CHAPTER ONE – A NEW DAWN
3rd September 2025 marks the 125th anniversary of Albion’s historic move from Stoney Lane to a piece of scrub land on the Birmingham Road at its junction with Halfords Lane, just outside the town of West Bromwich, that would become their new home for ever and a day. Through the pages of the ‘Old Baggies’ website I will do my best to chronicle the pages of history that have created an enduring legacy of triumph and of course despair during those 125 years, that will hopefully enlighten and enthral those who are interested in the club’s wonderful and prestigious history and perhaps more importantly, those great players that have contributed to that legacy.
On Monday September 3rd 1900, late afternoon, or early evening, the exact kick-off time has never been truly established, the board of West Bromwich Albion Football Club finally put the finishing touches to the club’s historic move from Stoney Lane, their home since 1885, to The Hawthorns, the ‘Throstles’ played their very first ‘Hawthorns’ home fixture against Derby County, with Albion’s fearless legendary centre forward Charles ‘Chippy’ Simmons famously scoring Albion’s first ‘Hawthorns’ goal equalising Derby’s opener by another ‘Black Country’ lad, Cradley born Steve Bloomer, giving those fledgling ‘Throstles’ a hard fought 1-1 draw.
It was of course quite ironic that both goals should be scored by local ‘Black Country’ boys on an evening that was indeed all about the ‘Black Country’ in the Borough of West Bromwich. The excitement of the occasion ran through the whole Borough, including of course the Albion board itself, who ordered one dozen new blue and white striped jerseys and one dozen pairs of white knickers ahead of that opening game, brand new kit for a brand new start so it would seem, and the entire board, Chairman Harry Keys, and directors Charlie Perry, Henry Spencer, Jem Bayliss, Harry Powell and Dr Isaac Pitt, along with Secretary Mr Frank Heaven who were joined by the great statesman of the game Mr William McGregor, founding ‘father’ of the Football League, for the pre-match photograph with a fitting “Woodman Stand” backdrop, still in the throes of construction.
The first match of that memorable campaign, had been played out at The Molineux Grounds two days earlier against Staffordshire neighbours Wolverhampton Wanderers, a pretty unspectacular goal-less draw, so ‘Chippy’ Simmons goal against Derby would in fact kick off Albion’s first campaign at their new ‘home’ that only a few months before had once been nothing more than a disused plot of land on the corner of the main Birmingham Road and Halfords Lane, owned by the Sandwell Park Colliery, that was erstwhile named on the local Ordnance Survey map of the time as the ‘Hawthorns Estate’ an area flanked by hawthorns bushes and inhabited by the beautiful Song Thrush, known locally as a ‘Throstle’, a term that had become the authentic nickname of the football club. It would appear that the naming of the ground “The Hawthorns” was the suggestion of the Secretary at the time, Mr Frank Heaven, who was instrumental in the move to the new ground.
With the lease on their ‘rented’ Stoney Lane ground expiring in 1899, and the small enclosure fast becoming unsuitable for the growing popularity of the football club, indeed the ‘Albion Ground Committee’ were of the opinion that the Stoney Lane Ground was the worst equipped in the Football League. With that in mind there was an emergency meeting of the shareholders on May 7th 1899, held solely ‘for the purpose of deciding the future of the football club.’ The meeting presided over by the then Chairman Mr Henry Spencer, discussed three options that were on the agenda. 1) To improve Stoney Lane. 2) A move away from Stoney Lane and 3) to wind the club up completely – the latter a real possibility given the club’s finances.
The decision of course, despite the worrying financial situation of the club, was made by the board to seek an alternative site to build a new ground, indeed a new stadium, and under the very wise leadership of that great visionary, now Chairman, Mr Harry Keys, the new ground was located, and The Hawthorns, the ‘Castle on the hill’ Albion’s home now for those 125 years was built, with the old ‘Noah’s Ark’ main stand at Stoney Lane, which would now be renamed the ‘Woodman Inn Stand’ dismantled and reassembled at the new ground, by John Dallow and sons and re-designed by a former Albion director Mr Enoch Wood, to hold up to 5,000 seated fans. Albion would subsequently ‘kick-off’ the new century of football at a new home, with a new main stand that was actually still under construction, with parts of the roof and the south wing still uncompleted. It was also important to note that for the first time in the club’s history new ‘book form’ season tickets were introduced as opposed to the Season card that had previously been issued, with the match-day entrance fee remaining at sixpence, which had been the ‘norm’ at Stoney Lane, with the new Hawthorns ground season tickets costing seven shillings and sixpence.
