The early daysThe exact origins of Abbey United Football Club, later to become Cambridge United, are obscured by a fog of legend and hearsay. Research by 100 Years of Coconuts will one day uncover the truth but, meanwhile, Andrew Bennett's account of the club's pre-World War II history is as comprehensive and accurate as it can possibly be. Read on, and look out for the next instalments, coming to 100yearsofcoconuts.co.uk soon.
The first club to be called Cambridge United came into being on 22 April 1910 at the behest of the Cambridgeshire Football Association. As early as 1903 the CFA had wanted to have a club to represent the best of Cambridge’s footballers, but they fell out with the prime candidates, St Mary’s, in 1908. St Mary’s disbanded, reformed as Cambridge Town and affiliated themselves to the rival Amateur FA instead of the Football Association, in a direct snub to Cambs FA. The county association therefore purchased Malta Rec (a green space in Malta Road off Mill Road) from Jesus College, built a grandstand and dressing rooms and renamed it the County Ground as a home for both the county representative side and the newly formed United. The club attracted many players from the recently disbanded Chesterton Laurels including legendary Cambridgeshire, Surrey and England cricketer Jack Hobbs, who was born in Barnwell. They played their first season in the East Anglian League, hosted friendlies against Aston Villa and Norwich City and progressed to the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup, where they were eliminated by Luton Town. United then switched to the Spartan League for two seasons before financial constraints forced them to drop down to two small local leagues: the Haverhill & District and Saffron Walden & District. Cambs FA lobbied United and Town to amalgamate for the good of Cambridge football, and when the FA and AFA reconciled their differences in 1914, the clubs agreed and merged. The new club was known as Cambridge Town FC, and the name of United was no more. If this United’s history is well documented, the same cannot be said of Abbey United, the club that would become Cambridge United in the 1950s. The only documentary evidence for its formation in 1912 is some headed AUFC notepaper from 1926 stating ‘Founded 1912’ at the top, and an account of the club’s annual dinner in the Cambridge Daily News of 28 May 1925, in which ‘Councillor Elsden proposed the toast of the Abbey United Football Club. In doing so, he said that the club was formed in 1912, and by sheer plodding and hard work they had secured the success which had been attained that year.’ Anecdotal evidence exists of the club growing out of informal night-time street games played under the gas streetlights of Stanley Road, at the instigation of the curate of the St Andrew’s Church on Newmarket Road – known to local people as the Abbey Church. This is an ancient church, built by the Augustinian Canons of the nearby Barnwell Priory for the use of the people of the neighbouring hamlet (later to become a suburb of Cambridge) from 1190. It is one of only two present-day reminders of the once extensive and powerful Priory; the other, the Cellarer’s Chequer, stands nearby in Priory Road. By the middle of the 19th century, Barnwell's booming population had outgrown the tiny St Andrew’s, and other churches were built to meet its spiritual needs: Christ Church in Newmarket Road (1839) and St Paul’s, Hills Road (1842). The Abbey Church became part of the large parish of St Andrew the Less, which in 1908 welcomed a new vicar: the Rev FB Gwinn. Formerly the vicar of St Saviour’s in Crouch Hill, North London, Rev Gwinn arrived in Barnwell with a reputation for impressing on his parishioners the physical and spiritual value of regular exercise. The Cambridge Independent Press of 23 October 1908 observed that the new vicar was ‘keenly interested in athletics, and will find a congenial field for his energies in the fine institute which the parish possesses. In London a successful gymnasium and a flourishing hockey club testify to his zeal in this direction.’ It seems probable that those early street football games in Stanley Road, and the subsequent formation of Abbey United, were inspired by Rev Gwinn and his curate(s) at the Abbey Church: Charles Henry Winter (1909 to 1911) and Edmund Colin Sharp (1911 to 1913). The appointment of a later Abbey Church curate, Rev Walter Warr, to the presidency of the club in the early 1920s certainly adds weight to this theory. Rev Warr lived in Garlic Row, which stands just a few yards from Stanley Road and, like its neighbour, inhabits part of the former site of Stourbridge Fair, for centuries Europe’s largest annual marketplace. Research continues into the precise date, location and nature of the birth of Abbey United. We know for certain, however, that within 12 months of the club’s putative formation, it was being reported in the papers. But there is more confusion to follow. The first mention of the name Abbey United in the local press came in the Cambridge Daily News of Friday, 21 November 1913, which announced a fixture for the following day against MJ Drew’s XI on Midsummer Common; United lost 7-0. When the result was reported on the Monday, though, the team was referred to as Abbey Juniors, and a team of that name had been recorded as losing 3-0 to University Press Juniors (their third XI) one week earlier. It seems likely that that game, also on Midsummer Common, was Abbey United’s first recorded match. After the Drew game there is no further mention whatsoever of the name Abbey Juniors. If one delves back even further into the past, the waters become muddier still. No team at all with the Abbey name appears in the local press during the 1912/13 or 1911/12 seasons. But on 19 November 1910, this result is reported: Abbey Juniors 2, Press Juniors 1, scorers Bray and Ray. This is Abbey Juniors’ only mention during that season. Going back to 1909/10, one finds two friendlies played by Abbey Crusaders, who were to become Abbey United’s first ever Cambs League opponents in 1921. So who exactly were the Abbey Juniors of 1910? At the moment, there is no definitive evidence to either link them with or dissociate them from Abbey United. The club’s beginnings remain an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Abbey United is known to have played a further 19 friendlies during 1913/14 (five more fixtures were announced but the results were not reported), but all organised football in Cambridge stopped soon after the outbreak of World War I. The name of Abbey United was