Tinpot and Proud

Preface

I started writing this book back in 2021, when Crawley Town were owned by Ziya Eren, and John Yems was our manager. Since then, we have been bought by WAGMI and a lot of troubled water has flown under the bridge which has taken us from our Turkish owners to the ownership by our American friends.

I thought of putting the word, friends, in speech marks, to indicate how some of our fanbase think of them, but I decided not to as Preston Johnson, in particular, has become a friend of mine, and indeed of my whole family.

Tinpot and Proud will take you from the moment a 12-year-old Crawley boy learnt how to kick a football for the first time through 133 years of the development of the club we support. It features many of the people who have contributed to the club in so many ways and also, through my Thoughts of a lifelong fan covers what has probably been two of the most turbulent years in our history.

WARNING: The thoughts expressed in the second part of TINPOT AND PROUD are mine. I’m not sure if anyone thinks the same way as I do, but then that is what makes Football such a wonderfully emotional game, way of life or however you think of it in your lives. The thoughts were written, mostly on Sundays, and the dates that precede them are the issue dates of the Crawley Observer they appeared in. You will probably see that my mood still fluctuates according to results and I guess that is something we all have in common.

There will inevitably be other people that, you the fans would have included, but I need to have something to write about before I go up to the stadium in the sky, don’t I?

I hope you enjoy the read, and if you’re not in it, once again apologies from me, but, hopefully, when I write the next book Champions League, here we come I will have covered as many of you as possible.

Seriously, if you can think of a title for my next book please get in touch. My address, on every other Saturday during the football season, is Sergio Corner, The Winfield Terrace, Broadfield Stadium, Winfield Way, Broadfield, Crawley RH11 9RX.

Steve Leake A Lifelong fan

Part One

Chapter One

The Founding Fathers

In the 19th century Crawley was just a small rural town in the north of the county of Sussex. The population was around 4000, which, to put it into perspective, is approximately the same size as the two smallest neighbourhoods, West Green and Northgate, that now exist and just under a third of the size of its largest, Pound Hill. Forty-nine years prior to the first friendly game played by Crawley FC, the main London to Brighton railway was opened in 1841, the area being served by a brand-new station called East Crawley, later to become Three Bridges. Seven years later the Three Bridges to Horsham line was opened and a Crawley station was built next to the level crossing between the High Street and Brighton Road. The Victorian New Town of Crawley was taking shape.

Two years earlier than the Brighton line opening, John Barrett-Lennard was born the fifth son of Sir Thomas Barrett-Lennard and Mary Shedden in 1839. During John’s childhood the family would spend most of their summers in and around Brighton when it first became fashionable after changing its name from the longer Brighthelmstone at the beginning of the 19th century. In adult life he had a short military career as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, but resigned his commission and took up the cloth, finally arriving in Crawley as the Rector of St John the Baptist, after several junior posts in the Church of England in Shropshire and London, in 1876. He arrived in Crawley with his wife Isabella, the daughter of Sir John Lambton Loraine, and their three children, Constance, Emily Isabella and Herbert Loraine and in 1889 he was introducing some of the young lads in the town to the joys of the beautiful game, when he came across a 12-year-old, William Denman, who had never seen a football before, let alone kicked one. Willy, as he was known then, was just watching the other boys when suddenly the Rector asked him why he was not playing. He explained that he didn’t know how to as he had never seen a football before, to which the Rector placed a ball six yards in front of him and said Now, run and kick hard.

This was Willy’s response as told to Nadine Hygate in later years I did so, and oh my relief, when I found that my foot was still attached to my leg

And so commenced his second great passion in life, after cricket, and when Crawley FC was formed in 1890 to play friendlies, he became a player member at the ripe old age of 12.

By the age of 14, William, Bill, Willy Denman was the secretary of Crawley FC and just two years later he added the position of Cricket club secretary to his areas of responsibility, whilst also playing for both clubs. This wasn’t the extent of his sporting prowess however, as he was also an active member of Crawley Harriers Athletic Club and Crawley Cycling Club. Having completed his formal education at the ripe old age of 12, he earned his keep by delivering milk for the neighbouring farmer, Mr. Tyler, and when he reached 16 he worked as a postman, working long hours delivering and receiving mail from the London to Brighton horse drawn night coaches at their stopping points, The Black Swan, Pease Pottage and Chequers at Horley. This obviously did not seem enough for the young man, as just one year later he started writing for local papers and magazines under the pseudonym Wayfarer. I think this is what captured my imagination as I could see so many similarities in our lives, the love of sport, the love of Crawley and the love of history and writing about it.

