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

[eastsussexred]

Originally Posted by eastsussexred

He married Annie Stodart–Milne in London in 1891, but later remarried.

His biography is recorded on John Arthur Eyton-Jones. By Tony Onslow – Everton Heritage Society




To add to this biography, he had also been a lieutenant in The 1st Volunteer Battalion of The Royal Welsh Fusiliers.

Additionally, The Everton Biography recorded his death as 2nd March 1948, although he actually died on 2nd March 1940.

He had married his second wife Mary Jones in Wrexham in 1909.
His only child was Margaret Susannah Marlice Eyton Jones, who married a Mr George Seymour Swan in 1918

[eastsussexred]

Originally Posted by eastsussexred

Additionally, The Everton Biography recorded his death as 2nd March 1948, although he actually died on 2nd March 1940.

He had married his second wife Mary Jones in Wrexham in 1909.
His only child was Margaret Susannah Marlice Eyton Jones, who married a Mr George Seymour Swan in 1918

He was the son of the former magistrate and mayor of Wrexham in 1875 (Dr Thomas Eyton Jones) who died in France in 1893. Dr Thomas Eyton Jones was a very well known surgeon in the area and was also the secretary and President of The North Wales Branch of The British Medical Association. Thomas was a surgeon in The Denbighshire Rifle Volunteers and the regimental surgeon of The Wrexham Yeomanry Cavalry
John Arthur Eyton Jones was also a famous surgeon in the area, and he was a Lieutenant surgeon in The 1st and 2nd Volunteer Brigade of The Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who’s headquarters were based on the Crispin Lane end of The Racecourse. He was the President and vice captain of The Wrexham Hockey Club, on its inception in 1897 and also played cricket for The Wrexham Cricket Club in the 1880’s and 90’s. He was the nephew of Sir Edward Samuelson, who was the Lord Mayor of Liverpool in 1862/63 and the great nephew of Sir Rowland Hill, the inventor of the penny post.
He was commonly known by the name of Arthur, and mostly received the title of Dr J.A. Eyton Jones in his medical career. Arthur had three brothers-Thomas (born 1862) Hugh Mortimer (b-1864) Robert (b-1871) and both Thomas and Hugh Mortimer had played in scratch matches for Wrexham FC.
Arthur had been playing for The Hare and Hounds (Wrexham) Football Club since at least 1881 till the end of the 82/83 season, while his brother Thomas (jnr) was also listed as the goalkeeper in the same team. In those days, players were interchangeable between clubs, and The Hare and Hounds, who played on The Racecourse, often served as a feeder club for Wrexham FC, so that players would step in if there were shortages in either team. In the 1883/84 season, Arthur was mostly playing for Wrexham FC, although sometimes would also play for Bootle. He was one of the Wrexham players in the team against Oswestry in the second round of the FA Cup on December 1st 1883, in which crowd trouble led to Wrexham being banned from English FA games. Most of that team were then released from the club as Wrexham reformed as Wrexham Olympic at the end of the season, although Arthur played for Wrexham Olympic against Ruthin at The Racecourse on 30th August 1884, even though he remained on the books of the Hare and Hounds Football Club. This, however, was just a ruse- a safeguard for Eyton Jones against expulsion from English FA games.
When Wrexham reformed into Wrexham Olympic prior to the start of the 1884 season, they just absorbed the Hare and Hounds into the new club, and former Hare and Hounds players like John Arthur Eyton Jones and Herbert Sisson continued to play for Wrexham Olympic. The Hare and Hounds ceased as a football club at the end of the 83/84 season, although it continued as an athletic sport club and a club for hunting. But when objections were raised about Eyton Jones playing in the international match against England in March 1884, he just produced documentation to say that he was on the books of The Hare and Hounds, even though that football club would shortly be absorbed into Wrexham Olympic.
In the 1883/84 season, Albert had played for both Wrexham and Bootle, but from 84 to late 85 he was playing for Bootle, although Olympic may have kept a retainer on him as he would sometimes play in testimonials for Wrexham Olympic on The Racecourse and was listed as a Wrexham Olympic player in all of his international matches, as well as the many county matches which he played for Denbighshire, and was also listed as an Olympic player in the games he played for North Wales against the South.