revived in 1919 by denizens of the Abbey Ward who were perhaps also connected with the Abbey Church; again, there is no documentation known to exist to confirm this, or to clarify what direct connection the ‘reformed’ club had with the original. Rev Warr was an early president of the club, although it is not known exactly when he took up that position. It might have been when he returned to England from an eight-year stay in Australia in August 1920, or perhaps when he became assistant curate in May 1921. There are conflicting records here: the Abbey Church parish records show Rev Warr as curate in 1920, while Ely diocese sources give a date of 7 May 1921. Research into this matter continues. Abbey United based themselves on Stourbridge Common and played their first friendly there on Saturday, 20 September 1919, defeating Ditton Rovers 6-3. Early in 1920 they played five more matches on the Common, recording one win, three draws and a defeat to Waterbeach, followed by three away matches yielding one win, one draw and one defeat. There is no record of any matches played by Abbey during 1920/21, perhaps partly due to an increase in the number of organised leagues, which left clubs fewer days on which to play friendlies. Many decades before the introduction of floodlighting, the only days on which clubs played during the dark winter months were Saturday, Thursday (early closing day in Cambridge) and public holidays. Sunday, the day of rest, was out of the question. All went quiet on the Abbey United front until Whit Monday, 15 May 1921, when they were one of 21 clubs that entered a six-a-side tournament hosted by Littleport FC. The competition, attended by 1,350 spectators, took eight hours to complete and involved games of 20 minutes each |
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way, with four ‘points’ awarded for a goal, two for a ‘side goal’ and one for a corner. United defeated Kerry Hill 5-2 and Cambridge Rovers 19-0 in the opening rounds but could not stay for the quarter-finals and Rovers took their place, losing 13-4 to Ely Old Crocks. March Choir Boys beat Chatteris Magpies 16-8 in the final.
Thus far Abbey United were just a minor footnote in a Cantabrigian football scene dominated by Cambridge Town, who were already doing battle with the likes of Ipswich Town in the Southern Amateur League in front of regular four-figure crowds. The Cambs FA decided to streamline its competitions into a three-division Cambridgeshire League in 1921, and Abbey made the momentous decision to take up league football for the first time; they were accepted into Division Three for the 1921/22 season. They became official members of the CFA for the first time, paying a five shilling one-off affiliation fee, ten shillings annual subscription, a 7/6d League fee and five shillings to enter the Cambs Minor Challenge Cup.
United played in amber and black halved shirts, earning themselves the nickname The Wasps, before changing to stripes in the mid-1920s. The club’s HQ was at the Mission Hut in River Lane and on home match days the goalposts, flags etc had to be carted along the riverside to the Stourbridge Common pitch.
Abbey became Division Three champions in their first season, winning 20 out of 24 games, and were top scorers thanks to the exploits of Wally Wilson, a brave, speedy forward who was said to be able to head a ball further than most players could kick it. The division’s best defence was marshalled by George Alsop, a local boy who went on to play for the mighty Chelsea, although he got no further than their reserve side and returned in 1923. The report for their last game of the season, a 4-0 defeat of Cambridge Wanderers, enthused: ‘The United are a smart little team, with a good understanding among all the players, and they put any amount of dash and enterprise into their play.’
Another significant development came off the pitch when local philanthropist Henry Clement Francis, director of the Star Brewery in Newmarket Road, was elected club president. Fifth son of lord of the Quy manor and solicitor of note Clement Francis, HC Francis was a Cambridge alderman, a county councillor and chairman of the board of guardians for Abbey Ward. He had been educated at the Charterhouse public school, where he was a classmate of the Boy Scout movement founder Robert Baden-Powell. A devoted and skilled equestrian, he was often to be seen around Barnwell and Fen Ditton
in a carriage drawn by high-stepping horses.
United continued their rapid progress the following season when they won Division Two, dropping only three points on their way to the title. A new top scorer emerged in the shape of Albert ‘Twitter’ Dring, but their most significant signing was that of the versatile Harvey Cornwell, who was to play for the club on and off for the next 24 years.
Born in 1896, Cornwell left school at the age of 12. He was spotted playing on Parker’s Piece by Aston Villa scouts when he was 14, but his parents refused the club's offer of an apprenticeship. Young Harvey was needed to help his father in his second-hand furniture business, and travelled with him all over the region – on foot. The only concession to his blossoming football career was that at 12 o’clock on Thursdays and Saturdays he was allowed to return to Cambridge to play, by whatever means he could organise from wherever he might be. On one occasion he was refused a lift back from Brinkley, some 15 miles east of Cambridge, and the owner of the horse and cart concerned was amazed to see him arriving in town before him via Shanks’s pony. His lifestyle, therefore, made him extremely fit.
Cornwell joined the Cambridgeshire Regiment during World War I but in 1916 found himself in the Canadian Army, where he demonstrated his prowess as a boxer, finishing runner-up in the featherweight division of all Canadian forces in Great Britain. But his first love was football, and he played for Cambridge Wanderers in the Thursday League and, from 1922, for Abbey United on Saturdays.
The 1922/23 season also saw United reaching the final of the Cambs Minor Cup, in which they lost to Cambridge GER on Cambridge Town’s ground. Local opinion was that this go-ahead young club would make a good impression on the First Division. It would certainly involve more expense. In Division Two most teams were based in Cambridge, with the farthest flung clubs being Sawston, Willingham and Burwell. The top league would mean travelling much further afield in the county and beyond, to Ely, Royston, Chatteris, Saffron Walden and St Ives; only ambitious clubs would wish to take such a plunge.