By 1902, he was still Club Secretary at the age of 25.

You will also, no doubt, notice some other familiar Crawley names included in the club directory, (see pictures). They not only played their part in our club, but also in the building of our town, through the first new town, brought about by the railways, right through to the New Town, brought about by Hitler’s bombing of the capital during the Second World War. Back in 1903, Bill married Helen Fielder of West Street on the 15th of April. The ceremony took place on a Wednesday as Bill was involved three days later in playing left wing for Crawley FC in the final of the Mid-Sussex Football League Challenge Shield, which they won for the first time in their relatively short history. Perhaps current Crawley Town supporters should revert to the custom of wearing red geraniums in their buttonholes as a sign of their allegiance. The club’s pitch was Mr. Stone’s field on Malthouse farm, between Brighton Road and Malthouse Road, whilst the headquarters were at the nearby Railway Inn, by the old Crawley station and level crossing.

Obviously, a well-respected and loved man, as shown in this extract from the write up of Bill’s and Helen’s wedding.

Mr. Denman is the secretary of the Crawley Football and Cricket Clubs, and there is probably not another person in the town who has worked so hard in this direction than he. His abilities on the field – no matter whether cricket or football – have gained him a good deal of popularity, which has been increased by his ably discharged secretarial duties.

The ceremony was conducted by Rector Herbert Barrett-Lennard, the son of the Rector who had introduced Bill to football in 1889. Herbert taking over from his father, who sadly died in 1898 at the relatively young age of 59.

All our families are governed by twists of fate, coincidences, or divine intervention, depending on your beliefs. None more so than whether people survive, or not, the cruelty of war.

Bill Denman was 37 when the Great War broke out because of family squabbles in the Balkans. They should have been more like the Denman’s, for in 1906 Bill and Helen took on Mabel, the eleven-year-old daughter of his eldest brother Tom and his wife Emily, who died giving birth to their son Albert who also died. Her death, according to Nadine Hygate, was shortly followed by Tom, who was heartbroken by his wife’s death.

Bill’s sister, Elsie Mitchell, took on the other two orphaned children, Victoria and Edgar, showing what true family unity is all about.

Further tragedy was to strike Bill’s family before the war, when, in 1912 his father, John Broomdasher Denman died, after a long illness, at the relatively young age of 69. I say relatively as I am over that age myself and have absolutely no intention of entering the final clearing yet. Broomdasher refers to John’s trade as a maker of brooms, a thriving local industry at the time, which is where the Three Bridges Street gets its name.

At the outbreak of war, Bill enlisted in the 1st Essex Regiment, going to France and became a Corporal, working in the cookhouse section. One day while in camp, his two slightly younger nephews, James and William Johnson, sons of another of his sisters, Annie, were passing through on their way to the front. They managed to meet up, and all three had a night out on the town, before the two younger boys continued on their way to Ypres. That was the last time Bill saw them, as on the 27th of February 1915 James was killed in action and William was badly injured and sent back to blighty to recover. James was just 23 years old and had joined the East Yorks, as a 17-year-old, six years previously. His body was never found but he is commemorated on Panel 21 of the Menin Gate and on the Crawley Memorial Garden Gates.

Just over a year later, his father John Johnson, a stockman at Belle Vue farm on the Tilgate estate took his own life with his shot gun, because of the death of James, the injury to William and the impending enlistment of a third son John (Jack). Shortly before his suicide he was heard to say, This is the last blow, we have sacrificed two, and that ought to be enough. He left his wife and five children still at home at Belle Vue farm, which is situated between the M23 and the new housing development by Parish Lane in Pease Pottage, but now known as Hardriding cottages.

As sure as night follows day. William Johnson was also killed in action on the 3rd of May 1917, and just like his brother, his body was also never found. He too, is also commemorated on the Memeorial Garden Gates and the memorial at Arras.

Lest we forget. (Credit to Nadine Hygate Wayfarer Denman’s Crawley Revisited and Renny Richardson All the bright company of heaven

After the Great War, which killed over twenty million people, roughly half of which were military personnel and just over half of them from the allied forces, my Granddad, Albert Edward Pinfold, who had served in the RAMC, and had witnessed the famous Christmas football match between opposing combatants, like Bill had experienced the devastation of trench warfare and the absolute horror of gas attacks. The effect of the gas on Bill was to give him severe breathing difficulties and the rotting of all his teeth. They were removed without the use of anaesthetic by an army medic wielding a pair of pliers, and, after a period of convalescence, he was returned to his unit until he was demobbed. Bill returned home to the devastating news about his brother-in-law and nephews and dedicated his life to his local community in more ways than one, whereas my granddad returned home, to make sure, indirectly, that my time would come.