He also played in a friendly match between representatives of the legal profession in Wrexham and those representing the medical profession in Wrexham at The Racecourse on 9th April 1897. Eyton Jones scored the only goal for the doctors and Thomas Parry Jones Parry- the Wrexham solicitor who later bought The Racecourse, scored a goal for the Legal Profession who won the game by 2 goals to 1
He was declared Bankrupt in 1903.
https://newspapers.library.wales/vie...53/4248059/57/


Wrexham Olympic were formed in August 1884

[dragonspark]

honestly ESR you are amazing

[WasanActonlad]

Originally Posted by eastsussexred

With the thread now 68 pages long, I feel that it would now be more convenient to add an updated summary of the major structures that have been built on The Racecourse since it was first established.

The Turf Hotel is comprised of two individual buildings, which were each built at different times. The Turf Tavern (the lower section of The Turf Hotel) was built at some point between 1793 and 1819, and The Grandstand (the taller section with a balcony; where the bar area is today) was built sometime prior to 1833. Both of these buildings were later joined together to form the current Turf Hotel.

In the early days of racing at Y Cae Ras, temporary wooden stands were built at either side of The Turf Tavern and dismantled at the end of the race meetings each year. The earliest evidence for this comes from a newspaper report of the 1811 races, in which one of the stands collapsed and a spectator suffered a broken leg.

1854. The first permanent stand was a stone- built structure with wooden plank seating, built on the Mold Road side of the course. The stand was separated from the Turf Tavern by a gate that provided access onto the course. The Turf Tavern was also adapted with offices for race officials and changing rooms for jockeys, which were later used as changing rooms for footballers.

After the birth of Wrexham AFC in 1864, simple open air seating was gradually re-introduced to the side of the pitch on the Northern (Yale side) of the ground. The seating consisted of continuous lines of wooden planks that ran parallel along the entire length of the pitch, and which were elevated in steps that were 7 rows high.

1869. The Mold Road Stand was repaired and upgraded

1890. The Mold Road stand was renovated and extended with a new stand that had an additional gate installed at the Plas Coch the end of this stand.

1913. Major revamp of the stadium prior to the Wales v Scotland International match on 3rd March. The Mold Road stand was extended again and additional seating was provided on the flat ground between the Mold Road stand and the touchline. The height of the banks behind each goal were also increased, particularly at the Crispin Lane end, and some concrete terracing was laid at each end.
The Turf Tavern was renovated and the separate, taller section of the premises, known as The Grandstand was also renovated, internally and externally. These two buildings, which were originally separated by an alleyway, 3 metres wide, had previously been joined together at first floor level by means of lintels which spanned the alley and provided another gated entrance into the ground, but in 1913, the alleyway was bricked up, bringing the two buildings together and forming a lounge area inside of the tavern.


1921. The first covered structure for up to 2,500 standing spectators was erected at the Plas Coch end of the pitch at a cost of £100, which was paid for by the Shareholders Association. At the same time, the height of The Mold Road stand was raised to provide more seating and the height of the terraced embankment at the Crispin Lane end of the ground was again increased.

1924. (May). First stand erected on the Northern (Yale side) of the pitch at a cost of £360 which was paid by the Shareholders Association. The Association formally handed control of the stand to the football club before the last home game of the 1923/24 season, against Durham City on May 3rd.1924.


1924. (September) The Plas Coch Stand was destroyed by a storm, which ripped the roof from its fixings and damaged the foundations. This was the second time that this had happened to the stand behind the Plas Coch goal.

1925. The Plas Coch structure was replaced with a new stand with a curved roof, which was painted with stripes.

1928. Concrete terracing laid to the paddock area in front of the Mold Road stand.

1929. A new covered stand (100 yards long and 25 feet deep) replaced the curved-roof structure at the Plas Coch end of the ground. Built at a cost of £750, which was provided by the Supporters Association, the stand incorporated ladder beams with diagonal cross members, which ran the full length along the front of the stand beneath the roof. The stand was officially opened by the President of the Welsh FA prior to the international game against Ireland on 2nd February.

1930. The ladder-beam design was also used for a new stand which replaced the earlier structure on the northern (Yale side) of the pitch. This stand was opened with an official ceremony, prior to the international match against England on 22nd November.

1931. (September) The angled/wing stand was constructed on Mold Road, filling the gap between the Mold Road and Plas Coch stands and providing covered accommodation for 1000 supporters. Construction work started in July and was completed in time for the opening game of the season against Chester on September 2nd. The £700 construction costs were paid by The Supporters Association

1931. (October) The length of the new stand on the northern (Yale Stand) side of the pitch was extended and its depth was increased down to the touchline, while retaining the ladder-beam design to match the Plas Coch end of the ground.
With accommodation for up to 7,000 supporters, the stand on the northern side of the pitch was now 70 yards long and 42 feet deep, and had been built at a total cost of around £900 (£368 of which was paid by the Supporters Association).
The stand was officially opened prior to the Wales v Scotland international match on 31st October 1931. The height of the ‘Spion Kop’ terracing at the Crispin Lane end of the ground had also been raised again to increase capacity for this match.

1937. Both the Yale Stand and The Plas Coch Stands were each extended to merge into a single structure, while new terracing was also laid to both ends of the ground in time for the FA Cup tie against Manchester City on 16th January.


1948. A conversion of the area under the Mold Road stand provided new changing rooms for players, while a new entrance was erected at the northern (Yale side) of the ground. The work to the dressing rooms had been started in April 1947 and completed in time for the international match against Ireland on March 10th 1948.

1952. Old terracing removed and new raised concrete terracing laid on the Crispin Lane end of ground to form the kop.

1957. Ground improvements included a new entrance and turnstiles next to The Turf Hotel, with a new stand in the enclosure providing 250 tip-up seats for season ticket holders. A new concrete boundary wall was also built around the pitch to replace railings and additional terracing was constructed on the kop to increase the ground capacity to 40,000.

1959. New floodlights switched on for the home tie against Swindon on 30th September.

1962. A new 700-seater stand, which was comprised of a reclaimed balcony from The Majestic Cinema in Wrexham, was erected on the kop and opened for the start of the 1962/63 season. First known as ‘The Busfield Stand’ due to an advertising hoarding on the front of the structure, the stand later became known as ‘The Pigeon Loft’. The stand was bought and erected at a cost of £4,000, which was paid by the Supporters Association.

1972. A New £80,000 stand was opened on the Yale side of the ground, which was comprised of an upper tier of seated accommodation and lower terraces for standing spectators close to the pitch. The base of the stand also provided office space for club officials, changing rooms and the hospitality rooms, which are now known as the Centenary Club.

1978. Another two-tired stand costing around £200,000 was opened at the Plas Coch end of ground, replacing the earlier ‘tech end’. Like the Yale Stand, the new stand was comprised of an upper tier for seated supporters and a lower section of terraces.

1999. The Mold Road Stand and the old changing rooms of The Turf Tavern were demolished to make way for the current 3,500-seater Mold Road Stand.

Re the 1921 development of the Plas Coch end (tech end)...
Whilst today doing some research at the museum came across the following snippet from the Wrexham Leader 5th June 1920.
"Public Notice"
Wrexham Football Club
" Contractors and others are invited to dispose of ashes, gravel etc suitable for banking purposes by tipping same on the racecourse "

[eastsussexred]

Originally Posted by WasanActonlad

Re the 1921 development of the Plas Coch end (tech end)...
Whilst today doing some research at the museum came across the following snippet from the Wrexham Leader 5th June 1920.
"Public Notice"
Wrexham Football Club
" Contractors and others are invited to dispose of ashes, gravel etc suitable for banking purposes by tipping same on the racecourse "

Thanks WAL.
This was the start of a ground improvement scheme, to raise the capacity of The Racecourse to 35,000.
Wrexham were elected into The Third Division North in 1921 and the club set aside £2,000 for ground improvements in that first season alone.
We often think back to Wrexham’s hayday in the 1970’s, but the club also enjoyed relatively successful seasons during the first three decades of the 20th Century, with crowds increasing during the years of success. Although ‘as far as I am aware’ our average attendance during a season only ever exceeded 11,000 in 1977/78, when our average attendance was 11,651.