Abbey were the only club from the borough of Cambridge in the top division for 1923/24. Appropriately, they left Stourbridge Common and hired a new
Thus far Abbey United were just a minor footnote in a Cantabrigian football scene dominated by Cambridge Town, who were already doing battle with the likes of Ipswich Town in the Southern Amateur League in front of regular four-figure crowds. The Cambs FA decided to streamline its competitions into a three-division Cambridgeshire League in 1921, and Abbey made the momentous decision to take up league football for the first time; they were accepted into Division Three for the 1921/22 season. They became official members of the CFA for the first time, paying a five shilling one-off affiliation fee, ten shillings annual subscription, a 7/6d League fee and five shillings to enter the Cambs Minor Challenge Cup.
United played in amber and black halved shirts, earning themselves the nickname The Wasps, before changing to stripes in the mid-1920s. The club’s HQ was at the Mission Hut in River Lane and on home match days the goalposts, flags etc had to be carted along the riverside to the Stourbridge Common pitch.
Abbey became Division Three champions in their first season, winning 20 out of 24 games, and were top scorers thanks to the exploits of Wally Wilson, a brave, speedy forward who was said to be able to head a ball further than most players could kick it. The division’s best defence was marshalled by George Alsop, a local boy who went on to play for the mighty Chelsea, although he got no further than their reserve side and returned in 1923. The report for their last game of the season, a 4-0 defeat of Cambridge Wanderers, enthused: ‘The United are a smart little team, with a good understanding among all the players, and they put any amount of dash and enterprise into their play.’
Another significant development came off the pitch when local philanthropist Henry Clement Francis, director of the Star Brewery in Newmarket Road, was elected club president. Fifth son of lord of the Quy manor and solicitor of note Clement Francis, HC Francis was a Cambridge alderman, a county councillor and chairman of the board of guardians for Abbey Ward. He had been educated at the Charterhouse public school, where he was a classmate of the Boy Scout movement founder Robert Baden-Powell. A devoted and skilled equestrian, he was often to be seen around Barnwell and Fen Ditton
in a carriage drawn by high-stepping horses.
United continued their rapid progress the following season when they won Division Two, dropping only three points on their way to the title. A new top scorer emerged in the shape of Albert ‘Twitter’ Dring, but their most significant signing was that of the versatile Harvey Cornwell, who was to play for the club on and off for the next 24 years.
Born in 1896, Cornwell left school at the age of 12. He was spotted playing on Parker’s Piece by Aston Villa scouts when he was 14, but his parents refused the club's offer of an apprenticeship. Young Harvey was needed to help his father in his second-hand furniture business, and travelled with him all over the region – on foot. The only concession to his blossoming football career was that at 12 o’clock on Thursdays and Saturdays he was allowed to return to Cambridge to play, by whatever means he could organise from wherever he might be. On one occasion he was refused a lift back from Brinkley, some 15 miles east of Cambridge, and the owner of the horse and cart concerned was amazed to see him arriving in town before him via Shanks’s pony. His lifestyle, therefore, made him extremely fit.
Cornwell joined the Cambridgeshire Regiment during World War I but in 1916 found himself in the Canadian Army, where he demonstrated his prowess as a boxer, finishing runner-up in the featherweight division of all Canadian forces in Great Britain. But his first love was football, and he played for Cambridge Wanderers in the Thursday League and, from 1922, for Abbey United on Saturdays.
The 1922/23 season also saw United reaching the final of the Cambs Minor Cup, in which they lost to Cambridge GER on Cambridge Town’s ground. Local opinion was that this go-ahead young club would make a good impression on the First Division. It would certainly involve more expense. In Division Two most teams were based in Cambridge, with the farthest flung clubs being Sawston, Willingham and Burwell. The top league would mean travelling much further afield in the county and beyond, to Ely, Royston, Chatteris, Saffron Walden and St Ives; only ambitious clubs would wish to take such a plunge.
Abbey were the only club from the borough of Cambridge in the top division for 1923/24. Appropriately, they left Stourbridge Common and hired a new
ground from Mr Bert Rayment at Station Farm, Barnwell, at the bottom of Cut Throat Lane – a site that later became part of Marshall’s Aerodrome before forming part of the Whitehill Road housing estate in the late 1930s.
Variously referred to as ‘the Abbey Ground,’ ‘the Newmarket-road Ground’ or ‘the Station Farm Ground,’ it became popularly known as the ‘Celery Trenches’ due to the furrows that, despite the best efforts of club groundsmen to remove them, ran the full length of the pitch and filled with water when it rained. The playing surface also had a noticeable slope from end to end, and match reports regularly referred to teams playing ‘up’ or ‘down’ the hill. It was entirely open, with no cover of any kind, but crowds in the region of 300 were a regular occurrence. The club also moved its HQ to the Dog & Pheasant pub in Newmarket Road, where committee meetings were held and players could change into their kit before carting the goalposts to the ground; they earned the nickname the ‘Newmarket Road Roughs’ because they appeared a mean-looking bunch as they trooped along the road. |
![]() Clockwise, from top left: the Celery Trenches – wing half R Ding scores the only goal of the game with a 20-yard shot in the 65th min of an FA Amateur Cup preliminary round game against Soham Rangers on 22 September 1928; the Dog & Pheasant, Newmarket Road, photographed in 1974 by Frank Bird – Abbey United's headquarters after the Mission Hut in River Lane; Henry Clement Francis, Abbey United president; the Cambridgeshire Challenge Cup, won by Abbey United in 1924/25, 1926/27 and 1928/29.
