Gorton F.C. 1884/5
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| St Marks West Gorton |
As a long-time supporter of Manchester City Football Club, I am naturally interested in its origins. I have long been aware that the club began life as St. Marks (West Gorton) in 1880 and that it sprang from an idea of the rector of St. Mark’s church, Rev. Arthur Connell and his daughter, Anna.
They desired to try and combat the drink fueled gang violence often of a sectarian nature that prevailed at the time. To this end they instituted firstly a working men’s club which from the outset would be open to all regardless of faith.
To give the young men of the area an outlet for their energy in a more positive way the parent club spawned initially a cricket club, in 1879, and the following year the club which after several changes of name was to become Manchester City. As a football fan the above was enough to know, however, as a local historian I wished to know more. I began to investigate the lives of the vicar, his daughter and also the two churchwardens who were enlisted to set up the club – Thomas Goodbehere and William Beastow.
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| St Mark’s church hall Hyde Road, Manchester. |
St Mark’s church hall Hyde Road, Manchester.
Rev. Connell was born in Mallow, Co. Cork, Ireland in 1821. His father’s name was Patrick and "it is likely that he was christened there on 11th May that year. This record also suggests that his mother’s name was Margaret". (1)
Arthur Henry Connell married Anna Dwyer the daughter of Alexander, "possibly a prominent local draper and general dealer", at Templemichael, Co. Longford, Ireland on 14th March, 1850. Anna Connell, the couple’s first child was born in Clones, Co. Monaghan, Ireland on Christmas Eve 24th December, 1850. The announcement of the birth in The Longford Journal of 28th December, 1850 records that her father at that time was a Primitive Wesleyan Methodist preacher. Another daughter, Georgina was born in 1853 followed by a son Arthur A. in 1856.
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| Thomas Goodbehere’s grave |
Around the time of the birth of his son Arthur converted to the established church and commenced training for the priesthood at St. Aiden’s College, Birkenhead, Cheshire. His first recorded position in the Church of Ireland was curate at Lurgan, Co. Armagh, in June 1856, although he was not ordained to the full priesthood until the following year. Rev. Connell served as a curate at another Irish parish, Tullylish, Co. Down whose parishioners presented him with an address and a purse of sovereigns after having made strenuous efforts to retain his ministry following his resignation in January, 1859. Rev. Connell’s next appointment was as a curate at Christ Church, Harrogate, Yorkshire where he remained until he became the first Rector of the new church of St. Mark’s West Gorton in August, 1865. He was to stay in this office for 32 years before retiring due to declining health in 1897 and moving to Southport, Lancashire where he died at Marshside Road, Churchtown.
Anna Connel remained unmarried and after a brief spell as a governess (2) she spent most of her life working for the church. Firstly, assisting her father, then on his death fulfilling the same rôle for her brother-in-law Rev. John William Dixon who married her younger sister, Georgina, in her father’s church on the 3rd September, 1889. The 1911 census records her as the head deaconess in what is described as a “training home” at 9, Brunswick Square, Bristol. Anna died at her brother-in-law's rectory in Darlaston, Staffordshire on the 21st October, 1924.
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| Chestnut Avenue |
Interred in this grave, G 266, in the Church of England section of Manchester’s Southern Cemetery are the remains of Thomas Goodbehere one of churchwardens of St. Mark’s who assisted the Connells in their endeavours to organise a Football Club for the young men of the area. He was born in the May of 1841 in the small village of Youlgreave, Nr Bakewell, Derbyshire. His parents were Benjamin, at that time a miner of the local mineral ores, and Elizabeth (née Bateman) the daughter of Philip Bateman the village schoolmaster. Soon after Thomas was born the family moved to Manchester as the 1847 rate books record Benjamin living at 31, Daisy Street, Hulme. The 1871 census shows them then residing at 7, Robert Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, with Thomas employed as a “mechanic fitter”, his father working as a Police Officer and his mother recorded as a “dressmaker”. Also, in the household were Benjamin’s widowed mother-in-law, Mary Bateman – a “Fundholder", and Thomas’s much younger brother 8-year-old, Frederick George (3).
On the 24th June, 1869 at St Paul’s Church, Brunswick Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester Thomas married Annie Elizabeth “Lily”, the eldest daughter of William Edward Corby a hairdresser and stationer of 116, Borough Buildings, London Road, Manchester and his wife, Hannah (née Bell).
