At a general meeting held on, yes, Wednesday 4 September 1867, at the Adelphi Hotel, it was decided to form a football club from the membership of the Sheffield Wednesday Cricket Club with the object of keeping together during the winter season the members of this cricket club. “From the great unanimity which prevailed as to the desirability of forming the club, there is every reason to expect that it will take first rank.” That modest announcement in the Sheffield Independent began the story of one of the most respected and cherished football clubs in England, springing from the spiritual home of football itself.
Even before the foundation of the Football Association in 1863, Sheffield had been at the forefront of what is now regarded the national game – with the world’s two oldest football clubs, Sheffield FC, formed in 1857 and Hallam FC , formed in 1860, leading a rising tide of interest in Association Football, or soccer as it was commonly called. We can of course ask ourselves whom the original Sheffield Club played, but we will leave that for other minds to dwell upon. However, we do know that the unique name was derived from the fact that when the club was set up the members met on a Wednesday, the day when many of them, as local traders, were free from their daily toil.
The Wednesday Football Club took part in their first ever game in December 1867, with a victory over the Mechanics Club at Norfolk Park, Dronfield. The next decade and a half saw a gradual evolution towards fully-fledged professional status, marked by the acquisition of a Scottish winger, James Lang, acknowledged as the country’s first ever-professional footballer. In those days Sheffield Wednesday played at the Myrtle Road Ground, Heeley, the Sheaf House Ground, Hunter’s Bar and Endcliffe. Since these grounds lacked any facilities high profile matches were played at Bramall Lane.
In April 1887, The Wednesday became a professional football club. The next step was to procure a permanent home ground. A site alongside the railway tracks on Queens Road was leased from the Duke of Norfolk and given the title of Olive Grove. Over £5,000 was lavished on converting this swampland into a proper enclosure. When the lease for Olive Grove had expired on 29 September 1898, a new home had to found for the following season. Sheffield Wednesday, rather than keeping to the town area, made a long trek north to the suburb of Owlerton and took residence at what was then called the Owlerton Stadium. In 1914, this area of the city was taken into the parliamentary constituency of Hillsborough, and hence the ground was renamed.
Sheffield Wednesday were known as the Groveites during their spell at Olive Grove. However, later on they, along with their rivals Sheffield United, carried the nickname of “The Blades”, respecting the town’s premier industry. Interestingly, in view of the way things have turned out, it is they, Wednesday who believed, as the senior club in the town, should have the sobriquet. Luckily for us in producing this book Wednesday became known as ‘The Owls’ , for obvious reasons, when they moved to the Owlerton district. The club’s alternative nickname in those far off times was the slightly less complimentary title of ‘The Pigs’ as the site where Hillsborough is now was originally a porcine slaughterhouse, built in Owlerton because the prevailing South Westerly winds carried the stench away from the main centres of population. (su Wednesday fans cottoned onto this ‘compliment’ and claimed that they called Sheffield United fans ‘pigs’ because their red and white kit made them look like rashers of bacon.
During that memorable meeting at The Adelphi, back in 1867, the playing colours of blue and white were selected – a colour scheme which has remained inextricably linked with the club to this day. For the first two decades the players wore blue shirts and a stunning blue and white quartered design. By 1887, the introduction of the world famous blue and white striped marked the acquisition of their professional status. Stripes remained de rigueur throughout the club’s history, apart from a short spell in the Sixties, which coincidentally coincided with a Cup final appearance, when the stripes were replaced by plain blue shirts with white sleeves.
The district of Owlerton not only gave Wednesday their nickname, it was also the inspiration for the design of the club’s badge. The first version shows us an owl, perched on a branch, accompanied by the Yorkshire rose and the sheaves of the council’s arms (one of those heraldic puns – sheaves/Sheffield), completed by the motto ‘Consilio et Animis’ .
By 1970 Wednesday introduced a plain owl design, giving way for a more familiar looking owl in 1995, perched on a branch underneath a blue rose, flanked by SWFC. Today’s badge is a modern variation and certainly easier to recognize at first glance, apparently designed to meet a more sophisticated image. Our owl, looking rather suspiciously at us is now set on a blue and white shield, perched on the letters SWFC and 1867, reminding us of the date of establishment of this grand club.
The thing about the Pig Slaughterhouse is long known to be false and fabricated by the true pigs, otherwise known as United Fans, try and find any reference to a piggery anywhere around hillsborough and you’ll be lucky
Oh dear. Let down by some extremely sloppy research.
The thing about the pigs and slaughterhouse was made up by the Sheffield United fanzine ‘Flashing Blade’. I bet the guy who wrote that wind up for the fanzine wished he had a £1 for every time this myth resurfaces.
