Derbyshire miners and footballers who played for Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday to be honoured thanks to campaign led by historian Mark Metcalfe and former Manchester United director Michael Knighton

 

Derbyshire Times 02 February 2024

Derbyshire miners and footballers who played for Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday to be honoured thanks to campaign led by historian Mark Metcalfe and former Manchester United director Michael Knighton

Three plaques will be unveiled in Blackwell, commemorating two 19th century footballers and miners killed in an accident at the local colliery.

The two footballers that will be honoured are former Blackwell Collier’s, Billy ‘Fatty’ Foulke (1874-1916) and Willie Layton (1875-1944). Beginning their playing careers for Blackwell miners welfare FC, both men would go on to play for Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday respectively, leading both men to win England's old First Division and the FA cup with their clubs.

The unveiling will take place on Thursday 18 April. The plaques dedicated to the two footballers will be unveiled at Blackwell Community Hall. The third plaque will be unveiled at the village's pit wheel monument, displaying the names of seven men who died in a mining accident on November 11 1895.

On Sunday 25 February, there will be a meeting at Blackwell Community Hall where people can find out more about the unveiling and about the people the plaques will be commemorating.

Former footballers and Blackwell residents, Willie Layton (Left) and Billy Foulke (Right) will be commemorated with plaques in the village.

Descendents of any of the men being commemorated are encouraged to come forward to be involved with the unveiling, as well as any former miners at the colliery.

The campaign to get the plaques installed in the village has been led by football historian and writer, Mark Metcalfe, as well Derbyshire born businessman and former Manchester United director, Michael Knighton – the great-grandson of Willie Layton.

Mark said: “It’s a combination of my personal passion to remember the footballers of the past and Michael Knighton’s willingness to fund this to make it possible, because of his great-grandads connection to the coal miners. So that’s how this has come about.”

Tony Gascoyne, a Blackwell parish councillor, was approached by Mark and Michael about putting these memorial plaques up in the village. The councillor described the plaques as being “massively important” to the village's identity.

One of the plaques will be unveiled at the Blackwell colliery pit-wheel monument

He said: “I think if we don’t remember these people then they got lost to time, and nobody will actually know about what happened. I think we’ve all been guilty of living in the moment and not remembering what's happened in the past.

“We are a mining community and that’s been lost because of the pits closing and the open cast mining coming in after that. So our identity has been lost to a certain extent.”

Tony gave thanks to both Mark and Michael for all they have done to bring these plaques to the village.

The councillor said: “Mark’s been brilliant and very proactive in what he does, and Michael as well who has come along and funded the plaques.

“It’s been eye-opening to have the interest of somebody who's not really involved with the village personally, but who has got a lot of time to get things organised and push this forward.”

Michael is also hoping to see children from Blackwell primary school helping at the unveiling.

Once working for the Professional Footballers Association, Mark has helped to put up several plaques around the country, commemorating footballing legends of yester-year; including Frank Swift, Jimmy Armfield and Kenny Davenport.

For more details about the upcoming event either contact Mark via metcalfmc@outlook.com or Cllr Gascoyne at gazzaddr@hotmail.co.uk.