Lizzy Ashcroft Collection
15 Special Items

Item 1 – Medal – 1921 St Helens Debut Medal

16 Year Old from Parr (St Helens) debut in front of 30,000

This beautiful and unique medal was found in the bottom of a box of nails, buttons and tut in the garage loft of a relative where it had lain forgotten for 35 years. It was made by the famous Thomas Fattorini company of Birmingham. On the back is the legend: “St Helens v Cheshire. In Aid of Father Hudson’s Homes”. The beautiful enamel crests and the fact that it is my granny’s debut medal make it unique. It is also worth noting that this was the ‘Golden Season’ of women’s football. The English FA allowed very few games on affiliated pitches from October 10th of the 1921-1922 ‘ban’ season. The three crests represent: St Helens (two black griffins + two red saltires), Birmingham and Cheshire (three ‘garbs’ or bundles of wheat on a blue background). Cheshire could not make the game so at the last minute the newly formed and ambitious Stoke Ladies stepped in. This was one of four battles my granny had with the great Stoke Ladies FC whilst playing for St Helens, drawing three and winning one. Her only loss to the Stoke Ladies came in 1923 when playing for the Dick Kerr Ladies when they succumbed to Stoke in the last ever game played by the Midlands side.

This medal is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery.

 

Item 2 – Postcard – 1921 “British Champions”

French Footballer Carmen Pomies Joins the ‘Dream Team’

The photograph above was taken at Pittodrie, the home of Aberdeen Football Club on Monday 5th September 1921. The purpose built changing rooms (looking like a house) and mound identify the ground. Alfred Frankland, the Dick Kerr Ladies manager styled the team ‘British Champions’ at this point and so a mini-tour to Scotland was a good idea. By this point the legendary French footballer Carmen Pomies had joined the ‘Dream Team’ and there is no record of this particular line-up being beaten, despite playing a huge number of games. The newly formed Aberdeen Ladies were thrashed 6 v 0 as were the Dundee Ladies at Den’s Park two days later 6 v 1. The line-up of the above photo right to left is: Lily Parr, Jessie Walmsley, Carmen Pomies, Alice Woods, Florrie Haslam, Florrie Redford, Alice Kell, Daisy Clayton, Jenny Harris, Alice Mills, Emma Grice. This is the image which was used for the 4 metre high granite monument to the Dick Kerr Ladies which can be seen at Deepdale Stadium, Preston the home of Preston North End.

A Very Special Postcard

There are a number of Dick Kerr Ladies postcards in the Lizzy Ashcroft Collection. I have several copies of the ‘British Champions’ postcard. I have however one very, very special postcard. This is signed by the entire Dick Kerr Ladies ‘Dream Team’ with each player writing in beautiful calligraphic script and detailing their position. This postcard is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery. The Lily Parr signature displayed in the Gallery is from this postcard. (I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Red Rose Postcard Club for allowing me to acquire this treasure).

This postcard is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery.

 

Item 3 – Cigarette Card – 1922 Casket Cigarettes

Carmen and Friends Conquer America

This is one of several Casket Cigarette cards in the Lizzy Ashcroft Collection. Alfred Frankland was a marketing genius and he also used another Dick Kerr Ladies image on ‘Candy’ Cigarette Cards. There are two of the very rare Barrett Candy Cigarette Cards in the Lizzy Ashcroft Collection. The image above is thought to have been taken on Saturday 7th January 1922 at Belle Vue Rugby League Ground which was the home of Wakefield Trinity Rugby Club. The stadium was used that season for the Rugby League Cup Final. The Dick Kerr Ladies drew with the great Hey’s Brewery Bradford Ladies FC 1 v 1. This was the first team that had proved capable of holding the ‘Dream Team’ to a draw and in fact repeated this feat on 18th February when the teams fought out a 4 v 4 draw. In March a team centred around Olympique de Paris Captain Violette Gourard Morris played a five game tour. The tour included four defeats to the Dick Kerr Ladies and a 2 v 0 defeat to the great Hey’s Brewery Bradford Ladies in Bradford.