At the time Thomas was helping the Connells in forming the football club which metamorphosed into Manchester City the 1881 census was taken on Sunday 3rd April, 1881 This recorded that Thomas had moved to “Summer Lea”, 5, North Road, Longsight, a property he was sharing with his brother Frederick and his family. His household included his wife and one child, 6-year-old Harold. (The couple had had two other children a baby girl called Lily and a son, Frederick William, who both died in infancy in 1871 and 1873 respectively). Thomas’s occupation on this census was given as “Mechanical draughtsman” Later newspaper articles of the 1880’s state that he was a “machinist and engineer” and confirm he was employed at the Union Iron Works of West Gorton. These reports reveal that he was granted a number of patents, in respect of the redesign of cotton manufacturing machinery, on one of which he was in collaboration with his brother, Frederick George. He was also apparently sufficiently affluent to purchase shares (alongside his brother) in a company building a new suspension bridge at Douglas Head, Isle of Man. (4)
As indicated above Thomas Goodbehere is interred in Southern Cemetery where he was buried on the 19th March, 1903, his wife, Lily, having pre-deceased him in November, 1898.
William Beastow, the other churchwarden involved in the inauguration of St. Mark’s (West Gorton) Football Club, was born in Hulme, Manchester. He was baptised at the Collegiate Church (now the Cathedral), Manchester on 26th April, 1835. His parents were recorded as John Beaston(w), a “machine maker” and his wife Sarah. William was twice married, firstly to Jane Alice Hunter, a joiner’s daughter, at St. Mary’s Church, Manchester on the 19th March, 1859. After Jane Alice died of consumption around the end of October, 1869 (she was interred in Ardwick Cemetery on the 3rd November) he wed Charlotte (née Tipping), herself a widow of Joseph Cooper, in St. John’s Church, Manchester in the December quarter of 1871.
As a result of these marital changes the family relationships were a little complicated. By his first wife, Jane Alice William appears to have had 2 surviving children, a daughter, Emily Alice born in 1860 and a son, John Hunter, born two years later. His union with Charlotte produced no other children but did introduce a step-son into William’s household. Charles Frederick was the same age as his natural son John Hunter and according to some sources both were early team members of St Mark’s (West Gorton).
William’s first years of marriage were spent in the Hulme district of Manchester. The 1861 census records him at 35, Jackson Street, Hulme and shows his occupation as “mechanic fitter”.
Following the death of his first wife and with two young children to care for the 1871 census shows that he had moved to live with his younger sister, Mary Alice, and brother-in-law William Fowler, a silk weaver, at 2, Watts Street, Gorton. Settling in the Gorton area he remarried and established himself both in his work in the Union Iron works and in a number of positions in the community. He was, as well as being a churchwarden, variously an “Overseer of the Poor”, an honorary vice-chairman of the rapidly developing football club, by then known simply as “Gorton”, and latterly both a J. P. and a councillor for St. Mark’s ward on newly expanded Manchester City Council. In his capacity as its vice-chairman, he presented Gorton with its first known kit of black shirts with a white cross. (pictured above). He was also a property owner and once rented one building to a local co-operative society.
William became a widower again on the 15th January, 1888. He lived at a number of addresses in the Gorton area- 178, Clowes Street, 28, Lime Grove and 157, Hyde Road sharing with his grown-up son, John Hunter.
He died in the November of 1912, aged, 78.
Pictures: St Mark’s church hall Hyde Road, (m 27448 F. Hotchin 1958) courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives Manchester City Council http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Thomas Goodbehere’s grave and 4, Chestnut Ave, collection of Tony Goulding.
Notes: -
1) Text in italics represents most likely facts.
2) The 1871 census shows Anna employed as a governess to the managing director of the “Wigan Iron & Coal Co.”, Alfred Hewlett, his wife Elizabeth and their two daughters, Amy (13) and Ada (7)
3) Frederick George Goodbehere became very successful; in 1911 he was recorded as the managing of a textile machinery works and living with his family, a cook and a housemaid in a 14-room mansion on Plymouth Grove, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester.
4) This venture appears to have been very flawed and possibly fraudulent. The “bridge” was never constructed and it’s quite possible the Goodbeheres lost their investment.
Acknowledgement; "The Manchester City Story" by Andrew Ward 1984 proved very useful as a source of the early history of the club