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Team selection was decided by a committee in midweek. Club secretary George Chapman then filled in the names and match details on pre-printed cards and delivered them to the players’ houses by bicycle. If the club did not hear back from the selected players,, the committee assumed they would turn up on match day.
Tom Elsden played a few times for Abbey United in the mid-1920s, following in the footsteps of his brother Charles. He recalled: ‘Surprising as it may seem given the success of the side in the early years, we only met on match days. There was never any training or coaching during the season. If I recall correctly we used to pay 7/6d subscription for the season, which would have included for the supply of socks and shirts for the season.
‘When we travelled away the only form of transport was the coach, or “charabanc” as it was generally referred to. Only the wealthy had cars so we had to organise transport, and that meant the use of the solid-tyred charabanc. It gave quite a bumpy ride at times but it was nevertheless a very efficient form of transport and was capable of speeds of at least 30 or 40 miles per hour.’
Cornwell took over from Fred Stevens as captain, the two forming a formidable half-back line with Bill ‘Pim’ Stearn, while up front Dring, Wilson and Edward Fuller were kept supplied by wing brothers Tom and Bert Langford. Another fine season saw United finish runners-up to St Ives Town by just one point. The prize of three consecutive titles had been denied them, but the name of Abbey United had in three short years been established as a force to be reckoned with in Cambridgeshire football.
The following season George Alsop returned after his two-year adventure at Chelsea and was immediately restored to the side as centre half and captain. His impact on the team was instantaneous as he scored both goals in their opening Cambridgeshire League match, a 2-0 win at champions St Ives, first from a penalty then from a lone breakaway midway through the second half. Other new faces were forward Harold ‘Darley’ Watson and left winger ‘Fanny’ Freeman.
The 1924-25 season was a great one for silverware at the Celery Trenches. Playing three cup finals (the Chatteris Engineering Works Cup, the Cottenham Nursing Cup and the Cambs Challenge Cup) in eight days, Abbey won them all. Just two weeks later they shared a fourth, the prestigious Creake Charity Shield, by drawing with United Cantabs.
_Abbey’s cup exploits rather distracted them from the league and they could only finish an inconsistent sixth, but they were now regarded as the equals of clubs that had been around since the 19th century. The club held a celebratory dinner, attended by dignitaries from the Town Council and Cambs FA, at the Livingstone Hotel, during which the three cups they had won outright were filled and passed round.
Tom Elsden played a few times for Abbey United in the mid-1920s, following in the footsteps of his brother Charles. He recalled: ‘Surprising as it may seem given the success of the side in the early years, we only met on match days. There was never any training or coaching during the season. If I recall correctly we used to pay 7/6d subscription for the season, which would have included for the supply of socks and shirts for the season.
‘When we travelled away the only form of transport was the coach, or “charabanc” as it was generally referred to. Only the wealthy had cars so we had to organise transport, and that meant the use of the solid-tyred charabanc. It gave quite a bumpy ride at times but it was nevertheless a very efficient form of transport and was capable of speeds of at least 30 or 40 miles per hour.’
Cornwell took over from Fred Stevens as captain, the two forming a formidable half-back line with Bill ‘Pim’ Stearn, while up front Dring, Wilson and Edward Fuller were kept supplied by wing brothers Tom and Bert Langford. Another fine season saw United finish runners-up to St Ives Town by just one point. The prize of three consecutive titles had been denied them, but the name of Abbey United had in three short years been established as a force to be reckoned with in Cambridgeshire football.
The following season George Alsop returned after his two-year adventure at Chelsea and was immediately restored to the side as centre half and captain. His impact on the team was instantaneous as he scored both goals in their opening Cambridgeshire League match, a 2-0 win at champions St Ives, first from a penalty then from a lone breakaway midway through the second half. Other new faces were forward Harold ‘Darley’ Watson and left winger ‘Fanny’ Freeman.
The 1924-25 season was a great one for silverware at the Celery Trenches. Playing three cup finals (the Chatteris Engineering Works Cup, the Cottenham Nursing Cup and the Cambs Challenge Cup) in eight days, Abbey won them all. Just two weeks later they shared a fourth, the prestigious Creake Charity Shield, by drawing with United Cantabs.
_Abbey’s cup exploits rather distracted them from the league and they could only finish an inconsistent sixth, but they were now regarded as the equals of clubs that had been around since the 19th century. The club held a celebratory dinner, attended by dignitaries from the Town Council and Cambs FA, at the Livingstone Hotel, during which the three cups they had won outright were filled and passed round.
![Picture](/uploads/9/1/6/2/9162503/6497336_orig.jpg)
Top left, Abbey United 1924/25 with trophies. Back: F Adams (vice-president), F Brown, C Harrison, H Bowman (honorary treasurer), HF Newman, CE Eisden. Standing: Tom Bilton, Fred Mortlock (secretary), Joe Livermore, Bill ‘Pim’ Stearn, R ‘Percy’ Wilson, Jim Self, Harold ‘Darley’ Watson, William Taverner, W Harrison.
Sitting: Bill Walker, Harvey Cornwell, Henry Clement Francis (president), George Alsop (captain), Bob Patman, Charlie Taverner.
Front: W ‘Fanny’ Freeman, Frank Luff.