1921 – 1925 A Truly Great Football Team

There are a number of reasons why Hey’s Brewery Bradford were a truly great football team. They started their footballing career rather late with only one game in the 1920 – 1921 season with a 5 – 1 thrashing by more experienced Bradford rivals Listers on Peel Park in Bradford. The 1921 – 1922 season was the ‘ban’ season. The English FA formally made their decree in early October 1921 about permission being needed to play on FA affiliated grounds. High profile women’s matches had all but disappeared on affiliated grounds except for a few games organised by the Dick Kerr Ladies. It is therefore quite an achievement for Hey’s to play around 20 high profile games in the ‘ban’ season. They proved that they were able to challenge the greatest football team in its greatest incarnation. Notable scalps in the following season were the great Scottish side Rutherglen Ladies FC on 14th October 1922 (3 – 0 at Shawfield Park, Rutherglen) and France on 29th April 1923 (1 – 0 at Stade Pershing, Paris). The great Jenny Harris of the Dick Kerr Ladies joined them in 1923 and they continued to play football until 1925.

There is a postcard of Hey’s Ladies FC in the Lily Parr Gallery at the English National Football Museum in Manchester. Hey’s are also featured in the exhibition of pre-World War II Scottish women’s football at the Scottish National Football Museum in Hampden Stadium, Glasgow.

 

Item 4 – Postcard – 1925 “World Champions”

1925 Lizzy and Friends – Guests at the Houses of Parliament

The above postcard was produced by Alfred Frankland to promote the team in 1925. The picture is thought to have been taken at Lively Polly Corner on Ashton Park which was the sports facility for the Dick, Kerr factory. There were no official world champions – this was just a clever marketing ploy.

On Tuesday 27th December 1921 at the New Brighton Tower Athletic Ground my granny played one of her last games for the great St Helens Ladies when they made the legendary Dick Kerr Ladies work hard for their 2 – 0 win on the large, windswept pitch on the Wirral peninsula. This effectively was the end of her football career until some of the original Dick Kerr Lady legends moved on in 1923 and together with Lydia Ackers and Susie Chorley they were recruited. Lizzy duly made her debut on 9th April 1923 when the Dick Kerr Ladies defeated Dumfries Ladies 16 v 0 at Carlisle Rugby Ground in front of a crowd of 5,000.

In 1925 the Shipwrecked Mariners Society organised a May tour of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland played between the Dick Kerr Ladies and Femina Sport of Paris. The highlight of the tour was when both teams were guests of the Liverpool MP Sir Jack Benn Brunel Cohen on the terraces of the Houses of Parliament.

 

Item 5 – Postcard – 1925 Femina Sport Club de Paris

The Long Golden Age of French Football

On 27 July 1912 Germaine Delapierre, Suzanne Liébrard and sisters Jeanne Brulé and Thérèse Brulé helped form Femina Sport. By 1925 there were over 1,000 paid up female members and other similar organisations such as Academia, En Avant, Les Hirondelles and Les Sportives were thriving. Femina Sport even had its own stadium: Stade Elisabeth. Stade Elisabeth is located in the South of Paris near to the Porte D’Orleans and is still in existence today. In 1925 as well as a large covered stand the stadium had a shooting range, a gymnasium and a canteen. Femina Sport then had at least 5 of its own football teams. The glamorous French footballers were often featured in French newspapers and magazines. “Très Sport” was a very popular monthly journal with in-depth features covering every sport. Unusually for the time, in its regular ‘Gallery of Champions’ feature it would devote one of the portraits to a female athlete. At least four of the visiting team were given this honour and the original magazines are in the Lizzy Ashcroft Collection.

1920s – The Great Rutherglen Ladies FC

My granny’s 6th game for the Dick Kerr Ladies involved travelling to Shawfield Park, Rutherglen which is just outside Glasgow. The Dick Kerr Ladies were defeated by 2 v 0. James Hislop Kelly the entrepreneurial manager of Rutherglen then developed his strategies to the extent that in the middle of the ‘wilderness years’ (late 1920s) he was able to tour England, Scotland and Ireland in 1927 and 1928 with two teams. One of the teams he styled Rutherglen or Scotland and the other team were generally styled Edinburgh or Ireland. The Rutherglen team was led by the superstar Sadie Smith and the Ireland team by the legendary Belfast footballer Molly Seaton. Dr Fiona Skillen of Glasgow Caledonian University and self have co-curated a detailed exhibition dedicated to Rutherglen and women’s football in inter-war Scotland. The image above shows part of the display at the Scottish National Football Museum which is at the National Football Stadium at Hampden Park, Glasgow. The Gallery will be touring Scotland over the next two years.

