Chester Football History Update

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Over the last twelve months a small group of supporters have been meeting to discuss expanding the activities of Chester Football History. A number of successful projects have been run, with more in the pipeline, and this season we are looking to widen the scope of the group and get more supporter involvement. 

Last summer we added memorabilia to the Blues Bar and we are currently in the process of putting up match worn shirts, outside the Grenville Millington Legends Lounge, with the intention of expanding this idea up the stairs. 

In addition there has been a project to organise the large number of programmes that have been donated to the club over the years. These have been organised into complete seasons and made available in the Club Shop. Many more of these packs will be available to buy on the Chester Football History stall at the Open Day prior to the Crewe friendly on August 1st with complete seasons stretching back to the 1960s. In addition there will be a number of signed action photographs and team groups. By selling these items we are hoping to increase group funds so that we can pay for the shirt framing and other displays around the ground that are currently under discussion. 

The death of two key members of the Former Players Association, Gary Talbot and Grenville Millington, meant that the organisation had to be wound down but efforts are now being made to re-activate the association under the Chester Football History banner. Shortly before Grenville’s passing we successfully reunited the 1974/75 promotion squad and last season we staged a reunion of the 1985/86 squad which proved very popular with both players and supporters. We would like to build on this success and expand the group while inviting more former players back to the ground on match days as well as holding another squad reunion.

In October, as part of Elders Week at Storyhouse, there will be a couple of activities held under the Chester Football History banner. At 2pm on Monday October 12th there will be a showing, in the Storyhouse cinema, of the 1963 student film “A Study of a Soccer Club” which has previously been shown at Senior Blues meetings. This will be preceded by a short talk on the history of the Sealand Road ground in ten photographs. The event is being promoted by Storyhouse and ticket details will be released shortly but it is a great opportunity to see footage of the old ground on the big screen.

Following on from this, at 10:30am on Tuesday October 13th, there will be a Football and Sporting Memories Workshop, in the Garret Bar at Storyhouse, which will give the opportunity for supporters to come along and share memories not only of the club but also other sports in the city. This event will be promoted and run by Storyhouse and ticket details will be released shortly. 

A link has also been formed with Cheshire Archives and we are looking to hold an event when the new facility, currently under construction in Lightfoot Street, is completed. A meeting is scheduled to take place with the archives next month to develop this idea. 

Members of the group will be available for a conversation at the Open Day being held from 11am prior to the Crewe friendly on August 1st so if you have any ideas or feel that you can assist in any way please come and have a chat with us. 

Reg Barton (1942 – 2026)

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Former goalkeeper Reg Barton has sadly passed away at the age of 84. Reg not only proudly wore the shirt but he was also an enthusiastic supporter of the club and was a season ticket holder in the East Stand at the Deva Community Stadium. The Chester-born player made 14 Football League appearances for the club and had the distinction of being the goalkeeper on the day that Chester hammered Wrexham 6-1 in a Division Four fixture in February 1965.

Reg was brought up as a supporter of the club and first watched a game at Sealand Road towards the end of the 1940s. After playing for Chester Schoolboys and Saltney Juniors he was offered a trial at the Stadium and signed as an amateur in 1957. Over the next four years he worked his way up through the A team and Reserves before making his first team debut, against Doncaster Rovers, in September 1961 in a game Chester lost 3-2.

An agile keeper, Reg continued to appear regularly for the Reserves over the next four years while making occasional first team appearances as an understudy to John Hardie or Dennis Reeves. His most memorable game was the aforementioned victory over local rivals Wrexham and, recalling the game in later years, he emphasised how much it meant to him as a long standing supporter with the size of the victory making it even more special.

Reg in action against Wrexham in February 1965

A month after the Wrexham match Reg experienced the other side of the coin when he was on the receiving end of a 5-1 defeat at Crewe Alexandra. Looking back Reg admits that he had a bad game that day and realised that his chances of being retained at the end of the season were remote. As expected Reg was released at the end of the 1964/65 campaign and went on to play for Nantlle Vale, Holyhead and Penmaenmawr. He finished his playing career with Connah’s Quay Nomads in the early 1970s.

After leaving Chester Reg worked for Hawker Siddeley, British Nuclear Fuels and British Aerospace, lived in Buckley and rarely missed a home game.

Reg with Grenville Millington


Gordon Livsey (1947-2026)

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Former goalkeeper Gordon Livsey has passed away at the age of 79. Standing at 5ft 10 inches he may not have been the tallest of keepers but he more than made up for this with his tremendous agility. 

Keighley born Gordon started his career with Kettering Town in 1964 where he was spotted by Ken Roberts who was then assistant manager at Wrexham. He went on to make 79 appearances at the Racecourse Ground before Roberts, by now manager at Chester, signed him for £2,500 on the verge of the 1971/72 season as a replacement for Terry Carling. Making his debut at home to Cambridge United he went on to feature in 44 games, missing only two through injury. 

Despite a poor season, where Chester only avoided re-election by the skin of their teeth, the defence emerged with some credit as the 56 goals conceded was the 4th lowest since joining the Football League in 1931 and Gordon kept a clean sheets in each of his last five games.

In 1972 Gordon returned to Kettering where he cemented his place as a club legend completing 315 first team appearances and keeping a club record 91 clean sheets. He briefly returned to the Football League with Hartlepool and also managed Workington after they left the Football League while also featuring for Leamington, Nuneaton, Corby Town and Scarborough. 