Crawley for Bill must have seemed like paradise compared to Ypres and the Somme, but like today the country was quickly thrown into a pandemic situation with the onset of Spanish Flu, which claimed 228,000 lives in the United Kingdom alone.

In between the Great War and its sequel, which allowed it to be called the First World War, Bill was a very busy man. He survived both war and pestilence and at home, in Station Road, when it housed the police station and several Victorian houses, the family grew to five again with the birth of James Fielder, his youngest son. Bill was elected for Ifield Parish on the Horsham Rural Council, despite living in Crawley, and, along with some friends, was responsible for the setting up of the Crawley Labour party. Party politics at the time did not feature in local councils and thus Bill was able to represent his electorate’s best interests.

He was also involved with St John’s Church and served on numerous committees, including the Education Committee of West Sussex County Council. All this, plus his sporting interests and writing on local matters, inevitably meant that in 1928 he hung up his boots for Crawley FC at the age of 51, which makes Dannie Bulman seem like a youngster.

In 1932, he became the first Crawley born man to be made a justice of the Peace and was, at the time, chairman of Crawley FC. This may not have happened if a bizarre incident involving his duties had not concluded so benignly. Whilst raising the flag on the church tower, he had to climb on the parapet of the tower. One day he was late returning home for his lunch, so his wife Helen went to the front gate of their Station Road home to see if she could see him. She must have been astonished to see him clinging to the flag’s rope, over the side of the tower. He had been hanging there for about half an hour and was eventually rescued by their neighbours, the local police. A bad case of wind, the meteorological kind, being the cause of the incident.

Crawley FC folded in 1935, only to be resurrected three years later. In fact, the new Crawley FC (still not Town) was an amalgamation of interested parties from three clubs but with most of the officers coming from the old Crawley FC. The two other clubs were Crawley Athletic and Crawley Rangers.

On 31st of December 1937, Bill retired, after 43 years of service, from the postal service. He had worked under six postmasters and had worked his way up to the post (excuse the pun) of head postman by 1924, the position from which he retired. According to Nadine Hygate’s account in Crawley revisited he was still chairman of both the football and cricket clubs and was also heavily involved in numerous local concerns including the Rifle club, the British Legion, Crawley Harriers, Crawley Gardeners, Crawley and Ifield Old Boys and was also one of the managers of the council schools.

With all this public service, alongside his writing for about six local papers, he could hardly have had any spare time, even in retirement. Sports was reported under the pseudonym Onlooker, while his diary reports on all things Crawley, appeared under the Wayfarer banner, which, contrary to my earlier belief, he did not take up until after the First World War, inheriting that title from Caleb Thornton. He did, however, write to a variety of papers under his own name on matters of local interest.

As with most families there were also times of sadness and poor health and in the late 30s, Helen, his wife, became very ill, culminating in an operation for cancer in Crawley Cottage Hospital. She convalesced with friends in Brighton, at which time Bill contracted Whooping Cough, no doubt made worse by his mustard gas affected lungs and the smoky atmosphere in all the committees he was in.

Bill, having served in the war to end all wars, must have been devastated when World War 2 started in 1939, not just because it put a temporary halt to football for the new Crawley FC, but also because two of his sons enlisted to face the same enemy that he had, just 25 years earlier. Helen, from 1942 to 1944, endured a long fight against cancer with Bill spending every night looking after her until she eventually passed away in May 1944. He never got over losing his wife but kept on in public service even though his own health was deteriorating. In April 1945, he stood as an independent, despite being a staunch Labour man, for the local council, as he didn’t believe in party politics at local level. He won with a large majority, and was elected Chair, in his absence, at the council’s first meeting.

On the 8th of May 1945, Victory in Europe was achieved, and Bill decorated his house with bunting from George VI’s coronation in 1937. Just one day later, he passed away from lung cancer, and the bunting was taken down.

The Rector, at his funeral, concluded his talk with For Mr. Denman we may say Thank God. May this country go on producing men who are prepared to give themselves to the public service as he did". On the day of the funeral Crawley came to a halt, as he was laid to rest with Helen in St John’s churchyard.

