-a-crown for a year's membership, and Taylor spent the summer arranging the fixtures for Thames Ironworks F.C. and their reserves. Before the Irons played their first game Taylor returned to refereeing, handing over organizational duties to Ted Harsent. The birth of Thames Ironworks F.C. coincided with the demise of
Old Castle Swifts Old Castle Swifts Football Club, the first professional football club in Essex, was formed by Scottish shipowner Donald Currie in September 1892 as Castle Swifts Football Club. The club's first home ground, located in West Ham, was named Duno ...
, the first professional football club in
Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
. Thames took over the tenancy of Castle Swifts'
Hermit Road Hermit Road was a stadium located in Canning Town in London, England. It was the first home ground of football club Thames Ironworks, the works team of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company. The club would later be reformed as West Ha ...
ground in
Canning Town Canning Town is a district in the London Borough of Newham, East London. The district is located to the north of the Royal Victoria Dock, and has been described as the "Child of the Victoria Docks" as the timing and nature of its urbanisation ...
and also signed four of their players. The Hermit Road ground had been described as a 'cinder heap' and 'barren waste'. It was surrounded by a moat and had canvas sheeting for fencing. The Swifts that joined the Ironworks team were right-back and winger
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and forwards Jamie Lindsay and George Sage. Scotsman Bob Stevenson became the club's first ever captain and he is credited as being the team's first player of note. He would also play at full-back and centre-forward during his Irons career. Looking to bolster their attacking strength, the Irons had also recruited Ironworks employee George Gresham, an inside-forward who had played for
Gainsborough Trinity Gainsborough Trinity Football Club is a football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. Established in 1873, the club became members of the Football League in 1893 and remained members of the Second Division until 1912, making Gainsbo ...
, who would go on to score many goals for the club in the following four seasons. The original colours of the team were
Oxford Blue A blue is an award of sporting colours earned by athletes at some universities and schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of blues began at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. They are now awarded at a number of other ...
due to
Arnold Hills Arnold Frank Hills (12 March 1857 – 7 March 1927) was an English businessman, sportsman, philanthropist, and promoter of vegetarianism. Biography Hills was born in Denmark Hill, Surrey, son of a manufacturing chemist. Arnold Hills was also ...
being a former student of the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
, although they used a variety of kits, often wearing navy blue or white. The Ironworks played their first ever fixture against
Royal Ordnance Royal Ordnance plc was formed on 2 January 1985 as a public corporation, owning the majority of what until then were the remaining United Kingdom government-owned Royal Ordnance Factories (abbreviated ROFs) which manufactured explosives, ammunition ...
reserves on 7 September 1895, the game ending 1–1. Other players likely to have been involved in this first game were Iron Works employee
Charlie Dove Charlie Dove (1879–?) was an English footballer. Career Dove was regarded as being very physically fit for a footballer; in 1895 he stood nearly 6 feet tall and weighed 12 stone, which was considered large for a sixteen-year-old from a worki ...
, who had played at full-back and centre forward during his time as a school player, and
Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
cricketer John Wood, who was the cousin of jockey
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. Dove was mainly used as a defender by The Irons, but would play every position for them during his stay there. The Irons' biggest win of the season came in their third friendly fixture on 28 September 1895 when they beat Manor Park 8–0. The newly formed club had the audacity to enter the
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
competition, as recorded in the ''Thames Iron Works Gazette'': :''"Having some good men in the club, we somewhat presumptuously considered it would be wise to enter for the English Association Cup."'' In Thames' first competitive game they took on
Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
in a preliminary qualifying round of the FA Cup . The match was played at Chatham's ground in
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
as they had rated the Irons' Hermit Road Ground as unsuitable. On 12 October before a crowd of 3,000 they lost to Chatham 5-0. Their biggest defeat came on 14 December when they lost in an away game to Iron Works rivals
Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...
6-0. 25 December saw Thames Ironworks face South West Ham at home, and they won 4–1, beginning a run of ten straight wins that ended on 17 February 1896, when they lost to South London team Vampires F.C. 3-1. In the semi-finals of the
West Ham Charity Cup The West Ham Charity Cup was an annual amateur football tournament which was contested by teams from West Ham and the surrounding area, an area of Essex that is now part of London. Only players that lived locally were eligible to compete. The compe ...
held on 15 February 1896, Thames Ironworks beat Park Grove 1–0, in a game staged in Plaistow. Park Grove protested over a technicality and forced a replay at Beckton Road, which The Ironworks won 3–0. On 7 March Thames Ironworks played
Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...
for the first time in a friendly, winning the game 5–1. Following a number of trials against local sides, 16 March saw an experimental 'floodlit friendly' at the Hermit Road ground for Thames Ironworks, in their first encounter with Woolwich Arsenal. George Gresham scored twice, in an epic encounter that finished in favour of Woolwich Arsenal 5–3. George Gresham scored two of the Irons goals that day. These early attempts at floodlighting were set up using
Thames Iron Works The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited was a shipyard and iron works straddling the mouth of Bow Creek (England), Bow Creek at its confluence with the River Thames, at Leamouth, Leamouth Wharf (often referred to as Blackwall, Lon ...
engineers and equipment, and caused an amount of notoriety. They were also used for "The Irons" next game, in their first ever meeting with
West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...
, which they lost 4-2. The following day, an epic confrontation followed as Thames Ironworks faced
Barking Barking may refer to: Places * Barking, London, a town in East London, England ** London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, a local government district covering the town of Barking ** Municipal Borough of Barking, a historical local government dist ...
in the final of the
West Ham Charity Cup The West Ham Charity Cup was an annual amateur football tournament which was contested by teams from West Ham and the surrounding area, an area of Essex that is now part of London. Only players that lived locally were eligible to compete. The compe ...
on 21 March 1896 at The Old Spotted Dog Ground in Upton Lane. Drawing 2–2, the match was replayed a week later, and again the teams drew, this time 0–0. Eventually the final was replayed for the second time on 20 April 1896 and the Irons won 1–0, lifting a trophy in their first ever season. Thames Ironworks won 30 of their 47 games in the 1895–96 season, drawing 5 and losing 12. They scored 136 goals and conceded 68.


Squad statistics


References


Bibliography

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External links


The History of West Ham United: 1895-1896
at Spartacus Educational {{DEFAULTSORT:1895-96 Thames Ironworks F.C. season West Ham United F.C. seasons Thames Ironworks Thames Ironworks F.C. season Thames Ironworks F.C. season