 

Item 6 – Photo – 1931 Filming at Blackpool

1931 Wednesday 25 November – Filming in a Thunderstorm

After the hiatus of the late 20s Alfred Frankland was determined to get ‘the show back on the road’ in 1931. In May 1931 he described the team as being of average age 20, average height 5ft 5½in (1.66m) and average weight 8½ stone (54 kg). After a very successful year with games against a Madeleine Bracquemond XI in Manchester and a Molly Seaton XI in Belfast he decided to organise a publicity film of the women training at the beautiful Blackpool Lido, South Shore. Unfortunately the weather was against them but they managed to film anyway. The film is available on British Pathe and is entitled “1931 – The Champions”. Blackpool native and Dick Kerr Lady stalwart Lily Buxton narrates in a ‘reet proper’ Lancashire accent. If you watch the clip carefully you can see Lily Parr sneaking off for a cigarette. The amazing photo above records the day.

This photograph is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery.

 

Item 7 – Photo – 1932 Belfast Harbour with Carmen Pomies

Lizzy Visiting Belfast Harbour in 1932

This is a fascinating and unique photo. In the rather unusual 1932 tour by Femina they played two games in England against the Dick Kerr Ladies and two games in Northern Ireland  against the opposition led by the legendary Molly Seaton. As part of a French Navy exercise four frigates were moored in Belfast Harbour. The sailors were given shore leave to watch the game at Grosvenor Park where France won by 4 goals to 3 in a keenly contested game. The crowd of 15,000 is somewhat of a record and it was many, many years before that was broken. Lieutenant Bertrand Geli the Commander of the flagship L’Oise kicked off the game. When Alfred Frankland and Carmen Pomies were ‘franchising’ the French team for matches like this he would take two of his ‘trusted lieutenants’ with him. In this case it was the young Margaret Thornborough and Lizzy Ashcroft. The touring party was given the five star treatment which included a tour of the harbour and a visit to the flagship L’Oise. There was a fancy Mayoral Reception and dance in the evening as usual.

 

1932 – Thursday 4th August                              Ireland 3 v 4 Femina                  (Grosvenor Park, Belfast)

1932  – Friday 5th August                                   Ireland 1 v 0 France                    (Ballyholme Showgrounds, Bangor)

 

The French team arrived early in the morning via the Heysham-Belfast Ferry. It is perhaps worth saying that

the arrival of 20 or so glamorous french women footballers caused quite a stir, as it did in northern

England in the 1930s. Life was tough for many working class people and the French ladies tended to be middle class and dressed in the latest Paris Fashions. They were quite voluble, confident and

festooned everything around them with tricolours. The French sailors were all given leave to go to the match which was styled ‘France vs Ireland’. Belfast football legend Mick Hamill refereed and Joe Bambrick and Fred Roberts ran the line. Lieutenant Geli kicked off. The game was privileged with the appearance of another legend of French football, the vice-Captain Solange Manca. Solange Manca later caused absolute shock the following year to a male Yorkshire football reporter because she was married, had a child and was playing football without a husband in tow.

The important point about this unique photo is that it shows the incredible lifestyle around football in this era. Lizzy wasn’t even playing in the France vs Ireland games and yet she got to travel and enjoy the best civic hospitality that Belfast could offer in 1932. This particular photograph took a lot of effort to identify and it was only the scribbled notes on the back with the word L’Oise that eventually enabled me to make the reference. A copy of this photo is on display at St Joseph’s Church, Sailortown, Belfast where some incredible Molly Seaton photos can also be seen.

Author’s Note

The Belfast newspapers at the time were rather confused and reported that both a Lieutenant Geli and a Lieutenant Vaisseau had kicked off. Eventually I realised that the Lieutenant de Vaisseau is the rank of lieutenant in the french navy and that the game was kicked off by Lieutenant de Vaisseau Bertrand Geli.

This photograph is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery.