Top right, first team on 7 May 1927, playing at Milton Road in the Cambs Challenge Cup against Newmarket – a 6-6 draw. Back: C Morley, Bill Walker, Joe Livermore, Fred ‘Erstie’ Clements, Harvey Cornwell, Harold ‘Darley’ Watson.
Front: Dick Harris, Edward Fuller, George Alsop (captain), C Clements, Freddie Stevens.
Above, Abbey United 2 May 1925. From left: George Alsop, Freddie Stevens, Bill Walker, Frank D Luff, R 'Percy' Wilson, Joe Livermore, Jim Self, Wally Wilson, Bill 'Pim' Stearn, W 'Fanny' Freeman, Harvey Cornwell.
Cornwell led a new forward line alongside Charlie Greaves, Frank Luff, Fuller and Freeman for 1925/26, and their pace took full advantage of an amendment to the offside rule, reducing the number of defenders that had to be between attacker and goal from three to two. They remained unbeaten in the league until mid-February, thrashing reigning champions St Ives 7-2, but their first defeat – 4-2 to Gamlingay – was remembered mainly for the behaviour of visiting goalkeeper Hall towards a spectator. It was reported that: ‘Hall addressed an insulting remark to the spectator and struck him. The man returned the blow and a free fight would doubtless have ensued had not the referee, Mr TM Phillips, intervened. The men were with some difficulty parted by their friends, and immediately ordered off the ground by the Abbey officials. Followed by a large crowd, they went elsewhere to settle their differences. It is understood that the spectator, who was standing near the goal, annoyed the goalkeeper by coming over the line.’
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United clinched their first Division One title in their penultimate match at home to nearest rivals Girton, thrashing them 5-1 with a hat-trick from Cornwell. ‘Abbey won because they were the faster team; moreover they were used to the ground and adapted themselves to the slow conditions,’ read the report. ‘In places the grass was almost a foot long and this made carpet passing an impossibility.’ They finished with 103 goals from their 26 league games. Sadly, no photographs of the foot-long grass are known to exist.
Abbey also retained the Creake Charity Shield, defeating RAF Duxford 4-1 in the final, and at the presentation afterwards Cornwell, a man of few words, was obliged to make a speech, which was ‘… his greatest ordeal of the day. Nevertheless, he looked the happiest man on the field when he received the shield, and he seemed oblivious to the fact that his head was bleeding from a bad cut received early in the game.’ There was the spirit of Abbey United, embodied in the form of their inspirational captain.
United could only finish as runners-up to Girton in 1926/27 thanks to a mid-season wobble, but they retained one half of the Cambs Challenge Cup in a remarkable final against Newmarket in which they were 5-3 down with three minutes to go but equalised with the last kick of the 90 minutes. A 6-6 draw after extra time meant the clubs shared the trophy.
Abbey entered the FA Cup for the first time in 1927/28, losing creditably 3-1 to Great Yarmouth, but they made their first mis-step by entering their reserve side into the Bury & District League. Finding that the BDL was of a higher standard than expected, they fielded a stronger team in that competition than in the Cambs League on two occasions when fixtures clashed. This action proved displeasing to the Cambs League, which fined them £3 for selecting a weakened team contrary to league rules. Abbey lost interest in the Bury League thereafter and failed to fulfil seven of their last 12 fixtures, resigning at the end of the season.
United set a new club record by thrashing Godmanchester 14-1 in the Chatteris Engineering Works Cup despite being reduced to ten men after only 15 minutes. They went on to win the trophy, defeating Ramsey Town 3-0 in a final that kicked off at 4pm, before repairing to Chatteris Town for a league match at 6.30, which they lost 5-4.
Abbey finished third in the league despite only completing 19 matches, while most of their rivals played 24 or 25 in a rather untidy season, but Wally Wilson had emerged as a pivotal player in his new position of centre-half.
The Celery Trenches remained one of the club’s most potent weapons, although it drew opprobrium from the opposition for its dreadful surface and primitive facilities. After Thetford lost there 2-1 in the FA Amateur Cup of 1928/29, the Eastern Football News wrote: ‘I am afraid our team allowed themselves to be rattled by Abbey United at Cambridge by a sort of village kick and rush type of play, and consequently were pulled down to their level, a very low one. That is really of no importance, but what does matter is that a self-respecting team should have to travel miles and be compelled to play on such a ground. We can safely say that never in the history of Thetford football has the team had to face such a problem. It is a mystery to us why just because a ground conforms in size with the regulations that no matter what the playing surface is like, no objection can be taken to it … The dressing room accommodation, too, was most primitive. The taproom of a pub, and two bowls outside to wash in, can hardly be called approximately up-to-date.’
Division One of the Cambs League was split into two regionalised sections with the winners to play off for the championship. Wilson played as many games up front as he did at the back and United’s lethal attack saw them to the Section A title, defeating nearest rivals Swifts 2-0 with a brace of Cornwell goals in a robust decider in which ‘much of the game was occupied in wild kicking in midfield'.
United’s run-in to the end of the season was extraordinary. They played 12 games in the last 36 days and won five finals in that time, lifting the Cambs Challenge Cup on April 6, the Chatteris Nursing Cup on April 20, the Bury & District Cup on May 3 and the Creake Charity Shield on May 7 with a notable 3-0 win away at Cambridge Town Reserves. Four days later they returned to Milton Road to face Chatteris Town in the championship play-off final. Sid Hulyer, Dick Harris and ‘Darley’ Watson gave the Abbey a 3-1 lead but Chatteris scored twice in the last eight minutes to force extra time, in which George Alsop took charge by smashing two of his long-range ‘specials’, and United ran out 5-4 winners.