A Study of a Soccer Club – 1963

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In May 1963 two students, Tom Carter and Rod Underwood, were given the task of producing a film as part of their teacher training course. As a last minute decision they bought a cheap cine camera and went down to the Sealand Road ground to film both inside and outside the ground. In addition they recorded a training session on the Annexe before ending with action from an evening game against Chesterfield.

After 60 years this superb 22 minute film has been unearthed and I will be showing it at a meeting of the Senior Blues at the football club on Friday March 5th at 10:30am. I hope to follow this up with a general showing at a later date.

What makes this film so special to my mind is that it is unedited. Although there are some experimental sections in the middle I feel that the film would have lost a lot of its impact if it had been edited down to a few minutes. The footage is certainly very raw but this is advantageous because you get so see unusual views of the whole stadium which would in all likelihood have been cut out.

The film opens with footage of the pitch being marked out before moving to the outside of the ground. There are views of the back of the stand as well as the floodlights which were still a novelty as they had only been in place for three years.

We then move to film of Bill Myerscough arriving at the Stadium in his Volkswagen Beetle before moving inside the ground to see the treatment room and a variety of views inside the old wooden stand.

After six minutes we move out to the Annexe to see the players training with the likes of John Molyneux, John Butler, John Hardie, Elfed Morris Colin Corbishley and Ron Hewitt amongst many others in view. There are great views of the back of the main stand with the greyhound stadium and buildings on Sealand Road also in evidence.

There is a glimpse of Bill Lambton during training and this marked the end of his 18 months as manager. The 1962/63 campaign culminated in another application for re-election as Chester finished 4th from bottom in Division 4. At one point in the film you can see ‘Iron Man Bill’s’ motto “Keep Fighting” on the dressing room door. His training methods were not popular with the players as they reflected his background as a Sergeant Major who had worked with the Army Physical Training Corps.

The next section of the film is more experimental before we switch to the final sequence which is eight minutes colour footage taken from behind the goal at the Kop end of the ground.

My research indicates that this is the last game of the season, a midweek fixture against Chesterfield on May 22nd, with the Spireites playing in an unfamiliar red kit. The visitors won the game 2-0 and there is a view of the first goal within the footage. The attendance was 3920.

In the second half Chester are attacking the Kop with little success. The Cheshire Observer is particularly scathing of the performance calling it poor in both attack and defence with Chesterfield deserving their 2-0 victory. As an attacking force reporter Ralph Houdley stated that at no time did the forward line show any signs of being capable of winning the game. After Chesterfield had scored their second goal centre half John Butler was moved to the attack at which point Chester looked more threatening and the defender can be seen up front in the later stages of the film.

All in all it is a gem of a film and captures the era superbly. It is interesting to see different training methods and the action is very different from the current day especially the speed in which the goalkeeper releases the ball. The views of the ground will certainly bring back memories for supporters who watched the club in the 1960s.

Copyright ©  Chas Sumner http://www.chesterfootballhistory.com All Rights Reserved

Football League Application Brochure 1931

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When Charlie Hewitt was appointed as Chester’s first Secretary-Manager in 1930 the club made the decision to go all out for Football League status.

Ambitious plans were put in place with admission prices increased to fund exciting new signings like ex Scottish internationals Dave Morris and Phil McCloy, Bobby Irvine the former Everton and Ireland international and crucially, Arthur Gale from West Bromwich Albion. Gale, a schoolmaster from Bury went on to score 73 goals in 39 league games as the Chester public responded to Hewitt’s exciting team.

With attendances soaring there was a real buzz in the city and the excitement was reflected in ambitious ground developments included completely covering the Sealand Road End and extensions to the main stand.

As part of the push for admission to the Football League the directors personally visited all the 1st and 2nd Division clubs and also produced an impressive 16 page booklet outlining Chester’s case. Priced at one shilling and printed by Taplen and Paddock with a card cover it appears to have been available for general purchase.

The booklet was published in April 1931, after the last home game of the season, and amongst the most fascinating details are a list of attendances and gate receipts for all home fixtures ranked from highest to lowest. Uniquely the table also publishes the weather conditions for each game and it is interesting to note that the game against Nantwich in January was played in heavy snow and still attracted an attendance of 4,043.

Highest attendance of the season was for the top of the table clash against Port Vale Reserves on Good Friday. The game coincided with the unveiling of the extension to the main stand and there were 13,000 in attendance beating the record of 11,507 set only a week earlier when Cardiff City were the visitors for a Welsh Cup 6th Round tie.

The new stand extension can be seen in one of the photos in the brochure and it was during the close season that the stand was further extended towards the Kop. The brochure itself puts the ground capacity at 16,000.

Meanwhile the Sealand Road End had been completely covered and that roof remained in place until 1987. I’m sure many people will remember being showered by rust when a stray shot hit the roof.

Also included in the brochure was information sent by the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company showing rail times and prices to all the teams in the Third Division North. Interestingly the train company states that it would be possible to arrange special trains for nearer places and matches starting late.

The brochure put forward an excellent case with a section on the city itself as well as mentioning how well the ground was served by a frequent bus service and a car park capable of holding 200 cars. As for the ground itself, mention is made of the Grand Stand equipped with electric lighting and telephone along with players’ dressing rooms that were centrally heated and possessing excellent bath accommodation. Accounts also show the club made a profit of £2250 between August 1930 and April 1931.

As a ‘special feature’ attention was drawn to amplifying equipment used to broadcast music and news with the club claiming that this innovation was the first of its kind on any football ground in England.

The booklet clearly helped Chester’s case and two years after they had recorded no votes at all they were elected into the Football League although it needed a second ballot before they took the place of Nelson.