The 130th Anniversary Of Leicester Fosse’s First Ever Game

The game was played on a private field just off Fosse Road South, close to the railway bridge, which is still there. Today, Westleigh Avenue has been built on the site of the original pitch. 

A history of Leicester Fosse, published in 1893, records that the colours adopted by the new club for this very first game ‘were black jerseys with a diagonal blue sash and white knickers’. This has since been confirmed in a letter I came across about five years ago written by a lady called Gillian Ashby, granddaughter of Arthur Douglas-Ashby, one of the members of that first Fosse team. Her grandmother kept Arthur’s shirt from that first game, using it as a duster for 40 years. 

The 1893 history also states that the game against Syston Fosse was a 12-a-side affair. This information has been repeated in various historical pieces written about the game, but subsequent research indicates that it was, in fact, an 11 a side game. 

The Club was formed at a meeting in a garden shed in the garden of a house on Fosse Road. This house belonged to Gillian’s great-grandfather William Ashby who had a boot and shoe factory near Gwendolen Road. He had nine sons, one of whom was Arthur Douglas Ashby, known as ADA. It was his shirt, from the first game, which became a duster for 40 years. The house, but not the shed, is still there. It is on the corner of Fosse Road Central and King Richards Road. Present at this meeting in the shed was a group of young lads, many of whom had attended the Wyggeston School which in those days stood on the corner of Peacock Lane in a building which is now part of Leicester Cathedral’s St Martin’s House. Many also attended the Bible Class run by the Reverend Llewellyn Parsons at the now demolished Emanuel Chapel in nearby New Park Street. Reverend Parsons himself lived on Fosse Road, a few doors down from the Ashby family home. 

Each of the boys in the garden shed meeting subscribed 9d each for the purchase of a ball and another 9d for subscriptions. With the aid of a carpenter, they produced a set of rudimentary goal posts, which were painted amber and black. The failure to add ‘dryers’ to the paint caused a few initial difficulties. It is probable that a rope stretched between the goalposts acted as a cross bar. The posts were likely to have been eight feet apart and the rope eight feet high. 

The team which played in that first game all lived within 500 meters of the Ashby home on Fosse Road, originally an old Roman Road, from which the new Club took its name. 

Five of the players are included on the oldest team picture we have of Leicester Fosse, taken in 1886. 

Goalkeeper E. Smith lived on Norfolk Street, just behind Fosse Road, as did left winger S. Dingley. Both of these houses have been demolished as has the house on nearby Noble Street, where half- back F. Burdett lived. A. West (middle row, first right) who was also the son of a boot and shoe manufacturer and A. Ashby, whose garden shed was where the Club was born, lived on Fosse Road itself, as did the three Johnson brothers (back row, third from left and 3rd from right, and front row first right), whose father was the well-known women’s and children’s footwear manufacturer Joseph Johnson, who served as the club’s treasurer until he resigned due to “failing health” in 1892. Joseph “provided funds for the club’s requirements”. An example of this was in 1891 when he located and secured a field near Filbert Street as the Fosse’s future home, guaranteeing to pay the rent to the Corporation. 

Two more of the original team lived on King Richard’s Road, near to its junction with Fosse Road. These were forwards F. Bromwich and B. Lewitt. Half-back Frank Gardner (middle row, second from right) lived on Hinckley Road. The house has been demolished and is now the site of the Chef and Spice Restaurant. In addition to playing in Fosse’s first match, Frank also held the vital post of Secretary for eight years. In this role he guided the Club through its crucial formative years, taking it from a small Club playing friendly games on Victoria Park to a Club on the verge of joining the Football League. 

The goalscorers in that first game were West, H. Johnson (back row, third from right) (who scored two each) and Dingley. 

This first game was the only game that the new Club played on the field now covered by Westleigh Avenue. For the rest of that season, and for two seasons after that, Leicester Fosse played their home games on Victoria Park, before moving to the Belgrave Road Cycle and Cricket Ground in 1887/88, back to Victoria Park in 1888/89, then to Mill Lane between 1889 and 1891. After a brief sojourn at Grace Road Cricket Ground, the Club finally moved to Filbert Street in 1891/92. 

The Club has come a long way since that first game 130 years ago today. The journey from humble garden shed to Premier League football at King Power Stadium has been long and eventful. A direct link between the Shed and the Stadium is provided by one of the dedicated bricks in the Stadium wall. It has Arthur Ashby’s (ADA’s) name on it and was placed there by Gillian Ashby. The profusely illustrated 224-page full colour book charting this 130 year journey, ‘From Shed to Stadium’ is on sale for £20.00. It can be bought in the City Fanstore or at http://www.lcfcdirect.com/ 

Lead image: Leicester Fosse team photograph 1886, containing five of the original team. 

1. The site of the garden shed as it is today. 

2. The site of the first game on 1 November 1884. 

3. The brick at King Power Stadium which commemorates Arthur Ashby, who played in the first ever Fosse team.