One can only marvel at the stamina and determination of United’s amateur players. Their haul of five trophies included the coveted ‘Triple Crown’ of Cambridgeshire football (League, Creake and Challenge Cup), a feat that had never been accomplished before.
The following season was one of upheaval thanks to injuries and loss of players, notably Watson and keeper Fred ‘Erstie’ Clements to wealthy neighbours Cambridge Town, following in the footsteps of Stearn and Luff. An unsettled squad could only manage eighth place out of ten in the league, although they managed at least to retain the Creake Charity Shield thanks to the old guard of Alsop, Wilson and Cornwell.
Abbey also retained the Creake Charity Shield, defeating RAF Duxford 4-1 in the final, and at the presentation afterwards Cornwell, a man of few words, was obliged to make a speech, which was ‘… his greatest ordeal of the day. Nevertheless, he looked the happiest man on the field when he received the shield, and he seemed oblivious to the fact that his head was bleeding from a bad cut received early in the game.’ There was the spirit of Abbey United, embodied in the form of their inspirational captain.
United could only finish as runners-up to Girton in 1926/27 thanks to a mid-season wobble, but they retained one half of the Cambs Challenge Cup in a remarkable final against Newmarket in which they were 5-3 down with three minutes to go but equalised with the last kick of the 90 minutes. A 6-6 draw after extra time meant the clubs shared the trophy.
Abbey entered the FA Cup for the first time in 1927/28, losing creditably 3-1 to Great Yarmouth, but they made their first mis-step by entering their reserve side into the Bury & District League. Finding that the BDL was of a higher standard than expected, they fielded a stronger team in that competition than in the Cambs League on two occasions when fixtures clashed. This action proved displeasing to the Cambs League, which fined them £3 for selecting a weakened team contrary to league rules. Abbey lost interest in the Bury League thereafter and failed to fulfil seven of their last 12 fixtures, resigning at the end of the season.
United set a new club record by thrashing Godmanchester 14-1 in the Chatteris Engineering Works Cup despite being reduced to ten men after only 15 minutes. They went on to win the trophy, defeating Ramsey Town 3-0 in a final that kicked off at 4pm, before repairing to Chatteris Town for a league match at 6.30, which they lost 5-4.
Abbey finished third in the league despite only completing 19 matches, while most of their rivals played 24 or 25 in a rather untidy season, but Wally Wilson had emerged as a pivotal player in his new position of centre-half.
The Celery Trenches remained one of the club’s most potent weapons, although it drew opprobrium from the opposition for its dreadful surface and primitive facilities. After Thetford lost there 2-1 in the FA Amateur Cup of 1928/29, the Eastern Football News wrote: ‘I am afraid our team allowed themselves to be rattled by Abbey United at Cambridge by a sort of village kick and rush type of play, and consequently were pulled down to their level, a very low one. That is really of no importance, but what does matter is that a self-respecting team should have to travel miles and be compelled to play on such a ground. We can safely say that never in the history of Thetford football has the team had to face such a problem. It is a mystery to us why just because a ground conforms in size with the regulations that no matter what the playing surface is like, no objection can be taken to it … The dressing room accommodation, too, was most primitive. The taproom of a pub, and two bowls outside to wash in, can hardly be called approximately up-to-date.’
Division One of the Cambs League was split into two regionalised sections with the winners to play off for the championship. Wilson played as many games up front as he did at the back and United’s lethal attack saw them to the Section A title, defeating nearest rivals Swifts 2-0 with a brace of Cornwell goals in a robust decider in which ‘much of the game was occupied in wild kicking in midfield'.
United’s run-in to the end of the season was extraordinary. They played 12 games in the last 36 days and won five finals in that time, lifting the Cambs Challenge Cup on April 6, the Chatteris Nursing Cup on April 20, the Bury & District Cup on May 3 and the Creake Charity Shield on May 7 with a notable 3-0 win away at Cambridge Town Reserves. Four days later they returned to Milton Road to face Chatteris Town in the championship play-off final. Sid Hulyer, Dick Harris and ‘Darley’ Watson gave the Abbey a 3-1 lead but Chatteris scored twice in the last eight minutes to force extra time, in which George Alsop took charge by smashing two of his long-range ‘specials’, and United ran out 5-4 winners.
One can only marvel at the stamina and determination of United’s amateur players. Their haul of five trophies included the coveted ‘Triple Crown’ of Cambridgeshire football (League, Creake and Challenge Cup), a feat that had never been accomplished before.
The following season was one of upheaval thanks to injuries and loss of players, notably Watson and keeper Fred ‘Erstie’ Clements to wealthy neighbours Cambridge Town, following in the footsteps of Stearn and Luff. An unsettled squad could only manage eighth place out of ten in the league, although they managed at least to retain the Creake Charity Shield thanks to the old guard of Alsop, Wilson and Cornwell.
The Celery Trenches had divided opinions sharply ever since United had moved there in 1923, and in 1930 it was decided that its uneven playing surface and poor facilities were no longer suitable for United’s level of football. The club played its matches on Parker’s Piece during 1930/31, but failed to win there in the league until March, with Alsop and Wilson mostly absent and badly missed. They rallied late in the season with the return of Wilson and Clements and finished second from bottom, avoiding relegation, and even managed to lift half a trophy by drawing the final of the Chatteris Nursing Cup with Soham Rangers.
