On the banks of the River Thames in the 19th century was the Thames Ironworks and Shipping Company, which produced the world’s first all-iron warship, the HMS Warrior. In the 1890’s, Arnold Hills, a philanphropist, became Managing Director of the company. He was a nice guy who not only introduced 8-hour work days when 10 to 12 hours work days were more common place, he also set up a football team, along with foreman Dave Taylor, for his employees in order to keep their morale and in turn, their productivity up. This team, was Thames Ironworks FC. Despite being a brand new team, Thames Ironworks FC had the balls to enter the not only the London League but also the FA Cup itself. This endeavor ended predictably with a 5-0 loss to Chatham FC.

 

The clubs initial home ground was Hermit Road, a stadium that was located in Canning Town and described as “a cinder heap” and “a barren waste”, surrounded by a drainage moat and featuring canvas sheets for fencing. The Ironworks played their first fixture here in 1895, a draw against Royal Ordnance. Notably, this ground played host to some of the very first experiments with artificial lighting. On the 16th of March 1896, a so-called “floodlit friendly” was played at Hermit Road against Woolwich Arsenal, an epic 5-3 defeat. These early floodlighting systems were made possible thanks to the access to engineers and equipment that Thames Ironworks enjoyed, and at the time, they caused a great stir. Between December 1895 and March 1896, Thames won 10 matches in a row. In that season, they won 30 out of 47 games and scored 136 goals. However, they were handed an eviction notice from their landlords straight after a winning match against 1st Scots Guards. It turned out that by building a perimieter fence and a pavilion, and by charging admission to games, they had violated their tenancy agreement. Thames Ironworks FC had to find a new home.

 

In 1897, Arnold Hills was kind enough to lease a piece of land for them at Browning Road in East Ham. This was only a temporary solution, until Hills used £20,000 of his own money to construct a purpose built stadium for the club in Canning Town. The Memorial Grounds opened on the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s coronation. It was state of the art for the time, containing not just a football pitch but also a cycling track, a running track, tennis courts and the largest outdoor swimming pool in England. It’s been said that the stadium was so good, that it could have hosted an FA Cup final. At their new home, wins in the first two qualifying rounds of the FA Cup were closely followed by a six match winning run in their opening London League games. By the end of 1897, “The Irons” were top of the London League table with zero defeats. The final away fixture of this season was against Brentford FC who had nipped at the Ironworks heels all season and were now in second place by only one point. The match stirred up a great deal of interest and ended with The Irons loosing 1-0 and being leapfrogged by Brentford with just one game left to play. The Ironworks managed to defeat the 2nd Grenadier Guards while Brentford lost their last game, meaning that The Ironworks had won the London League title by one point. On top of that, their application to the Southern League was successful, and they began play as a professional club in that league the following season.

 

This brought in a host of new signings, and the Thames Ironworks employees who previously made up the core of the team made way for actual professional footballers. Despite a positive start, it was to prove a baptism of fire for The Irons, but they eventually found their feet and won an impressive 17 of their last 18 games of the season. Somehow, they worked their way up the table to the top spot. They had won promotion to the Southern League Division One, and this was confirmed when the league was expanded to 19 teams. The 1899/1900 season was an eventful one, and the clubs last as Thames Ironworks FC. Several new signings were made, including the former Liverpool star and ex-England international, Tom Bradshaw. Sadly, Bradshaw received an injury early in this season, which led to a series of events that saw the popular winner’s health rapidly deterioirate until he succumbed to tublercorosis before the season was through. The teams form also died and they suffered numerous losses. However, they narrowly survived their first season in the top division.

 

It was decided to wind the club up but they were immediately relaunched under a new name: West Ham United. Their colors also changed from all Navy blue to claret and blue, similar to Aston Villa. This is no coincidence. Charlie Dove purchased the new kits for the club which had come from one William Belton, a professional sprinter.The previous year, Belton was at a fair in Birmingham close to Villa Park. One day, he was challenged to a foot race against four Villa players, who wagered cash that at least one of them would win. Belton defeated them all, but the Villa players were unable to cough up the money. As a result, one of the Villa players, who was responsible for washing the teams kits, gave Belton an entire set of Aston Villa kits as payment for losing the bet, and then subsequently reported to the club that they had “gone missing”. This is how West Ham United came to wear the same colors as Aston Villa to this day.

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Star player: Charlie Dove, dob 1979, pob Essex, England

Charlie Dove was a defender with a reputation for being extremely fit who played for many teams at junior level. Dove spent some time playing for Upton Park FC and South West Ham, where he was noted to be an exceptional talent. At 16, he got a job as an apprentice riveter with the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company and when the chance came up to play football for the new Thames Ironworks FC team, he jumped at it. The membership fee for the club was 12 and a half pence, which would have been a third of his weekly wage. Dove went on to become one of the clubs most important players, and in 1898 he completed the distinction of playing in every position on the field, including goalkeeper (in a match against Maidenhead where he kept a clean sheet). Dove remained with the club for a brief period following their transformation into West Ham United, but he was controversially transferred to Millwall in 1901. Sadly, he suffered a career-ending injury in 1902.