Have to back this comment up, it was proven that any ‘evidence’ of hillsborough being built on a slaughter house was mocked up by sheffield united fans, Wednesday were also the first of the two to call the other ‘pig’. This was due to the ‘bacon stripes’ as well as a reference to ‘pig slag’ a useless waste by product produced when making steel, hinting that wednesday were there first and were the steel of the city and united were the useless waste product produced, which prompted maps of hillsborough’s history to be mocked up to show a fake slaughter house there
You are both wrong. The location of the pig farm was at Wardsend cottages under the shadow of the Five Arches railway bridge about half a mile south of the stadium in Herries Road. It was still there up to the 1950s.
The stadium sits on ground once owned by James Dixon and sold to The Wednesday in 1898 by the city council.
So, there is a piggery connection if you want to make one.
I always thought it was because a butcher traditionally wears a red and white striped apron and the united fans would congregate on shorHAM street
Interesting article, a little wide of the mark on some parts (slaughterhouse), but for the most part quite a nice read! Very interesting how they are called ‘Wednesday’ because that was simply when the traders were available.
Thank you for your kind accolades!!
Han
I find it quite peculiar that I have read the ‘so called’ slaughterhouse myth in numerous different places and there’s always a follow up by Sheffield Wednesday fans saying it’s made up just to deny the pigs nickname. As a non Sheffielder (if thats the right word) I find it very odd that, what should be a quirky part of your clubs history is so vehemently denied. If it was something that appeared in one place then I could understand but you only have to search the internet and it pops up again and again, the only ‘proof’ of it being a lie is Sheffield Wednesday fans who pass comments and call it a lie.
Very very strange, maybe it’s a South Yorkshire thing that I don’t understand
Peter, if there had been a piggery we Wednesday fans would accept the name happily, but to accept a name given to us by our rivals, a name that they have worked so hard to legitimise, isn’t acceptable. Anyone can visit the Sheffield Library to view historical maps, the isn’t a piggery in the area. There was a insane asylum further north, maybe we should have been known as the nutters!
The name derivation is slightly garbled too. The Wednesday Cricket Club (formed C1820) was so called because the members met on a Wednesday.(There was also a ‘Darnall Friday club’in the 1820s, ) The Wednesday Football Club (as it was called until the1920s) was so named as it was formed by members of the Wednesday Cricket Club – it was never the case that the Football club met only on Wednesday.
Sheffield doesn’t do any self promotion on the origins of the modern game. Sheffield had loads of clubs back in the 1800’s, only SWFC, SUFC, Hallam FC and Sheffield FC survive but there were more than a dozen prominent clubs. Sheffield’s Bramall Lane hosted the first 20k plus crowd for a sport event in the world…..an athletics meet – the first in UK. The first electric floodlit match was in the 1800’s at Bramall Lane. The oldest ground in the world is Hallam FC’s Sandygate Lane. The oldest club is Sheffield FC. All these events were though linked by the same people. The athletics participators were players of Sheffield FC, The Wednesday etc The floodlights, each powered independently were a connection to a local players business (I forget the detail). An interesting book is Brendan Murphy’s ‘From Sheffield With Love’. The first couple of chapters are naff but the rest is great.
The “plain owl design” was introduced as the club badge in 1973. The club held a competition among local students to design a new club badge, it was won by an art and design student who had no particular interest in football.
That is true I have the original template
So inaccurate. It needs a total rewrite.
Go for it Ronnie. The floor is yours. Put your money where your mouth is.
Well, the reason for us being called The Owls is, to say the least, up for grabs. Nobody knows for certain. There are stories of a stuffed owl being given as a present to the club (there are also stories of a monkey, too). It’s just not known, for certain, why we are called The Owls – and that makes it a lot more romantic and mysterious and brilliant, as far as I am concerned.
Han, where did you get your information regarding the “pigs”?
Dear Dave, I currently do not have access to the documents I have exchanged with the Wednesday’s PR Department at the time; and will get back in due time.
Cheers
Thank you Han, I look forward to it.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/sheff-weds/video-sheffield-wednesday-on-track-with-new-state-of-the-art-pitch-1-7258862
Interesting information regarding Hillsborough being built on an old river bed👌
You were called pigs because you stink
Thank you Dennis Wilkinson for your appreciative comment..
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Good outing work! Why oh why do they visit websites to antagonise the good folk who put so much into what is solely a labour of love?
Is it possible to clarify the strikethrough text regarding the naming convention above? I find it intriguing!
Thank you,
Steve
Wilky “you were called pigs because you stink”
Han “thank you Dennis Wilkinson for your appreciative comment”
I’m afraid you lost all credibility after that Han.
I have a distinct feeling, Dave, you did not detect my vitriolic cynicism. It is no acknowledgment on my behalf . I exposed his details as a bonus.
