Season 1879/80
original illustrations of all the kits worn during the season

Possible Kit with navy knickerbockers
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Possible Kit with white knickerbockers
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Possible Kit with black knickerbockers
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The season in brief

We know from the 'Sportsman's Year-book 1880' that at the start of the 1879/80 season, the club had 45 members, exclusively from the Carriage and Wagon works at the Lancashire & Yorkshire depot in Newton Heath, who each paid an annual subscription of 7s. 6d. (37.5p). The club Secretary was Francis H Dunn, who also appeared regularly for the side, and the club captain was J Whatmough.

The yearbook does not include the results of any matches played by the team, unlike for many of the other clubs listed, which suggests that the club continued to play against other sides from the depot rather than seek fixtures against the growing number of association clubs in the local area.

The 'Sportsman's Year-book 1880' provides a further gem of information - the club colours were given as "white with blue cord".


Dave Moor, who runs the Historica Kits website, believes the blue cord would have been a peice of rope worn as a belt or perhaps across the shoulder as a sash, to distinguish the Heathens from their opponents, who would frequently also have worn white shirts. The kits were completed with knickerbockers, which Victorian etiquette demanded cover the knees. There were three colours of knickerbockers generally available (white, navy blue and black), and as the players would probably have provided their own it is entirely reasonable to speculate that the Newton Heath players would have taken to the field wearing an assortment of different coloured pants.