Community & Culture
SHOF Guided Football Walks 2026 - Porterbrook's Football History
Starting at Chesterman’s Bow Works we follow the path of Porter Brook, through Sheffield General Cemetery where we will visit the graves of some of Sheffield’s footballing greats and acknowledge the legacy they left behind.
We then continue following Porter Brook and go onto Ecclesall Road, visiting and hearing the stories about the locations of football grounds used from 1858 onwards and the teams and people that played there. Every ground, team and player making a significant contribution in creating the unique footballing history and heritage of Sheffield. There are some controverial tales to tell along the way.
Our Historians have discovered over 200 football clubs that we know were playing football in Sheffield to Sheffield Rules between 1857 and 1875 (see the list here). Some of these clubs played 14-a-side and had 2-3 teams playing and training regularly so that’s potentially 100+ games of football every week during the months of October to March!! Where did they play?
On this walk come and hear the stories of the grounds, teams, matches, rules, and people who moved football on through 1857 to 1890 and beyond.
Stories involving Albion F.C. with Billy Mosforth and the Cleggs; Collegiate Club and the salvation of Sheffield FC; Thursday Wanderers, The Wednesday; Oxford F.C.; and more Youdan Cup. Yet more evidence as to why Sheffield moved football from being a ‘game of catching, hacking, and weird offside rules’ to a more organised and structured game. Eventually leading to professional teams, sporting stadiums, and the World’s biggest and greatest sport … football.
For 2026 we will be adding optional "EXTRA TIME" to our walks.
This means that attendees can optional take some EXTRA TIME for no extra cost. THis allows the Guides to visit extra places and hear about extra personalities that we could not fit in to 90 minutes.
There will be no extra cost for this, just "EXTRA TIME" (and it should not go to penalties!).
EXTRA TIME will be required to get to visit Bow Works again and hear more about William Chesterman, saviour of the FA.
This is one of FOUR WALKS by SHOF in 2026. They are:
