Work and Play: The Industrial Roots of English Football

Cheadle Heath Nomads, based just down the road from Edgeley Park, feature in Dave Proudlove’s new book

Oct 14, 2024

Monday 14 October 2024

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Dear County fans, Stopfordians, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Monday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

We’re joined today by Dave Proudlove, author of When the Circus Leaves Town: What Happens When Football Leaves Home. He writes a weekly column for the North Staffordshire daily newspaper The Sentinel, and was also a regular contributor to the former Stoke City fanzine Duck. He’s a contributor to the Forgotten Football Clubs blog, and regularly collaborates with artists and other writers.

Dave’s new book, which comes out next Monday, is a fascinating examination of the roots of some of English football's most famous clubs, and how the relationship between industrial communities and football clubs still survives at a local level throughout the semi-professional and grassroots game. Clubs from all over the country are included, including Cheadle Heath Nomads, one of County’s non-league neighbours. Dave’s kindly provided us with an exclusive extract.

Today’s edition is sponsored by BGM Decorators. A big thank you to Ben.

Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.

Total distance so far: 176.31 miles

Total steps so far: 284,130

Total raised so far: £2,027

Total completed streets so far: 399 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)

Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.

Des Junior

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Today, Altrincham is perhaps seen as the archetypal middle-class Cheshire market town, a place of wealth and taste, and where many of Manchester’s movers and shakers live and hang out. At the heart of the town’s modern scene is its historic market, which in recent years has been reinvigorated as a food hall, giving it a fresh and contemporary vibe.

But although the town has its historic market town roots and its gentrified modern image, Altrincham has an industrial base in the Broadheath area that has a long history which developed with the extension of the Bridgewater Canal during the 1760s, and accelerated with the coming of the railways during the 1840s. This localised industrial growth led to the expansion of Altrincham and the absorption of outlying villages, and by 1900, the town had its own docks, warehouses and an electricity generating station alongside the canal on the Broadheath Industrial Park – established by Lord Stamford in 1885 – which supported the development of activities as diverse as the making of machine tools, camera manufacturing, and the making of grinding machines. By 1914, thousands of people were employed by 14 companies in the Broadheath area. One of those companies was Linotype and Machinery Limited.

Linotype and Machinery was created through a merger of the Linotype Company and the Machinery Trust in 1903. The Linotype Company was established in 1889 and originally imported machines built in America by the Merganthaler Linotype Company. As demand for the products grew, the company began to manufacture parts and machines themselves, establishing a workshop in a remodelled mill on Hulme Street in Manchester in 1889. In 1893, the Machinery Trust was formed, and acted as sales agent for the Linotype Company, moving on completed machinery to printing companies. The success of both businesses led to their merger which was concluded in August 1903.

Central to the merger was an arrangement with the American companies in respect of original patents, a deal which established which countries that the Linotype Company could sell their machines in. The merger also saw the new company base itself at the Linotype Company’s site in Broadheath.

The company needed a skilled and reliable workforce running into hundreds, and in order to secure this and ensure their continued wellbeing, they invested in the development of a small model village off Lawrence Road a short distance from the factory. And it was all within walking distance of Altrincham town centre.

As with many industrial model villages, the Linotype development was about more than just providing homes for workers; it was about providing the foundations from which a community could grow. The company built more than 170 homes in the Arts and Crafts style – and let them at rents half of those across the wider area – and also developed a wide range of other facilities and amenities such as a cricket ground, two football grounds, tennis courts, bowling greens, a children’s playground, and a wooded park. The Linotype development was clearly influenced by other industrial villages like Port Sunlight and Bournville, and it led to further growth in the locality which in turn supported the development of further services, and social and cultural facilities.

One of the two football grounds developed by the Linotype and Machinery Company became the home of Linotype Football Club.

Linotype Football Club was formed in 1919 and was the Linotype and Machinery Company’s works team, their home being located off Lawrence Road, the main thoroughfare through the model village built by the company. As well as providing the football club with facilities, the Linotype and Machinery Company also provided financial support.

During the first 30 years of their existence, Linotype competed in the North Cheshire League, eventually switching to the Mid-Cheshire League in 1949, where they would spend 55 seasons, winning the title four times, and finishing runners-up on six occasions. During their lengthy tenure in the Mid-Cheshire League, the club only finished in the bottom half of the table seven times.

By the early 1970s, the Linotype and Machinery Company had reached the end of its life, mirroring the decline of industry in Broadheath generally: during the 1970s, employment across the area fell by 40%. As a result, Linotype lost the funding provided from the company, and had to find its own way.

The early 1980s were tough for the Broadheath Industrial Park, and by 1985, large parts of the estate south of the Bridgewater Canal were allocated for housing development, including the sport and leisure facilities off Lawrence Road. The loss of their long-standing home was a real blow for Linotype, and it was also a sad one for non-league aficionados as it saw the razing of a uniquely ornate grandstand, described by John Keohane as “the most perfect of football stands.” The loss of Lawrence Road saw Linotype make the move to nearby Timperley, where they established themselves at the British Airways Sports Ground on Clay Lane. However, shortly after the turn of the new millennium, the club was once again facing uncertainty in terms of their home, and this time, they concocted a radical solution – a merger with Mid-Cheshire League rivals, Cheadle Heath Nomads.