Abbey were in need of some good news, and they received it in the summer of 1931 when club president Henry Clement Francis, recognising that the club had little prospect of progress playing on Parker’s Piece, acquired some land off Newmarket Road behind Sindall’s builder's yard (subsequently a Corona soft drinks depot). He called on treasurer Frank Pettit and instructed him to round up the committee and meet him on ‘Sindall’s Field'. It is possible that the land had been bequeathed that year to the president by one of his brothers, Thomas Musgrave Francis, who had inherited his father's estate in 1880 but died in 1931. This matter is being researched.
Mr Francis offered the club two choices: they could accept the whole site, undeveloped, or take a smaller parcel of land upon which he would erect a fence and a grandstand for 300-400 spectators. The club plumped for the latter option, and newly elected vice-president Robert Wadsworth later assumed responsibility for the construction of dressing rooms on the opposite side of the pitch, which were put up by two players, brothers Fred and Charlie Taverner.
Abbey were in need of some good news, and they received it in the summer of 1931 when club president Henry Clement Francis, recognising that the club had little prospect of progress playing on Parker’s Piece, acquired some land off Newmarket Road behind Sindall’s builder's yard (subsequently a Corona soft drinks depot). He called on treasurer Frank Pettit and instructed him to round up the committee and meet him on ‘Sindall’s Field'. It is possible that the land had been bequeathed that year to the president by one of his brothers, Thomas Musgrave Francis, who had inherited his father's estate in 1880 but died in 1931. This matter is being researched.
Mr Francis offered the club two choices: they could accept the whole site, undeveloped, or take a smaller parcel of land upon which he would erect a fence and a grandstand for 300-400 spectators. The club plumped for the latter option, and newly elected vice-president Robert Wadsworth later assumed responsibility for the construction of dressing rooms on the opposite side of the pitch, which were put up by two players, brothers Fred and Charlie Taverner.
![]() Barnwell in 1933, with Abbey United's new Newmarket Road ground centre top. Other features to note: the Cambridge University and Town Gas Light Company works, centre foreground (site now largely occupied by Tesco); the sewage pumping station in Cheddars Lane (left foreground with chimney), opened in 1894, closed in the 1960s and now housing Cambridge Museum of Technology; brick clay pits along Newmarket Road (right middle) – the site is now occupied by Cambridge Retail Park; to the left of the brick works, Watts' timber yard. Click the image to enlarge. Photo: Aerofilms/Britain from Above.
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The pitch did not directly abut Newmarket Road, but lay behind a large house known as the Old Gardens. William Sindall had bought his land, which had previously been the site of a 'tea and pleasure garden', for his construction firm for £1,050 in 1895, from the proprietor of the Globe public house on the opposite side of Newmarket Road. Local historian Mike Petty, in his Looking Back series in the Cambridge Evening News, recalled an article published on 11 May 1962 thus: 'More than a century ago the Old Tea Garden on the east bank of the River Stour [also known as Coldhams Brook], close to Barnwell Bridge, was a fashionable resort. Skittles and bowls were the favourite pastimes and there was dancing to the harp and fiddle on the spacious lawns after dark. It is no longer open to the public. A large, well-constructed, timber-roofed building is now used as a garage. It has a brick fireplace and the long floor of the skittle alley which ends in a padded wall.'
The 1932/33 season was eagerly awaited by all at the club. Their new home was officially opened on August 31 with a friendly against University Press, won 2-0 with two goals from diminutive teenage striker Jackie Bond. Admission was 2d and the Cambridge Daily News reported: ‘Abbey United started the present football campaign in fine style last evening … They won it in such a manner that it suggested the Abbey are going to be a real live force again. The ground is situated close to the former pitch at Newmarket-road, and has been levelled and fenced in. The surroundings are most pleasant, and when the new turf gets settled down, Abbey will have a splendid ground.’ Facilities at the new ground were at first basic to say the least: the changing room was a green-painted wooden hut near the halfway line on the site of what is now the Habbin Stand, with a household bath for which water was heated by a wood fire; towards the end of a match smoke began to emanate from its chimney to indicate that the ‘facilities’ were being prepared for the players. There would invariably be complaints from the opposition about the state of the pitch if they lost. The ‘new ground effect’ saw United top the table for the first half of the season, but their form fell away badly in the new year and they could only finish third. It was progress, though, and with a new home to call their own – which also generated income through being used for some Cambs FA finals – the future looked bright. On their new surface the United players no longer needed to resort to ‘kick and rush’ tactics, and after a 6-0 win over Gamlingay in early 1933/34, the report read: ‘Gamlingay were the heavier team, but the slighter, nippier Abbey players found that no handicap. The Wasps forwards were usually able to avoid the villagers’ halves by clever footwork.’ In a 7-2 defeat of Coton ‘it was the speed of the Wasps that often disconcerted the villagers, and the winners’ clever individual play was another deciding factor.’ After a 7-0 hammering of Cottenham, the report gushed: ‘Harvey [Cornwell] showed that despite his years he is still very fast, and was second only to Bond of the Abbey forwards. The simplicity of the Abbey goals was an object lesson to Cottenham, neat opportunism doing the trick time and again without apparent effort … Abbey were much faster and their positional play was excellent. Wilson was the outstanding man on Abbey’s side, although he spoilt an otherwise excellent display by aimlessly kicking the ball over the fence to waste time during the second half.’ The United ground’s first grandstand, seating 238 spectators in sheltered wooden comfort, was unveiled on 10 March 1934 at a match against Gamlingay. Admission to the ground was 4d, or 2d for ladies, juveniles and the unemployed (on production of a card), with an additional charge of 3d to sit in the new luxury facility. A large crowd enjoyed the 1-0 win, and ‘the canteen was a popular rendezvous at the interval, when a roaring trade was done in cups of tea.’ Abbey tussled for the title all season with Coton Institute and lost out by two points, but lifted the Creake Shield with a 3-2 extra-time defeat of Pye Radio, the 37-year-old Cornwell heading the winner. They were re-established as one of the leading lights in Cambs League football. United started the 1934/35 season with a 5-0 thumping of Coton. Their youngest ever player, 14-year-old prodigy Joe Richardson, was at centre half while Cornwell was accompanied up front by his 16-year-old son, Harvey Jr. Another promising season ensued, but in early December both Cornwells departed for United Cantabs in acrimonious circumstances, having been dropped for a game against the same club after the team had scored 14 goals in its previous two matches. An anonymous supporter wrote to the local paper claiming the decision had been at the behest of captain Bob Brown rather than the selection committee. The team lost its unbeaten league record in the next match, and Wally Wilson created an unwanted piece of club history on February 9 when he became the first Abbey United player to be sent off, in a 2-1 defeat at University Press which counted both as a league match and as a Cottenham Nursing Cup tie. He was dismissed in the dying minutes by referee Mr Pegg for the offence of ‘making alleged insulting remarks to him during the game'. United challenged for the title all season but finished runners-up to University Press, and with no cups secured, it was a rare trophyless season for the Wasps. The Cornwells returned to the fold for 1935/36, bringing Harvey’s second son, 14-year-old Sam, with them, and 15-year-old Reg Kimberley also emerged from the reserves to partner skipper Bill Asplin at full back. United started the season by destroying Gamlingay 13-0, powerful forward Monty Bull claiming five goals, and a settled line-up soon emerged with Fred Sewell as line leader, Cornwell Snr on the left wing and Wilson at centre half. Wilson was by now portly and bald but still hard as nails, using his vast experience and adept at trapping the ball with his stomach and leaving the running to his more youthful colleagues. United finished fourth in the league but won the Creake Charity Shield, beating Coton 2-1 in the final at Milton Road. The winning goal would not have been given by a 21st century referee: strikers Sewell and Basil Saunders ran into the goalkeeper together, knocking the ball out of his arms, and Len Johnson poked home the clincher. The 1936/37 season marked a downturn for the Abbey as the Cornwells and two other players defected to United Cantabs, and Brown and Wilson left for Pye Radio. They were never adequately replaced, and a mediocre season saw United finish eighth out of 13 and fail to pick up a single trophy, the low point being a wretched, listless 8-0 home defeat by Camden in the Creake Shield. Harvey Cornwell made another welcome return, at the age of 41, for 1938/39, as did Bob Brown and useful signings Ernie Caston, Herbie Smart (father of future chairman Reg) and Fred Mansfield to boost the forward line. Wally Wilson also returned in November, but the Taverner brothers called it a day after 15 years. A creditable season produced a respectable fourth place and a trophy, the Soham Nursing Cup, with veterans Cornwell and Wilson as influential as ever. Progress was maintained during 1938/39, with the odd hiccup. In those days each club had to provide one linesman each, and in a 5-1 FA Amateur Cup defeat at Histon the Abbey linesman, S Brown, was reported by the referee for leaving the line 25 minutes from the end of play. Brown stated that ‘although he waved his flag on several occasions, the referee took no notice and he left the field in disgust.’ He was duly cautioned by the county FA. More history was made when all three Cornwells played together against University Press in the Challenge Cup on October 22, United losing 3-1, and after a slow start the team’s form gradually improved. Two reserve players, Smart and Mason, were banned for a month in December after a Cambs Minor Cup tie at Landbeach, which finished 3-2 to the hosts; Smart’s offence was ‘adopting a threatening attitude’ and using bad language to the referee after the match, and Mason was punished for ‘offensive conduct'. Smart subsequently established himself in the first team, scoring three hat-tricks. On April 8, little winger Ernie Caston became the second player in United history to be dismissed, against Soham Rangers, for attempting to kick an opponent. ‘This was hard on Caston for a momentary loss of control,’ read the report sympathetically, ‘for he had played a fine sporting game.’ Caston was severely cautioned but not suspended. United were top of the league on goal average with four games to go, but Linton Granta, champions in the previous three seasons, then massacred Soham Rangers 17-1 and Coton 9-1 on their own ground, and when Abbey lost 3-2 at home to Histon, they had to concede that the title was staying south-east of Cambridge. They played two games in one day to finish off the season, fielding their strongest line-up in both matches, and dispatched Soham Town 4-0 and Haddenham 8-1, but lost the title by a mere two points. They did not finish trophyless, though. After an astonishing 7-6 victory against Haddenham in the semi-finals of the Creake Charity Shield, they met Histon Institute in the final. Smart gave them the lead, but after the break Histon keeper Carter saved a penalty from Joe Richardson, the United man followed up to try to bundle man and ball into the net, and ‘a bout of fisticuffs’ ensued between the two which occasioned both men’s dismissals for ‘disorderly conduct’. After one sending-off in 18 seasons of competitive football, the club had now suffered two in the space of five weeks. Histon equalised four minutes from time, but Smart snatched a winner a minute later ‘amid an uproar of applause'. Four months later the country declared war on Adolf Hitler’s Germany, and football – and the world – were changed for ever. |