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This page chronicles the history of Manchester City in further detail from its early years in 1880 to 1928. See Manchester City F.C. for an overview of the football club.
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Formation and early years (1875–1894)
St. Mark's beginnings (1880–1887)
Members of St. Mark's Church of England, West Gorton, Manchester, founded the football club that would become known as Manchester City, for largely humanitarian purposes. Two church wardens, and Anna Connell, the rector's daughter, sought to curb local gang violence and alcoholism by instituting new activities for local men, whilst high unemployment plagued East Manchester, specifically Gorton.[1]
All men were welcome to join, regardless of religion, which was more prominent in the 19th century. Connell personally visited every home in the parish to drum up involvement, inviting both Protestants and Catholics to take part in recreational activities.[3]
A church cricket club had been formed in 1875, with its first match on the 13th November 1880 against the Baptist Church from Macclesfield,[1] but no equivalent for the winter months existed. Making a suggestion to the Church Warden, William Beastow, she surmised that the men’s daily routine would be better served via the church organising games in the manner of a new and increasingly popular sport in the late 19th century called ‘football’, which could be played in the winter.[4] To rectify this, and as part of Connell's general push to intervene in social ills, church wardens William Beastow and Thomas Goodbehere started a church football team called St Mark's (West Gorton) (sometimes written as West Gorton (St Mark's)) in the winter of 1880.[5] Anna Connell remains the only woman to have catalysed the formation of a major British football club.
The team's first recorded match occurred on 13 November 1880, against a church team from Macclesfield. Ardwick wore a black shirt with white shorts, rather than the sky blue colours we have to come to recognise from the modern day Manchester City. St. Marks lost the match 2-1, and only won one match during their in inaugural 1880-81 season, with a victory over Stalybridge Clarence in March 1881.[6]
In 1884, the club merged with another, Gorton Athletic, but the merger lasted only a few months before the clubs split again, the St Mark's representatives naming themselves Gorton A.F.C. and Gorton Athletic reforming as West Gorton Athletic.[7] With this name change, the team were gradually losing touch with their religious beginnings, and the St. Marks title slowly faded, with the club often placing St. Marks in parentheses.[8]
Ardwick F.C. (1887–1894)
In 1887, Gorton A.F.C. turned professional and moved to a new ground at Hyde Road, renaming to Ardwick A.F.C. to reflect the new location in the east of the city. Their first match at Hyde Road was meant to be against Salford A.F.C. on the 10 September 1887, but the "grand opening" of the new ground was a non-event as Salford failed to turn up.[9]
In 1889 an explosion at the nearby Hyde Road coal mine results in the death of 23 miners with Ardwick and Newton Heath, who both later became City and United, playing a friendly match under floodlights in aid of the disaster fund.[2]
Ardwick gained wider fame in 1891 by winning the Manchester Cup for the first time, defeating Newton Heath 1–0 in the final.[10] This success proved influential to the decision by the Football Alliance to accept Ardwick as a member for the 1891-92 season. The Alliance merged with the Football League in 1892, and Ardwick became founder members of Division Two. Financial troubles in the 1893-94 season led to a reorganisation within the club, and Ardwick turned into Manchester City, with Manchester City Football Club Limited formally becoming a registered company on April 16, 1894.
Manchester City Football Club (1894)
In 1894 the club was reformed and manager Joshua Parlby acquired nineteen year-old Billy Meredith from Northwich Victoria.[11] The future "Welsh Wizard" was extremely talented and won his first international cap for Wales in 1895. However, he continued to work underground as a miner during the week until 1896, when Manchester City finally insisted that he give up his colliery job.[11]
Growth (1894-1898)
The club was growing at a rapid pace and in 1895, within of the club's inception, the club started to attract crowds of over 20,000 with the biggest attendance of 30,000 for a Good Friday fixture in 1895.[12] The Manchester City supporters of this time were known to be exuberant fans of their club, often transferring their enthusiasm for the club into creating a loud atmosphere at Hyde Road, often with their bugles and drums whilst some would occasionally wear fancy dress.[12]
On the pitch, the team went from strength to strength but the support given to the club vitalised industrial east Manchester, something the club's originally Anna Connell strived to do.
Promotion to top tier (1899)
Winning the Second Division in 1899 gave the club its first honours and promotion to highest level in English football, the First Division.
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