Brierfield Football Club was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

club from

Brierfield, Lancashire Brierfield () is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle, in Lancashire, England. It is north east of Burnley, south west of Nelson, and north east of Reedley. The parish had a population of 8,193, at the census of 2011. The p ...

History

The Brierfield club entered the

Lancashire Senior Cup The Lancashire County Football Association Cup (commonly known as the Lancashire Senior Cup) is a football knockout tournament involving teams from Lancashire, England. It is a County Cup competition of the Lancashire County Football Association ...

from 1882–83 to 1884–85, but suffered double digit defeats in its three ties, ending with a 14–0 defeat to Preston Zingari. After the 1884–85 season, the club resolved solely to rely on members as players rather than recruit outsiders, and it stepped back from the senior game. The club formally broke up after the 1887–88 season, but was quickly resurrected, and was one of the founder members of the

North-East Lancashire League The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

in 1889–90, It finished the season as the inaugural champions, leapfrogging

Burnley Union Star Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

by beating the Stars in the final match. The club did not seek to step up to the Lancashire League, but was considered by the ambitious Union Star as a suitable member of a new Lancashire Alliance; however, as Union Star secured membership of the Lancashire League, any such plans were abortive. Despite a fortnight suspension in October 1892 for making illegal approaches to two players (Halstead of Bell's Temperance and Ireland of

Oswaldtwistle Oswaldtwistle ( "ozzel twizzel") is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England, southeast of Blackburn, contiguous with Accrington and Church. The town has a rich industrial heritage, being home to James Hargreaves, inventor of th ...

), the club remained a member of the North-East Lancashire League until 1894, when the competition merged with the

Lancashire Combination The Lancashire Combination was a football league founded in the North West of England in 1891–92. It absorbed the Lancashire League in 1903. In 1968 the Combination lost five of its clubs to the newly formed Northern Premier League. In 1982 it ...

, and Brierfield was one of the 14 clubs accepted as a member for 1894–95. However the club withdrew before the season started, amid "dissensions" which saw most of the club's committee resign, and the club join the Burnley & District League as an amateur outfit instead. The club's competitive career concluded with a disastrous 12–0 defeat to Ashton North End in the

Lancashire Junior Cup The Lancashire Football Association Challenge Trophy is an English football competition for senior non-league clubs who are members of the Lancashire County Football Association. The trophy was first played for in 1885, when it was known as the ...

in January 1895 and its last activity was hosting an athletics sports that July.

Colours

The club's colours were navy blue and white, from 1892 in the format of navy blue jerseys with a white sash, and white "pants".

Ground

The club's ground was simply known as the Brierfield Football Ground; one indication of financial difficulties was shown when the club secretary was summoned to the

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ...

for non-payment of rent in 1894 - his successful defence was that the entire committee was responsible.

Nickname

The club's nickname of the Stumpites was derived from the Brierfield Stump, a 2-ton water trough made of stone, which stood in the town's market square from the 1840s to 1942.

Notable players

James Cockshutt James William Cockshutt (1872 – 13 April 1938) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * F ...

, who played for the club in 1892–93 and later for

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

James McConnell James Edward McConnell (1815–1883) was one of the first locomotive engineers of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). He was Locomotive Superintendent of the LNWR's Southern Division at Wolverton railway works from 1847 to 1862 and ...

, a former Burnley player

References

{{reflist Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in Lancashire Sport in Burnley Association football clubs established in 1882 Association football clubs disestablished in 1895 1895 disestablishments in England Burnley 1882 establishments in England Lancashire Combination Brierfield, Lancashire