Dave's making his own slice of Pitmen history

Jul 30 2010 Adam Thompson

Fan ensuring we don't forget team stars

Meet Dave Shaw the man who is re-writing the history books for Hednesford Town Football Club.

Amazingly the club, formed in 1880, has no documents of its history. The life-long Pitmen fan has been archiving historical details of the non-league club for the past 30 years, publishing a book in 1980 with fellow fan Geoff Allman, that celebrated a 100 years of Hednesford Town.

His latest project is a player-by-player profile of those Hednesford stars who went on to play league football, from Stephen Smith in 1893 to Tyrone Bennett this year.

The profiles contain a small biography of the player on life before, during and after Hednesford with some even going on to represent England.

The retired graphic designer and illustrator said: “The golden age of Hednesford Town was in the 1920s. Although we didn’t know it at the time, we were a feeder club to other Midland sides likes Wolves and Aston Villa and produced players who went on win league titles and the FA Cup. Had those players not gone who knows what the club could have become.”

By 1930 the club was recognised nationwide as the most successful at producing players for league football.

Dave, who now lives in Armitage, said it was after a book salvaged from a fire was handed to him that contained team selections via committee that he knew he had to keep the club memory alive.

“ For many years the clubs history was passed on by word of mouth from fan to fan, generation to generation, but since I’ve been archiving the club’s history I’ve been finding out about players who my dad would talk to me about. Players that lived in Hednesford, worked down the pit in the week and played on the Saturday.

“One former player, John Martin, was my old geography teacher at Littleworth School, in Hednesford during the 1950s.

“He went on to play for Villa as well as teaching and he should have played for England - he was that good.”

Dave added: “As a fan I don’t want the information to be lost, great players to be forgotten and the club disappear.

“I took upon myself to write the history and it’s me who is going to pass it on.”

Anyone who has any information that can help Dave produce the clubs archive can contact him on 01543 491713