Cheadle Heath Nomads were formed in the same year as Linotype – 1919 – as a multi-sport club. The club was formed in the immediate aftermath of World War I by a group of gentlemen who raised £1,000 to acquire a piece of land in Cheadle Heath where they could establish the club. As well as football, the club established a cricket section, a tennis club, and a ladies’ hockey club.

The football club entered the Lancashire and Cheshire Amateur League, and remained there until 1994 when they entered Division Two of the Mid-Cheshire League. The Nomads’ first season in the new league was an absolute triumph: they took the title and won promotion to Division One. In 2004 – with the club still a fixture in Division One of the Mid-Cheshire League – they came together with Linotype Football Club to create Linotype and Cheadle Heath Nomads.

In 2007, the Mid-Cheshire League was renamed the Cheshire League, and for the 2014/15 season, Division One became the Premier Division; Linotype and Cheadle Heath Nomads became the first Premier Division champions. The following season, the club finished as runners-up.

After finishing fourth at the end of the 2017/18 season – and following on from a series of ground improvements including the erection of floodlights – Linotype and Cheadle Heath Nomads were promoted to Division One South of the North West Counties Football League. However, in the process, Linotype was dropped from their name, and the club lost its last remaining link with the Linotype and Machinery Company.

The Broadheath Industrial Park has changed dramatically since the decline of the 1970s and early 1980s. The southern banks of the Bridgewater Canal – once lined with factories and warehouses – now form part of a suburban neighbourhood, while some of the old offices and HQ buildings have been repurposed as apartment buildings, including the old Linotype and Machinery building, a much welcomed survival. However, the ‘new’ Broadheath is perhaps defined by the Budenberg complex, developed by regenerators supreme, Urban Splash.

The Budenberg Gauge Company – originally known as Schaffer and Budenberg – was founded in Germany by Arnold Budenberg with his business partner Ernst Schaffer in 1850. Two years later, the company relocated to England, establishing itself in Manchester, eventually opening a HQ on Whitworth Street. By 1914, the company had relocated to the growing Broadheath Industrial Park where it remained until 1997 when it moved on to Irlam after a series of management buy-outs.

The Broadheath site eventually ended up in the hands of Urban Splash who transformed the original factory building, converting it to modern apartments, while building two striking new blocks designed by Foster and Partners that overlook the Bridgewater Canal.

Ironically, the Budenberg Gauge Company – now owned by Croire – returned to Broadheath in 2020, and are based in a nondescript warehouse building off Stuart Road on the northern side of the canal.

A walk down Lawrence Road is similar but different. On one side – where Linotype Football Club once played their football – a bland suburban housing estate stands. But on the opposite, the model village still remains – including some fairly unusual three storey cottages – largely unchanged aside from replacement windows and doors here and there. But at the same time, the survival of the model village – although very much a positive thing – really brings home the loss of the sports facilities; a victim of Manchester’s housing pressures in places like Altrincham and the demand for Pleasant Valley Sunday fare, which the volume housebuilder types will serve up with relish.

Around eight miles to the east, the Cheadle Heath Sports Club and Cheadle Heath Nomads Football Club continue to thrive, the facilities held in trust in line with the vision of their founding fathers, while the football club has firmly established itself in the North West Counties Football League since its promotion back in 2018 which has been good to see. But the connection with industry in Altrincham is long gone, victim of a gradual erosion over a number of years rather than a sudden severance.

And that’s what makes the loss so sad. Perhaps all farewells should be sudden.

Work and Play: The Industrial Roots of English Football, published by Pitch Publishing, is scheduled for release on Monday 21 October. Click here to pre-order.

Leave the painting and decorating to the professionals

Don’t be like this random stranger Des Junior found on the internet. He thought he could decorate his living room himself. But now look at him, sat forlorn on his floor covered in a tin of Dulux. His wife’s left him, and his evenings are now occupied by microwave meals and old repeats of The Sweeney. You know what he should have done, don’t you? He should have called BGM Decorators.

BGM Decorators is a family business that has been in the trade since 1988. They’ve been built on hard work, honesty, and a high quality service that has consistently enhanced their reputation. They provide a painting and decorating service on a domestic and commercial basis across Stockport, Greater Manchester and Cheshire, as well as offering tenant turnover services and working alongside estate agencies and private landlords.

Give Ben a call on 07816 589989 or email bgm.decorators@yahoo.co.uk.

Photo of the day

Absolute Oscar-winning performance of me having a brew on Hollyoaks. Can’t believe the director’s decided to blur me out.

Today in SK

🍺 Food and drink

Bitter £2.30 a pint all day at The Cross Keys (SK8).

If you’re simply in the mood for a couple of pints today, pop along to one of our featured venues such as The Crown (SK2), The Dog & Partridge (SK2), The Crown Inn (SK6) or The Three Tunnes (SK7).

🎶 Free jukebox

The Nelson Tavern (SK1). From 6.30pm.

Random photos of County players at other clubs

#25 – Chris Marsden, Southampton

If you asked County fans to name their greatest XI, Chris Marsden would be an integral part of the midfield in a lot of line-ups. The former Huddersfield and Wolves man arrived at Edgeley Park from Notts County in 1995-96, and was a key member of the side that won promotion to the First Division the following season under Dave Jones, whilst also reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup. Marsden made a handful of appearances for County in the second tier before moving to Birmingham, then later to Southampton, where he was an FA Cup runner-up in 2003.