Gary James
Well-Known Member
bluemanc said:
One man who should get a great deal of credit for unearthing material on the early years has never been given the credit he deserves. The person who first mentioned the story of the 'vicar's daughter' as she was known for years was a City fan called Tony Heap in the mid 70s. I personally never met Tony but I was given a copy of some of his research years ago by John Maddocks (former City historian).
Tony had died in tragic circumstances and his family passed his excellent research material to the Club. John Maddocks rescued it from a skip when Peter Swales was having his infamous purge (the majority of club records, pennants, memorabilia etc was thrown out as offices were being renovated but fortunately some staff salvaged items). Unbelievable!
Tony's material had come from years of research trawling through the archives of the Gorton Reporter (it really is the only way to do proper detailed research on the Club's roots). Tony identified much we know today about the Connell family. It was he who recorded that the vicar's daughter went door to door trying to get support; Tony identified the social issues of the Gorton area and so on. His work was never published but in 1984 Andy Ward was allowed to use some of it for his book "The Manchester City Story" (the book that inspired me to research & write about City) and then again for the 1987 edition of the MCFC Complete Record (written with Ray Goble).
In the mid-90s John Maddocks allowed me to copy some sections of Tony's material and I basically followed his approach and dug further into the Gorton Reporter and other newspapers, using Tony's information and building from that. I used and acknowledged Tony when I wrote Manchester The Greatest City.
The problem was that in 1997 when I published "Manchester The Greatest City" there was confusion over the 'vicar's daughter's first name. Tony had always called her Miss G Connell (as I did in my writing) but by the time City moved to the new stadium census information was now available which identified that there were two sisters - Georgina and Anna. Similarly, the church wardens had always been recorded as Beastow and Goodyeare - census information was now showing that these were William Beastow and Thomas Goodbehere.
In 2003 when we opened the MCFC Museum I made sure we referred to the 'vicar's daughter' in several locations. The Club needed to recognise that angle in my opinion.
In 2004 when I was first contacted by Peter Lupson (the first time he had contacted anyone connected with City about the story) he asked the question: "Is it true City started as a church team?" At that time that was all he knew of the Connell/City story (his specialism had been Everton and some of the other clubs). I was delighted that someone else was interested in the story and I gave him a copy of all of Tony's research I had plus all of mine on the subject. I also took him on a tour of Gorton and the various sites, showing him the parade of shops (used in the first couple of series of 'Shameless') that now stand on the site of the church, the site of the Rectory, all the early pitches and so on. I really went to town on trying to help and also tried to ensure he recognised Tony's efforts.
I spent hours on the telephone with him over the next couple of years. Peter obtained the census information that proved categorically that Anna Connell was the older sister and, by knowledge of convention at the time he stated his belief that the Miss Connell reported in the Gorton Reporter would be the oldest and that the younger sister would always be shown as Miss G Connell. So from that point on Anna was assumed to be the creator of the Men's Meetings.
Bluemanc is absolutely right that the Club always needs to look after its history. It failed when Tony's material was cast aside in the late 1980s (and at other times since), but in 2005 I made sure we had an Anna Connell award at the Hall Of Fame awards. With Simon Jacobs and other staff working in the museum at the time I tried to get support to hold a 125th anniversary game (I raised this in 2004 but sadly despite some positive noises from various staff it didn't get top level support). Simon put a lot of work into this and also wrote to every club we'd faced in major competition (this resulted in anniversary shirts/momentoes being sent to City by a significant number of clubs - they appeared in the City Social and the museum).
The idea was to recreate the first game and have a St.Mark's (City old boys) team play a 'Macclesfield Baptist Church' team (comprising of other stars) wearing replica shirts from the period (black, white cross - we had one made which remained in the museum on the day it closed), and comprising of 12 players each team.
As well as remembering the history, it's important for researchers, writers and others to recognise Tony Heap's role. He put in a great deal of work that forms the basis of all we know today. Sadly, I don't believe he has been acknowledged by all who have used his work.
As far as I can make out Tony was a great Blue and did an awful lot to access all the material available to him at the time. His findings are the basis of everything we believe today about the Connells and City's roots. He did make mistakes, but these were based on the evidence available (there is more opportunity to review archive material now).
I do need to add however that over the last couple of years Anna has been given more attention than perhaps she ought to be. Research continues all the time. Paul Toovey has recently produced a book that suggests Anna had little involvement if any in the actual creation of the football club and that the football team evolved out of the cricket team.
Personally, no matter how much I love the Anna Connell story I do share Paul's views. His research again is based on hard evidence - the cricket team was in existence in 1875 (possibly earlier) and we also know that Anna was working near Preston at that time so was probably not involved. It is true that she put all the effort into creating the Men's Meetings but the Cricket Club predated them.
I guess the point of all this is that there are still many uncertainties about the birth of our Club. Detailed research is ongoing.