[WasanActonlad]

In 1920 they were in as already aware the Birmingham district league..
Just before the proposals came through for a division 3 north which were to be delayed for 12 months..
The club was actually considering switching to the central league as a means of getting elected to the FL.

[eastsussexred]

Originally Posted by WasanActonlad

In 1920 they were in as already aware the Birmingham district league..
Just before the proposals came through for a division 3 north which were to be delayed for 12 months..
The club was actually considering switching to the central league as a means of getting elected to the FL.

Wrexham were one of twelve clubs that had tried to join The Central League back in 1911, when the newly-formed league extended its membership from 13 to 18 clubs, but the league accepted applications from Barnsley, Huddersfield, Crewe, Rochdale and Southport instead.
I understand that Wrexham did re-apply to join The Central League again in 1920, WAL, but their application wasn't successful; therefore, after changes in the constitution of a number of different leagues, Wrexham joined the newly-formed Third Division North of the English Football League, on its inception in 1921.

[eastsussexred]

Originally Posted by eastsussexred

This is something that will probably not be of interest to a lot of people, but as The Turf Hotel has been so intrinsically linked to The Racecourse and Wrexham AFC, I have been recording the names of the landlords, during my research.
I am pretty sure that there has not been a comprehensive list of the landlords published online before, or else I would have found it.

List of known Turf Tavern/Hotel Landlords/ladies up to 1942

Date of construction- late 1790's- to be confirmed.

Joseph and Margaret Foulkes - 1819
Mr Evans - 1825/26/28
John Tench - 1833-1849
Sarah Tench (widow) - 1849-1853
JohnWhittaker - 1853/1861.
John Whittaker had served in The Wrexham Yeomanry Cavalry and was also a member of Wrexham Cricket Club. He is also known to have established athletic sports events on The Racecourse, at least as far back as 1857, and appears to have been heavily involved in bringing horse racing back to the course after the races had been abandoned in 1858.
Arthur Hanmer - 1861-1864
Thomas Hanmer (Snr) - 1864-1875 (His son Thomas Hanmer (Jnr) was one of the 10 man team who played in WFAC’s first ever game. He also supplied The silver Hanmer Cup for the club’s annual Athletic Sports Event)
Martha Hanmer (Widow) - 1874-1884 (wife of the late Thomas Hanmer Snr)
Frederick George Fraser -1890 (Husband of Rosina Hanmer- the daughter of Thomas-Snr and Martha)
Rosina (Hanmer) Fraser (widow)-1891-1898
John James Lloyd -1898-1900 (this landlord was sometimes confused in local newspapers with John James (Jack) Scott of The Severn Stars, and while ‘Jack’ Scott was associated with the Wrexham Races and pigeon shooting on the Racecourse in the 1890’s, he doesn’t appear to have ever been the landlord of The Turf Hotel.)
Robert Durwood 1900
William .C. Harrison -1903-1920 (Former Wrexham Player and Welsh International).
Harry Foster -1922 (Father of Wrexham FC player Bert Foster- who died of pneumonia at The Turf Hotel in September 1922)
Charles Edward Hickman 1927-1928
Alfred Maddock 1933-1935
David Aitken -1939
Tommy Percival Griffiths -1939-1940 (previous Welsh International and player/coach for Wrexham FC; also played for Everton, Bolton, Middlesbrough and Aston Villa)
Robert Kett -1942

Originally Posted by Canary

I believe William Clare Harrison was club chairman at the time of his death. He once fell off the roof of a stand at the Racecourse while trying to effect repairs.

I am not sure if you are aware Canary, but William Clare Harrison was actually born in Portsmouth, but an error in the reading of his register as a footballer was incorrectly read as Portmadoc; hence, his eligibility to play for Wales: at least that is what was recorded in the press after his death (as attached).

Wiki has his place of birth as Ireland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willia...lsh_footballer)

but he was definitely born in Portsmouth in Hampshire in 1872, as recorded in the birth register on Ancestry and FamilySearch, as well as recorded on all subsequent census records.

