The massive Wrexham AFC history thread (The sad case of a founding members and player of Wrexham...)

[draig arian]

A perhaps less important question amongst all this brilliant fascinating history, can anyone confirm or otherwise that The Racecourse, for a short period ran from east to west and not the present north to south?. I seem to remember my Brymbo uncle sitting me on his knee showing me a very old photograph of The Racecourse. That was a long long time ago mind; middle 40s?. Many thanks boys for quite brilliant work you all must have spent giving us this wonderful, interesting but important history of our great club. I really hope our younger supporters, male and female ,boys and girls will take the time to read the posts.

[eastsussexred]

Thanks draig arian. A number of fans have said that the pitch was in a different orientation, but I have only found evidence (so far) to show the pitch in its current location. This dates back from our founding, up to the early 1900's, although I have looked at periods around each of the world wars.
It could be that during either the first or second world war, the orientation was changed due to military involvment? although I have seen a number of articles on line from fans saying that the pitch used to be in an east/west orientation.
If I find out different, I will post on here.

[eastsussexred]

Athletic and Olympic updated on 'our story' WST website

Athletic and Olympic

[WasanActonlad]

ESR......slight point if I may.....states for 1881/82 played league and cup games.
There were no leagues in 1881/82 only friendlies and cup matches.
First league ...football league in 1888.

[eastsussexred]

Originally Posted by WasanActonlad

ESR......slight point if I may.....states for 1881/82 played league and cup games.
There were no leagues in 1881/82 only friendlies and cup matches.
First league ...football league in 1888.

Thanks WAL. I will see if I can ammend it on WST site.

[Cymru_Am_Byth_WXM]

I was just thinking now about Wrexham Albion, or Albion (Wrexham). Is it plausible that they may have been an offshoot of a Cricket club too? As was common back then. Upon doing some research I have found mention of a Wrexham Albion Cricket Club dating back to August 1867, which predates the footballing entity by 10 years.

Similar with Wrexham Grosvenor who were first mentioned in 1877, although there was a Cricket club with the same name a year earlier too.

Whilst nowadays other Towns and Cities have multiple teams containing the name of the settlement, even if some of them are well down the footballing pyramid, Wrexham only has one team containing the name of the town. However when looking back through the historical reports there are loads of teams containing the name of the town in some form. Makes you wonder that if history had taken a different course we could have ended up a two club town and be having local derbies against Wrexham Victoria, Wrexham Gymnasium or Wrexham Hibernian.

[eastsussexred]

Originally Posted by Cymru_Am_Byth_WXM

I was just thinking now about Wrexham Albion, or Albion (Wrexham). Is it plausible that they may have been an offshoot of a Cricket club too? As was common back then. Upon doing some research I have found mention of a Wrexham Albion Cricket Club dating back to August 1867, which predates the footballing entity by 10 years.

Similar with Wrexham Grosvenor who were first mentioned in 1877, although there was a Cricket club with the same name a year earlier too.

Whilst nowadays other Towns and Cities have multiple teams containing the name of the settlement, even if some of them are well down the footballing pyramid, Wrexham only has one team containing the name of the town. However when looking back through the historical reports there are loads of teams containing the name of the town in some form. Makes you wonder that if history had taken a different course we could have ended up a two club town and be having local derbies against Wrexham Victoria, Wrexham Gymnasium or Wrexham Hibernian.

And of course, Athletic and Olympic, which many teams have been named. I think cricket was the main sport of the nation until football took hold across the country. But this happened at a time of huge change across Britain, with a kind of social movement trying to change societies ill's through athletic sport activities. For the working classes, football became the chosen acceptable sport rather than cricket and rugby, which were seen as sports for the more privileged and so the craze took off rapidly in pretty much every town and village across the country. As Evan Morris said ' it enabled the have's and the have-not's to compete on an even field, and helped to heal some of the rifts between the working classes and their masters, but was also widely encouraged by the authorities as it was a far healthier pastime than spending time in the pubs, which was an enormous social problem at the time. I think that Like WAFC many clubs were founded by cricket clubs, but it should be remembered that even when WFAC was founded, it was only done so as part of a bigger idea to introduce athletic sports to the town. The club even voted to invest their profits for prizes for athletic events at the end of their first season

[WasanActonlad]

Originally Posted by Cymru_Am_Byth_WXM

Excellent read. Could you point me in the right direction with regards to the bit about Wrexham Albion? I'm attempting to write a book on lost football teams in the Wrexham area before 1914, and with Wrexham Albion they vanish around 1880, but a team with the same name reappear around 1890. Assumably the later entity were named after the earlier one, rather than being a continuation, like with what happened with Wrexham Victoria.

C-A-B....would this book be out for xmas..?

[Cymru_Am_Byth_WXM]

Absolutely no chance mate. I only started on it last month and at the moment I'm writing it as and when I get some spare time.