Marsden Football Club
Introduction by Brian Irving
This record is based upon information gained while being involved with the club in the 38 years from 1962 through to my leaving in 2000.
During this period I played for 24 years and held the positions of Committee Member, Secretary, Chairman and latterly President, amassing enormous amounts of paperwork, memorabilia, Minute Books, photos, accounts etc.
In July 2009 the first section was published by the Marsden History Group on this website covering the period 1900 through to season 1985/86. The second section now completes the story covering the remaining period up to the end of the 1999/2000 season. In addition there are 11 supplements providing specific details on a number of subjects.
This information has been gleaned from records still held by myself along with my own experiences and observations, which hopefully provide a fair and reasonable reflection of the club over these 100 years.
Anyone requiring more information can contact me on brian.irving10@btinternet.com and I will try to accommodate you.
Earliest records
Earliest records of football in the village are very sketchy and confusing. In existence is a membership card of Marsden Football Club Season 1900-01, they being members of the Huddersfield & District NRU League with fixtures against many local teams from neighbours Meltham and Linthwaite and as far as Clayton West and Brighouse.
- Colours – Black
- Ground – Forrest
- Headquarters – Old New Inn
- With the Huddersfield & District Association Football League having been established in 1898, NRU was clearly some other league possibly related to Rugby Union!!
Fixtures against Slaithwaite Juniors and Brighouse Juniors add further confusion – was it a Junior RU league? A photograph dated 1902 shows a team called Marsden Clarence Association F.C. but these are all young boys, probably a school or church team.
The first mention of any Marsden team playing in the H & D AFL was season 1904-05, Marsden Parish Church, then Marsden United appeared in 1907-08. Tying in with this is a membership card for Marsden United. On the fixture list is Marsden Parish Church whom United beat 4-0 at home then 6-0 away. Over the season they played 26, won 24, drew 0 and lost 2 – not bad!
- Colours - Black & White
- Ground – Forrest
- Headquarters – Old New Inn
- Several Vice Presidents' names appear who are also mentioned on the 1900-01 membership card (Dr Aspinall, G.Taylor & R.Varley)
Letterheads from the 1950's for Marsden Amateur Football Club say "established 1907" and so it would appear that this was probably the start of the club that exists today.
What is clear from the records is that Marsden United AFC, who changed to Marsden Amateur Football Club in 1930 were to become the dominant team in the village:
- 1909-10 saw them winners of the H & D Challenge Cup and the League Championship Shield.
- They won the Challenge Cup again in 1912, 1914, 1922, 1929 & 1933.
- They were league winners 4 years in succession 1928, 1929, 1930 & again 1936 (following suspension of the league).
Meanwhile season 1911-12 saw Marsden Amateurs appear followed in 1912-13 by Marsden Athletic whilst a junior team Marsden Villa was introduced in 1913-14. However these were obviously short-lived.
Where did the team(s) play their football in these early years?
Forrest is the only one mentioned in writing, an area of land up Mount Road, probably on or close to the Hemplow complex. It was not ‘till the mid-1920’s that the club finally settled at Fall Lane, previously the home of the cricket club prior to it moving up to the Hemplow.