[WasanActonlad]

Originally Posted by eastsussexred

He was the son of the former magistrate and mayor of Wrexham in 1875 (Dr Thomas Eyton Jones) who died in France in 1893. Dr Thomas Eyton Jones was a very well known surgeon in the area and was also the secretary and President of The North Wales Branch of The British Medical Association. Thomas was a surgeon in The Denbighshire Rifle Volunteers and the regimental surgeon of The Wrexham Yeomanry Cavalry
John Arthur Eyton Jones was also a famous surgeon in the area, and he was a Lieutenant surgeon in The 1st and 2nd Volunteer Brigade of The Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who’s headquarters were based on the Crispin Lane end of The Racecourse. He was the President and vice captain of The Wrexham Hockey Club, on its inception in 1897 and also played cricket for The Wrexham Cricket Club in the 1880’s and 90’s. He was the nephew of Sir Edward Samuelson, who was the Lord Mayor of Liverpool in 1862/63 and the great nephew of Sir Rowland Hill, the inventor of the penny post.
He was commonly known by the name of Arthur, and mostly received the title of Dr J.A. Eyton Jones in his medical career. Arthur had three brothers-Thomas (born 1862) Hugh Mortimer (b-1864) Robert (b-1871) and both Thomas and Hugh Mortimer had played in scratch matches for Wrexham FC.
Arthur had been playing for The Hare and Hounds (Wrexham) Football Club since at least 1881 till the end of the 82/83 season, while his brother Thomas (jnr) was also listed as the goalkeeper in the same team. In those days, players were interchangeable between clubs, and The Hare and Hounds, who played on The Racecourse, often served as a feeder club for Wrexham FC, so that players would step in if there were shortages in either team. In the 1883/84 season, Arthur was mostly playing for Wrexham FC, although sometimes would also play for Bootle. He was one of the Wrexham players in the team against Oswestry in the second round of the FA Cup on December 1st 1883, in which crowd trouble led to Wrexham being banned from English FA games. Most of that team were then released from the club as Wrexham reformed as Wrexham Olympic at the end of the season, although Arthur played for Wrexham Olympic against Ruthin at The Racecourse on 30th August 1884, even though he remained on the books of the Hare and Hounds Football Club. This, however, was just a ruse- a safeguard for Eyton Jones against expulsion from English FA games.
When Wrexham reformed into Wrexham Olympic prior to the start of the 1884 season, they just absorbed the Hare and Hounds into the new club, and former Hare and Hounds players like John Arthur Eyton Jones and Herbert Sisson continued to play for Wrexham Olympic. The Hare and Hounds ceased as a football club at the end of the 83/84 season, although it continued as an athletic sport club and a club for hunting. But when objections were raised about Eyton Jones playing in the international match against England in March 1884, he just produced documentation to say that he was on the books of The Hare and Hounds, even though that football club would shortly be absorbed into Wrexham Olympic.
In the 1883/84 season, Albert had played for both Wrexham and Bootle, but from 84 to late 85 he was playing for Bootle, although Olympic may have kept a retainer on him as he would sometimes play in testimonials for Wrexham Olympic on The Racecourse and was listed as a Wrexham Olympic player in all of his international matches, as well as the many county matches which he played for Denbighshire, and was also listed as an Olympic player in the games he played for North Wales against the South.

He also played in a friendly match between representatives of the legal profession in Wrexham and those representing the medical profession in Wrexham at The Racecourse on 9th April 1897. Eyton Jones scored the only goal for the doctors and Thomas Parry Jones Parry- the Wrexham solicitor who later bought The Racecourse, scored a goal for the Legal Profession who won the game by 2 goals to 1
He was declared Bankrupt in 1903.
https://newspapers.library.wales/vie...53/4248059/57/


Wrexham Olympic were formed in August 1884

It's a small world..
Dr Eyton-Jones was on the bench when my great grandfather was brought before the local magistrates court in the 1880's on a charge of assault whilst serving as a PC in the local constabulary..(police brutality is nothing new)..
The damming evidence may have been his colleague a PC Lee's quote " I think you've kicked him too hard PC Pleavin"