Up until 1880, Newcastle loved nothing more than the sound of leather against wicket. Geordies would Gazza together in awe of the Toons great cricketers, so much so, that they had two cricket teams. Geordies playing cricket! I know, but this was Victorian Engerland. Then off-season in November 1881, whilst kicking their heels and waiting for the boat to come in, they had a thought: “Way hay lads lets ave a game of that there footy they’re alls playing like”. So, they did, and they enjoyed it, and the Stanley Cricket Club of South Byker formed an Association Football Club. A year later, so as not get confused with Stanley FC of South Durham, they changed their name to East End. Meanwhile, on the other side of Toon, spies for the other cricket club reported back: “Them daft beggars are kicking a big ball about like an it doon arf look like fun pet”. Then in August 1882, West End FC was formed. The two ex-cricket clubs became bitter rivals, with West End FC playing on their cricket pitch at first, stumps for goalposts no doubt. They then moved on to someplace called St James’s. East End stayed in Byker till the summer of 1886, then moved a mile down the road to Chillingham Road in Heaton. The West End team were the first to impress but it did not last long.
Meanwhile, the East End club’s fortunes were opposite, not impressing at first but becoming more successful as time went by, and in 1889 they turned professional. In 1890, the East End club took an even bigger step and became a limited liability company, with a capital of £1000 in ten-shilling notes, or 50p pieces in today’s money. West End FC was starting to feel the pinch however, with low gate receipts and bad results they inevitably folded. Some of the players and staff joined the East End club, which only helped to strengthen them. They even took over West End’s lease on St James’s park. Even with this new-found success, East End FC still struggled to stay afloat and officials were becoming a little dismayed with the lack of interest in the club and the game. So in December 1892, they thought, “Yaz know wot pet, weez need a new image”. In a public meeting, they all agreed that a new image and name change was what they needed, and after a few brown ales they came up with Newcastle Rangers. “Nah, too Scottish like”, they said. “Newcastle City, Nah man, and way hay man”, they said, unable to agree on anything except whose round it was. “Now come on lads man away with ya, we ave to be united in this like”. Then after a dramatic pause “That’s it man, Noowcastle United”. Due to a lack of minutes being taken at the meeting I made up everything after 1892. It may have been obvious I was ad-libbing, but you can bet your last piece of coal that it was not much different to that. Anyway, on the 22nd of December, the Football Association agreed to the name change. The new name was not legal until 6th September 1895, when Newcastle United Football Club Co Ltd was constituted.
Many thanks to the anonymous person at St James’s who answered my letter, and sent me plenty of information to go on, sadly not much on the badge though, but luckily the club badge is based on the city’s coat of arms. The earliest badge I could find is a nice, but simple design. (PIC 1) It has the castle of Newcastle sitting on the River Tyne, and representing the club’s nickname a magpie having a paddle. The club’s name is in the roundel and that completes the badge. As I mentioned, the badge is closely related to the coat of arms, but not as close as the present badge. The only major differences being the club’s colours of black and white on the shield, and the motto being replaced by the club’s name. (PIC 2) The city arms from whence the badge originates are made up of three silver castles on a red shield, with heavy built portcullised gateways, and from the battlements rise three towers. (PIC 3)
The castle motif goes right back to early times, as the town took its name from the new castle built by order of Robert Curthose, the eldest son of William the Conqueror. The castle is again represented on the crest, which has a golden lion guardant or in Engerlish looking outwards. The paws grasp the golden staff of St George’s pennon, depicted in red on a silver or white background. The castle is standing on a red and white wreath above a tilting helmet, also known as the crest. The supporters are two mythical seahorses and the fins and tails are a reminder that Newcastle is a seaport. The motto “FORTITER DEFENDIT TRIUMPHANS” translates as, Triumphing by Brave Defence. This was adopted during the civil war following the town’s stubborn defence against the Scots in 1644. The arms were used as a club crest before the present badge was introduced in the 1988/89 season. An actual castle itself lies in the middle of a busy road and train link in toon, and not in the usual secluded spot by the sea or up on a hill in the country. (PIC 4) Although the castle would have been new when it was built it is not the new castle the toon is named after. The site was known as Pons Aelius or Aelian Bridge, Aelian being the family name of Emperor Hadrian, and it was a fort situated on his wall. If you have been reading the other clubs on this site you will have learnt by now that Roman for fort is Chester, derived from the Latin word castrum where we get castle from, and indeed Pons Aelius was renamed Monkchester, and joined the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria. William the Conqueror’s eldest son Robert Curthose returned home to northern France in the autumn of 1080, via Monkchester. Here a wooden castle was built to fortify the area and to make sure that the main crossing point of the River Tyne remained under Norman control. The area was then known as Novum Castellum, meaning new castle, and a castle has remained on the site ever since.
The club’s nickname “The Magpies” comes from the famous black and white kit the club have used since 1893. “The Toon” nickname stems from the Anglo-Saxon word Tun, pronounced toon, meaning an estate, farm or village, and is the origin of the word town. All this time you thought the Geordie boys and girls were mispronouncing the word town with their crazy Northern accents, but it is they who have been pronouncing it right for the last 1,000 odd years. So, they deserve to be called “The Toon Army”. St James’s holds 52,200, and is unrecognisable from the park of old where rivals West End met the East End all those years ago. Newcastle’s rival today is local Sunderland. For more on “The Magpies” steal your way to www.nufc.co.uk