Work started in earnest on 31st January 1900, on a ‘home’ that rather surprisingly was designed on ‘Roker Park’ the home of Sunderland Football Club, a stadium apparently that had seriously impressed the Albion board, when the ‘Throstles’ became the first side to visit Sunderland’s home in the North East. Once the location for the Hawthorns had been confirmed, work started on the stadium, an arena designed to hold round 40,000 fans, and would be financed by a quantity of five per cent debentures, initially at a cost of up to £600, rising to £1,800 that would help to finance and equip the new stadium, that would of course become the ‘new’ home of West Bromwich Albion Football Club, as it still is to this very day.
Ironically, as I have already alluded, in that historic game against Derby, another local ‘Black Country’ lad by the name of Steve Bloomer, would actually score the very first goal at the new stadium, heading County into the lead after thirty minutes, before Albion’s brilliant ‘leader’ Charles Simmons equalised with ten minutes remaining, scoring from close range after good work by Abe Jones, to earn the ‘Throstles’ a point, their second of the season, a season that would end in the despair of relegation to the Second Division for the first time in the club’s history, since the formation of the Football League in 1888, Albion finishing bottom of the First Division table on just 22 points.
Albion’s team that balmy Monday evening was Joe Reader in goal, full backs Amos Adams and William Williams, half backs Archie Dunn, Abe Jones and Harry Hadley across the middle, with the forward line led by perhaps Albion’s second ‘superstar’ in history, since the great William Isaiah Bassett, one Charles ‘Chippy’ Simmons, alongside Jack Chadburn, Tom Pickering, Albion’s new signing, the first player to sign for the club following the move to The Hawthorns, Fred Wheldon and Richard Roberts. There was however, for such a prestigious occasion, what has to be considered a somewhat moderate attendance of around 15,000, although some reports suggested as many as 20,000, paying a rather princely £384 for the privilege of being at such a rather ‘special’ game in the club’s history, considering an estimated 35,000 would attend the next home game against Aston Villa, five days later, it was perhaps a case of selecting your games to go to, even then in 1900.
At the conclusion of the Derby County game, a Grand opening dinner was held at the expence of the club, at The Sandwell Hotel, at a cost of four shillings per head with patrons asked to observe a “7.45pm prompt start”.
With relegation at the end of that 1900/01 season, despair mixed with the elation of getting to an F.A Cup Semi-Final, losing to the eventual winners Tottenham Hotspur, there was of course a fair amount of ‘doom and gloom’ around The Hawthorns, perhaps to be expected, but fortunately the new ‘shoots of recovery’ and history would continue to thrive and a season later, under the continued stewardship of Club Secretary Mr Frank Heaven and the captaincy of Dan Nurse, a strong charismatic wing half, a ‘leader’ in every sense of the word, Albion returned to the top flight immediately as Second Division ‘Champions’ along with Middlesbrough, Albion heading the table with 56 points, and Charles ‘Chippy’ Simmons becoming the first Albion player to score twenty goals in a season for the club, actually netting 32 goals in all competitions and friendlies, including three goals in the Staffordshire Senior Cup, Albion beating Stoke City in the Final at Burslem. Ait was of course Albion’s first trophy of the new century, the final being played before Christmas.
Unfortunately the recovery was unsustained, Albion’s finances became critical, the club being forced to virtually hold its cap out for donations from whoever they possibly could, a project that was instigated by the local newspapers including the ‘Sports Argus’ collectively named the ‘Shilling Fund’, backed of course by the Albion board, which had been re-shaped with the election of indominatable Harry Keys, Billy Bassett, Charles Couse and a young Secretary/Manager by the name of Fred Everiss, who had been employed as an office boy back in 1896, and had now assumed his new duties in charge of the team and all that went with it. Those donations that had club shares to the value of their donation attached for security, came from everyone in industry and football in and around the Midlands and was a life line, with the big Brewery ‘Mitchell and Butlers’ making a substantial donation and one of the biggest coming from Albion’s biggest rivals Aston Villa Football Club.
The supporters too would join in the project doing their own bit with fans walking from pub to pub and club to club seeking donations, walking around those premises with their cloth bags, urging the customers to put their spare ‘pennies’ etc into the bags, and soon they became known as the ‘Baggy boys’ the chorus “Here they come, here come the Baggy boys” becoming a well-known feature of the Black Country’s drinking establishments, of which there were many.
When club historians’ are asked- “Where does the term ‘The Baggies’ come from, then as an historian, that is my answer. Without doubt, those donations and efforts of the fans kept the club ‘afloat’ in a sever time of crisis, and without those efforts and the shred management of Harry Keys and his board, we would not have a football club as we know it today, to support. By 1905 over 6,000 shillings had been donated and collected, including 400 from Aston Villa, by far one of the largest donations. Having said that Albion’s official nickname, will for me, always be the ‘Throstles’ a term that has endured and endeared for more than a century.