BATTERSEA PARK

Battersea Park in South London, holds a fair piece of football history and in recent years, the old boys of Charterhouse School, the Old Carthusians, "trained" there, on an available space, on a Wednesday evening, in preparation for their Saturday, Arthurian League matches. The League was an historic adults, old school boys' league, played in the Greater London area.

I used to travel weekly, on a Wednesday evening, from Godalming to London during the season, to help with a footy session for anyone who turned up. Usually there was a practical number waiting for me, especially before a "big" game and on one occasion only one lad turned up during bad weather. We went to the pub!

Battersea Park has held a number of historic football matches in its time. It is after all a " green lung" for London and a 200 acre facility designed to give Londoners a rural space since 1858. It is made from reclaimed marshland on the banks of the Thames and also used for market gardening providing food for the city. The first "official" match of association football was played there in 1864.

On January 9th 1864, the new and original "Laws" of Association Football were "trialed" in a game at Battersea Park between teams formed by the FA president Arthur Pember, a journalist, a man with a moustache!!! 

Arthur formed a club called No Names of Kilburn, (the "No Names" is a reference to his work in investment where clients were known as "Names"). NN Kilburn played together socially during the 1870s.

His team of well known footballers of that era played against Ebenezer Cobb Morley's XI. He was the secretary of the FA, who also brought prominent footballers of the day, to play for him.

Later, The Wanderers, a club formed mainly by old boys of Forest School in Snaresbrook, E17, who had won the FA Cup in 1872, played at Battersea Park, against the oldest club in the World, Sheffield FC, in an exhibition game, once again showing off the new rules. Cobb was a player and founding member of local amateur side Barnes FC.

Ironically, The Wanderers Hockey club play on the more modern Battersea astro pitch these days. There is a mild historic sporting link here, relevant with the "word" Wanderers. This brings a connection to Robert Bogdan, a colleague of mine from Charterhouse, who has died recently. He was very accomplished hockey player (a Cambridge Blue and Scottish international), a coach and school master (a Geographer and Historian), who would have enjoyed Battersea Park hockey hospitality over many years, especially playing with The Wanderers. Robert also played a decent standard of cricket, was a good tennis player and was persuaded, when there was a need, to play in goal  in  a "staff" soccer match at Charterhouse. He will be missed.