Blackwell miners and footballers who played for Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday to be honoured this Wednesday

 

Blackwell miners and footballers who played for Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday to be honoured this Wednesday

Don’t worry if you hear a loud voice echoing round Blackwell Colliery streets this Wednesday morning from 11am onwards. It will be town crier David Purdy calling residents to a special ceremony that begins at the pit wheel monument at 1pm before moving to the community hall at 2pm.  

Three plaques are to be unveiled on the afternoon of the 17^th.

The first at the pit wheel will honour all 71 colliers who lost their lives at the colliery until its closure in 1969 and will name the seven men, some descendants of whom will be present, who died in a mining accident on November 11 1895.

The two plaques that will be unveiled at Blackwell Community Hall will be dedicated to two footballers who worked at the mine and kicked off their playing careers for Blackwell Miners Colliery Welfare FC.

Billy ‘Fatty’ Foulke (1874-1916) and Willie Layton (1875-1944) would subsequently play for Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday respectively, where both men went on to win England's old First Division and the FA Cup. Foulke, who also represented Derbyshire at County Cricket, played for England and Layton for the English Football League.

Amongst those who will be making short speeches prior to the unveilings are Bolsover Council Leader and former miner Steve Fritchley, Richard Foulke, John Garrett of Sheffield United, comedian Ross Brierley and former Manchester United director Michael Knighton, great grandson of Layton. Parish councillors Tony Gascoyne and Ian Newham will be saying a few words.

There will a display of residents’ art work centered on Foulke and Layton in the community hall following the unveilings. The ongoing work to record residents’ sporting memories will also be continuing, there will also be other displays and the world record 9^th wicket cricketing stand that was achieved at Blackwell in 1910 by Warren and Chapman of Derbyshire will be recalled.

If you want to find out more about the footballers then take a look at these 2 short films: -

Layton: https://youtu.be/1k1fcY5vtPo

Foulke https://youtu.be/zei3KpirqW0

For more details contact Mark Metcalf 07392 852561 and metcalfmc@outlook.com