No working man in Sussex could have had a finer life than I have had – full of sport and interesting events, and everyone has been really good to me W J Denman 31st December 1937

By getting this far, you will know that Bill Denman was not the only man responsible for the development of both our town and our football club. I have already introduced you to Rev Johm Barrett-Lennard, the rector who introduced Bill to the beautiful game, but I feel the need to elaborate a little about him, as he too seemed an incredible force of nature. He came to Crawley in 1876, the youngest son of a Baron, along with his wife and three children, one of which, Herbert, would take over at St John’s upon his father’s death. He was described as an exponent of muscular Christianity which displayed itself in his work with the youth of Crawley, teaching them how to box and play football. The church, before he came, had deteriorated as far as the fabric was concerned but he, as an upright Victorian gentleman, set about rectifying that and was seen as a key driver in the growth of the three villages, Three Bridges, Crawley and Ifield. He was also a keen carpenter, as can be seen from the rector’s chair that he made and in other carvings within St. John’s. A sign of how much he was thought of by his congregation is to be seen in the commemorative plaque and stained-glass window installed in the church.

The other person who also played a big part in the early years of Crawley FC was George Francis Hampton Banks, who, like his namesake Gordon, appears to have been a goalkeeper. Unlike the World cup winning Gordon, he was also Crawley’s Chairman. Born in 1870, he was the son of the Rector of Worth, and thus was in a different social stratum to our Bill, but just twenty odd years later they were united through Crawley FC.

An architect/builder, he worked on the ongoing renovations at St Johns in 1911, under Rector Herbert Barret-Lennard. He was also married in 1911, but, like Bill, set off for war just three years later with the Sussex Regiment, holding the rank of Lieutenant. In 1916, in the second month of the Battle of the Somme, George was injured, either at Delville Wood or Pozieres, but at least he lived to fight again and serve his community, unlike so many others.

On the first day of the battle, there were approximately 20.000 British fatalities, one death every 4.4 seconds including 37 sets of brothers, leading to the disbanding of Old Pals regiments because of the devastating affect it was having on communities back home. Away from Crawley FC, Captain Wilfrid Nevill, aged 21, of the East Surrey regiment, signaled his men to advance by kicking one of two footballs towards the enemy lines. It is thought he knew that the British Artillery bombardment had had little or no effect on the German trenches, and that the football would keep his men’s minds off the carnage that was about to happen. The East Surreys did make their target for the attack, but Captain Nevill was shot in the head and died from his wounds. The two balls, with their inscriptions, The Great European Cup and East Surrey versus Bavarians were rescued from the battlefield

George Banks continued as Chairman of Crawley FC up until 1938, although it must be noted that for the last three years the club did not play any matches as negotiations took place to replace the three Crawley clubs, Rangers, Athletic and FC with just the one organisation. The fact that the new club inherited the name and history of Crawley FC, rather than that of the other two, implies, I think, that most of the officials for the new club were old FC committee members. So, it was in 1938 Norman Longley took over the reins as chairman of the new club and George became President.

One year later the club had to move grounds because of the development of the old Malthouse Farm site, probably by Longley Builders, and they were due to play at a site donated by local farmer and purveyor of fine sausages, Mr. Yetman. As noted in Noli Semper Cedere this was where Sunny Mead is now, in West Green. At the AGM for the Club, in July 1939, there was great excitement about the move, which, thanks to the sequel to the Great War, did not happen properly until the 1945-46 season. The Sussex and Surrey Courier July 15th, 1939 featured this comment about GFH Banks, under the sub-title election of officers Mr. Banks was re-elected president on the motion of the chairman, who said Crawley FC would not really be Crawley unless Mr. Banks was at the helm of it (Applause). Mr. Banks accepted office. Note the formality of the language which rather underplayed the affection for the man. He continued in the role of President through to the early 50s, marking over 60 years association with Crawley FC, and sadly died on October 17th, 1960, at 90 years of age, two days after the team had been beaten by local rivals, Horsham, by one goal to nil in front of over 1000 spectators at Town Meadow. May I suggest, as my good friend Mick Fox did in the Mansfield Town programme, that if you are in love with Crawley Town as much as I am, that the next time you are in town you visit St John the Baptist church, and have a look for yourselves at the resting places of WJ Denman, Rev John Barrett-Lennard and George Francis Hampton Banks. Think about the contributions these people made to our club and our town and, whatever level of spirituality you are happy with, offer up a word or two of thanks to these people of vision. If the church is open, have a look at the Barrett-Lennard