It was very subtle Han, my apologies if so.
Dear Dave, no apoligies needed! Meanwhile, at long last, I have gained access again to the documentary files, supporting the Sheffield Wednesday entry in my blog. Watch this space in relation to the controverse you signalled out on the subject of ‘a piggery’…
Yours,
Han
Hi Han,
Thank you, I look forward to learning anything new about football and especially my beloved Wednesday.
I finally managed to retrieve the supporting documents of my desk & field research re Sheffield Wednesday.
Sheffield Wednesday’s proposed inclusion was sent to mr Steven Chu, at the time (2003) the club’s Communications Manager, for proof reading purposes.
These are scans of the document, clearly showing the amendments of mr Steven Chu; in casu eradicating the reference to ‘the piggery’.
Now where did I get this ‘info’ from during my desk & field research and why did I not take note of and respect this apparently grotesque omission?
Having consulted a plethora of publications in my investigation to examine the essence of each and every club that played in the league since World War II, in all fairness, I just honestly do no longer recall; which is even more embarrassing.
Irrespective of the controverse and ‘authentic claims’, I respect the club’s official standpoint.
I stand corrected and apologise.
One question strikes out. When were The Wednesday renamed Sheffield Wednesday?
1928
Lots of corrections needed as whoever wrote this is just repeating internet myths and not facts.
Dear Han,
Thank you for taking time to look into this for me and for us all for that matter. Will the “piggery” sentence be removed?
Regards
Jolee Jonstone-Brook – “Sheffield’s Bramall Lane hosted the first 20k plus crowd for a sport event in the world…..an athletics meet – the first in UK. ”
Come off it JJB old sport, Do you think the Colosseum was only ever less than quarter full?
Did no-one turn up for the Derby in 1858, did Frith just imagine there were 100,000 people on Epsom Downs that day?
Its almost as though you’ve never heard of the Circus Maximus Jolee………
&c.&c.&c.
Pull the other one.
Firstly congratulations on ‘The Book That Never Was’, you have obviously put in a lot of work on compiling the information. A task of this size will always throw up a few errors along the way, as different people will have access to more information. So with this in mind, I would just like to make a small point on terminology if I may. You say “… formed in 1860, leading a rising tide of interest in Association Football, or soccer as it was commonly called.”
If you check newspaper reports from the 1860’s and early 1870’s in papers such as The Times, Bell’s Life In London, The Field, The Sportsman, Sporting Gazette, Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, The Sporting Life, Glasgow Herald, Sheffield Daily Telegraph among many others, you will note that the game is always referred to as Football and not ‘soccer’ or ‘Association Football’, for the simple reason that these terms did not exist then.
The term ‘Association Football’ was unknown at the time, it didn’t become known by this name until later, probably coming in common use after the formation of the Rugby Football Union in 1871, probably around the mid-1870’s. The term ‘soccer’ came much later, believed to be around 1888, or possibly 1889, it was derived from ‘Association Football’ . For over fifty years, the term ‘soccer’ was mostly used by ex-Public Schoolboys and the likes (ie the so-called upper classes), it did not come into more common use until around 1945, possibly due to troops hearing their officers use the term in the war years.
Desk research is labyrinthian labour.
The real truth regards The Pigs name started in 1973. Wednesday fans were proud of their new badge posted in The Star newspaper. Some United fans commented that the emblem of an Owl looked more like a pig, hence the insult started then. Ask any pensioners who went to matches and they’ll confirm the term was never used before 1973.
Likely version 367 from the ‘real truth’. Thank you for your input. Han.
United are the pigs Wednesday fans called them this because they saw them as the second team the after birth ( pig iron ) pig iron is term used in the steel industry for the waste product when making steel this is where the name pig originated from
Hi there Hans,
Could you be so kind and clarify ‘The Piggery’ edit by Mr Chu and confirm why this contraverse has not been removed altogether rather than a line through the contraverse words,
Regards
Mr Dixon
Sheffield Historian
Although it’s self-explanatory, the ‘pig’ reference has been ‘rectified’ and ‘put into perspective’, it does justice to stipulating the pitfalls of my desk research, it is the core/reflection of the unfolding thread discours and showcases the essence of ‘the making of’ of said chapter.
Fine day
Han
Poor research.As some say. It was the ‘The Wednesday cricket club who agreed to form a football club to keep the team together and fit during the winter months. The Wednesday Football club was formed at the Adelphi hotel (pub) on Wednesday 4 September 1867. The term pigs has two myths. Their was no piggery, the bacon link maybe. It really surfaced in a large scale around 1979.. the year of the Boxing Day Massacre. Not mentioned.. We are the second-oldest professional association football club in England.
Poor response. Contextual reading is not your forte.