Shirley Town F.C. was a non-league

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 ...

club from

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, active in the last decade before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

History

The club was founded by George Featherstone, a local contractor, in 1933. The club joined the

Birmingham Combination The Birmingham Combination was an English football competition for teams in Birmingham and the surrounding areas, which was active from 1892 until 1954. It was founded as the Birmingham & District Junior League, and changed its name in 1908. The ...

in time for the 1935–36 season, although its ambitions originally spread wider, with secretary/manager E. J. Jennings proposing a revamped league allowing 2 full-time professionals per side in 1937. The club was generally a mid-table Combination outfit, and entered the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

from 1935–36 to 1938–39, although it was forced to start in the extra preliminary rounds, and never made it beyond the first qualifying round; its best showing, in 1937–38, ended in a defeat at Shrewsbury Town. Before the 1938–39 season, the club changed its name to Solihull Town. Under its new name, the club gained its greatest honours, by winning the 1939–40 Combination and the Birmingham Senior Cup, albeit that year the competitions lacked full participation owing to the war - indeed Solihull had two XIs in the Combination itself. The club beat Darlaston in the final of the at the Hawthorns thanks to goals from Billy Boswell and (in the last minute) Davies. However that seems to have been the final match played by the club, as it went into abeyance for the rest of the war, and never re-emerged. Although in 1944 the club had expressed an interest in re-joining the Combination as soon as it re-started, by 1945 it had ceased activities, with Featherstone moving on to redeveloping a racecourse in the area. The Shirley Town name was revived by an amateur club after the war, and the club stepped up in the semi-professional leagues in 1974 when merging with West Shirley Athletic.

Colours

There is no available description of the club colours, but photographic evidence suggests the club played in blue shirts, white shorts, and blue stockings.

Ground

The club played at the Shirley Stadium, on Church Road, opposite the Plume of Feathers

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

. The club opened a covered stand, seating 1,000, on 30 November 1935, in a Combination match with

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

's A side on 30 November 1935.

Notable players

* Billy Austin, former international and FA Cup winner with

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

* George Parkin, formerly of

Burnley 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, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

and West Ham United * Alf Maitland, formerly of

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

* Jack Russell, formerly of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

, and

Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as Bo ...

Emlyn Jones Emlyn Jones, also known as Mickey Jones (born 29 November 1907) was a Welsh professional footballer. Career Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Jones played for Everton, Southend United and Shirley Town. Family Jones was one of five brothers who all play ...

, formerly of Southend United * Tommy Read, goalkeeper, formerly of Grimsby Town * Jack Snape, right-back, the club's first professional, who signed for

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

in 1936

External links

Birmingham Combination tables

References

{{reflist Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in the West Midlands (county) Association football clubs established in 1933 Association football clubs disestablished in 1944 1933 establishments in England 1944 disestablishments in England Solihull Sport in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull