A BRIEF SUMMARY
Leicester Fosse, the forerunner of Leicester City Football Club, was founded in 1884 by a group of young men who all lived near Leicester's Fosse Road. In 1891, after seven years of playing "friendlies" on various pitches in Leicester, the club joined the Midland League and moved to their new ground near Filbert Street.
Three years later the Fosse entered the 2nd Division of the Football League (the 3rd Division was not created until 1920). Their 21 seasons as a League club were not particularly successful. They were the league's bottom club in 1904 and had only one season in the top division in 1908/09.
Their FA Cup record was undistinguished. When the outbreak of the First World War led to the suspension of league football in 1915, Fosse was bottom but one in the whole league. Financial problems and poor results finally overwhelmed the Fosse. In May 1919, the old Fosse club was wound up, to be taken over by a new company which was registered under the name of "Leicester City Football Club."
LEICESTER FOSSE AT A GLANCE
Honours
1907/08 - 2nd Division Runners Up
League History (21 seasons a Football League side)
Midland League - 1891/92-1893/4
Average gate 3600
Football League Division 2 - 1894/95-1907/08
Average gate: 6700
Football League Division 1 - 1908/09
Average gate: 12790
Football League Division 2 - 1909/15
Average gate: 8085
Wartime Regional League - 1915/19
Grounds
1884/85-1886/87+1888/89 - Victoria Park
1887/88 - Belgrave Road Cycle and Cricket Grounds
1889/90-1890/91 - Mill Lane
1891:Grace Road - Aylestone Park (LCCC)
1891/2-1918/19 - Filbert Street
Fosse Kits
International Players
Wales
R. Jones (left half)1898 - 1 cap.
A. Watkins (inside left)1898 - 2 caps.
Ireland
M. Cochrane (right back)1901 - 1 cap.
England
H.P.Bailey (goalkeeper)1908 - 8 caps (+Olympic gold medal for UK X1).
Scotland
A. Aitken (defender)1910/11 - 3 caps.
WHERE IT ALL STARTED
The Garden Shed
The decision to form Leicester Fosse FC in 1884 was taken in the garden shed behind this house in Fosse Road. The house belonged to the Ashby family. A. Ashby was a founder member of the club who played as a forward in the first ever Fosse team.
Emanuel Chapel
The young men who founded the club all lived within a half mile radius of this shed. Many of them attended the now demolished Emanuel Chapel Bible Class in nearby New Park Street, near to the present day Narborough Road North.
Wyggeston School
Several of the lads in the shed had been pupils at the Wyggeston School, which had been built in 1876.
FOSSE'S GROUNDS BEFORE FILBERT STREET
Fosse Road South
The site of Fosse's 1st ever game on November 1st 1884 is now covered by Westleigh Avenue, off Fosse Road South.
Leicester Fosse, wearing black shirts with a blue diagonal stripe, and "long white flannel trousers tucked into their boots," beat Syston Fosse 5-0.
The goalposts were "gaily decorated in amber and black colours."
Victoria Park
From 1884-1887 the Fosse played their home games on Victoria Park, changing in this pavilion.
After a season at the Belgrave Road Cycle and Cricket ground (1887/1888), Fosse returned to Victoria Park for a further season in 1888/9.
Belgrave Road Cycle and Cricket Grounds
Leicester Fosse's home ground in 1887/8 was the Belgrave RoadCycle and Cricket Grounds (now the site of the old British United Shoe Machinery factory).
It was a 10 acre site, with a running track, and cycle track, cricket, football and rugby pitches, a refreshment room and a grandstand, but no changing room. The Fosse players got changed two miles away at the White Hart neat the Clock Tower.
Leicester Tigers outbid them for this ground in 1888, forcing a return to Victoria Park for 1888/89.
Mill Lane
Mill Lane was the Fosse home ground for two seasons. It was next to the canal at the end of Mill Lane. In 1890, Fosse played their first FA Cup game there (v Burton Wanderers which they lost 0-4)
2500 watched Fosse v Loughborough (the game was abandoned due to fog). The canal froze from West Bridge to Aylestone in 1890/1. Cup Finalists Notts County played Fosse there in April 1891.
The Corporation built houses on the ground in 1891. The actual pitch is covered by these houses on Ulleswater Road.
Grace Road
When Fosse entered the Midland League in 1891/2, they had lost their Mill Lane ground. They had to play their first few home games in the Midland League at Grace Road, as this season ticket shows.
Walnut Street
Leicester Fosse finally moved to a corporation owned field near Filbert Street, pictured here in 1893. In its early years this ground was known as the Walnut Street ground.
Local shoe manufacturer Joseph Johnson, four of whose sons had played for the Fosse, guaranteed the rent.
FILBERT STREET BECOMES A LEAGUE GROUND
This 1894/95 season ticket comes from a momentous season for Leicester Fosse, as this was the year the club was elected to the 2nd Division of the Football League
Also illustrated is the earliest existing plan of Filbert Street, from the inside back cover of this 1894/95 season ticket. Over the next few years, average crowds grew from 3600 to about 6700.
1897 CRISIS
After three years as a league club, Fosse was on the verge of financial collapse. The club was rescued at a meeting at Thomas Cook's Temperance Hall.
The club became a limited company with a share capital of £3000. The committee was replaced by the club's first ever Board of Directors.
1908 FILBERT STREET UPGRADED FOR PROMOTION
Four years after finishing as the league's bottom club, Leicester Fosse were promoted to the First Division in 1908 (see chapter 2: Promotions).
As a result Filbert Street needed an upgrade. Improvements included a roof for the kop, a bath and shower in the away changing room, and a higher boundary wall in Filbert Street (nine feet high)
The world famous football stadium architect Archibald Leitch was the consultant for the ground improvements.
In 1908, local contractors and excavators were invited to dump spare rubble at the kop end of the ground to develop and terrace the earth bank there.
1913 FOSSE SCORE FIRST GOAL AT HIGHBURY
On 6th September 1913, the first ever goal at Highbury was scored by Leicester Fosse's Tommy Benfield against Woolwich Arsenal, in the inaugural fixture at the new ground.
Tragically, Tommy was killed in action on the Western Front on 19th September 1918.
1919 LEICESTER FOSSE CEASE TO EXIST
Fosse finished bottom but one in the League when football was suspended due to the First World War in 1915.
This, together with financial problems, led to Leicester Fosse being wound up in May 1919 at these solicitors' offices in Bowling Green Street.
Leicester Fosse was reborn as "Leicester City Football Club", under a new board of Directors.