 

Item 8 – Photo – 1933 Whittingham CMH – Bus Shelter

1933 – Relaxed Women Having the Time of Their Lives

Whittingham County Mental Hospital was of incredible historical importance in the renaissance of working class women’s sport in the 1930s. It operated like a sports university for the nurses. By 1938 articles were describing the full strength Dick Kerr Ladies as being made up of 7 nurses from Whittingham. My granny Lizzy Ashcroft worked there from 1926 to 1936. The three days of 17th – 19th August when Carmen Pomies was mucking around with her nursing/ football friends has left my granny’s collection with some of the most amazing and unique photos in the history of women’s football. It is interesting to note that we are so lucky to have these photos and that is probably down to the fact that the French and Belgium footballers were mostly middle class and some were of independent means – so they had cameras. I don’t think that this technology was really within the reach or interest of women of my granny and Lily Parr’s background.

This photograph is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery.

 

Item 9 – Photo – 1933 Cycling the Lanes of Whittingham

1933 – “What a Good Day” Says It All.

Carmen brought the Femina Sport team over for a short tour of 6 games in early August. They started the tour by playing twice at the Royal Lancashire Show at Salford. After a game in Hull Femina then played Terry’s of York in front of a crowd of 8,000 with the Dick Kerr Ladies watching. After two more games their tour finished in Buxton on Monday 14th August and Carmen Pomies and Andree Gaukler obviously decided to continue their stay and muck around with their mates. These must have been three wonderful days in the beautiful countryside around Whittingham.

This photograph is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery.

 

Item 10 – Photo – 1933 The Tower of Friends

This photograph is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery.

 

Item 11 – Medal – 1934 – Lancs Agric Show at Bolton

1934 Bolton – Royal Lancs Show – Crowd 10,000

In August 1934 the mighty Belgian Team demanded and were given a tour against the Dick Kerr Ladies. The Dick Kerr Ladies won 6 of the 7 closely fought games but undoubtedly the highlight of the tour was when the by now the customary ‘International’ game was played at the Royal Lancashire Agricultural Show. This huge 4 day affair which finished on the Bank Holiday Monday had been at Preston in 1932 and at Salford in 1933. This year the event was held at Bolton and in an absolute quagmire the Belgians just edged the game by 2 v 1. The women were praised for their courage and stamina for playing such a gruelling game. When Rachel Donvil scored the winner for Belgium the whole Belgian team fell upon her and kissed her! At the conclusion both teams were given a rousing ovation.

Lizzy’s medal is incredibly detailed. The crest at the top is the Coat of Arms of the Duchy of Lancaster. On the left is the Manchester Coat of Arms (ship & red/gold stripes), the middle has the Liverpool Coat of Arms (cormorant with seaweed in beak) and right is the Lancaster Coat of Arms (borough lion passant & french gold fleur de lys on blue). There are three Lancashire red roses at the top.

This pin medal is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery.

 

Item 12 – Photo – 1934 Empire Services Bowls Club – Preston

Boat Train to Harwich

The Belgian team arrived on Friday 3rd August via the Hook-of-Holland to Harwich boat train (where the train actually travelled on the boat) and were met at Liverpool Street Station by a welcoming party. In the welcoming party were Alfred Frankland, Carmen Pomies, Lizzy Ashcroft, Margaret Thornborough and Andree Gaukler. The four women were pictured in the Daily Herald on their way to welcome the Belgian side. The Belgian team stayed in Preston for this tour and were probably housed in one of the many hotels just off Fishergate Hill. This would be just around the corner from the Empire Services Club and given the lively pub bowling league would have links with the club. Thursday 9th August was an off day and they were given a tour around the Brookhouse Cotton Mill being shown around the spinning, carding and weaving departments. Incredibly the very same bench in this picture is still there to this day. This is one of a number of photos in the Lizzy Ashcroft Collection which show the women mucking around at the Empire Services Club.

This photograph is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery.

 

Item 13 – Photo – 1934 – Margaret, Carmen + Lizzy

1934 – Multi-Talented Athletes

This is my favourite photo. My memories of my granny are of an old lady who spoke with a very broad Lancashire accent with no teeth in. When I see these images I see a different person. Here she is matching fashions with the incredible Carmen Pomies. The multi-talented Carmen spoke at least 4 languages and translated for the Belgian team during the tour. (Carmen eventually became a translator at the UN when she went to live in the USA after the war).

This photograph is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery.

 

Item 14 – Medal – 1934 – Garstang Agricultural Show

I have recently identified a photo from the Lizzy Ashcroft Collection which shows Lizzy and friends at the Garstang Show. The Garstang Show medal awarded to Lizzy is hallmarked silver and was made by the Birmingham firm of Thomas Fattorini Ltd. The Garstang crest represented on the medal is a statant lion. In this particular case the lion is represented in blue and facing right.

This pin medal is on loan to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. It can be viewed in the Lily Parr Gallery.

1934 Thursday 16th August – Garstang Show – ‘International Football Match’

After the Belgian team had departed (last match Tuesday 14th August) a match was arranged as the finale of the Garstang Agricultural Show. The game was advertised as France vs England. The only three French players were Carmen Pomies, Andree Gaukler and Marie-Louise Deroulet. The rest of the team was made up of DKL squad players. ‘England’ beat ‘France’ by 7 v 4. The scorers for ‘England’ were Annie Lynch @ 2, Elizabeth Hutton @ 2, Lily Parr @ 2 and Susie Chorley. The scorers for ‘France’ were Carmen Pomies @ 3 and E Yates. The photo below was taken at the show.

1934 – Royal Oak Field, Garstang

The Royal Oak is a popular pub at the centre of Garstang. In 1934 the land to the South right up to the river Wyre (now occupied by Sainsburys) was owned by the Royal Oak and this is where the agricultural show took place. If you look carefully in the photo above you can see the distinctive double backed Wyre Bridge and the marquees and tractors from the show.

 

Item 15 – 1935 – Le Miroir Des Sports

 

1935 Captain of the Dick Kerr Ladies

Retirement

In 1935 after 3 years as vice-captain Lizzy took over the captaincy from her great friend Lily Parr. In April 1935 a short two game tour was organised to France. Despite many plans this was only the second ever tour to the continent by the Dick Kerr Ladies. Rather unusually the DKL were playing in red and the French in white. The results were as follows:

Saturday 20th April – DKL 2 v 6 France – Stade de Paris

Monday 22nd April – DKL 1 v 2 France – Stade des Bruyères, Rouen

The team took a very inexperienced young goalkeeper with them and were somewhat overwhelmed at the Stade de Paris by a French team led by the legendary Madeleine Bracquemond. The magazine Le Miroir Des Sports took great delight in giving the detailed match report and cartoon above. It appears that the DKL players were kept very focussed for the second match in Rouen because whilst the French team reportedly went sightseeing in the morning before the game the English team stayed at the hotel and bathed their feet in salt water in preparation for the game.

In August Carmen Pomies brought a representative French team over for a 6 game tour and despite some close games the Dick Kerr Ladies won all six with Lizzy Ashcroft as Captain. I believe that her last game before retirement was a 5 v 2 defeat of France at Furness Rugby Club, Barrow on Thursday 13th August 1935. Not a bad way to finish your football career.

Lizzy Ashcroft Legacy

Lizzy Ashcroft Collection

The Lizzy Ashcroft Collection now comprises the original suitcase finds plus my own extensive collecting from the last several years. A small proportion of the photographs have been made available and I have included only a selection here. Please contact me if you would like to use one or more of the images. The short film Granny was filmed in Wigan and Preston during October 2021 and is an ongoing project. It is important to note that the story is about an old lady who packs away her memories into a suitcase and doesn’t tell her family. This is a familiar story with Scottish singer Eddi Reader only finding out about her granny Sadie Smith and her exploits with Rutherglen Ladies very recently. A  step-granddaughter of Constance Waller of Atalanta Ladies found some clippings and photographs whilst sorting through her late mother’s belongings and has been on a similar journey to find out about her relative. This is a story with a lot of resonance for a lot of people.

I have loaned a small number of the photographs to the English National Football Museum in Manchester. One of my aims for the remaining photos is to link up with a professional photographer and have them exhibited in a Gallery. I think that the photos are far more important than just ‘old football photos’. They show working class women from Lancashire enjoying a freedom, independence and lifestyle in the 1930s which few suspected existed. They are an important social document and I hope for more people to see them.

Article © of Steve Bolton