birth of the albion and into the southern league
After the demise of Brighton United, several people, including shareholder William Avenall, decided to continue the struggle to raise the standard of football in the area. North End Rangers had fallen on hard times and faced with the possibility of losing their pitch at Preston Park, accepted overtures from Avenall and colleagues and the name of the reorganised club was changed to Brighton & Hove Rangers. Land was rented at Home Farm, Withdean. The club played friendly and cup matches for the 1900/01 season.
After accepting an invitation to join the Southern League for the 1901/02 season, the club dropped the ‘Rangers’ suffix. The plans for the season were thrown into confusion until a meeting at The Seven Stars in Ship Street, on 24th June 1901, when Brighton and Hove Albion were born.
The earliest mention of programmes comes from ‘Minute Books’ from 1904-06. The reference on 22nd August 1905, stated “The Secretary reported that he had made arrangements with Mr S. Whitehurst to take full charge of the selling of programmes on the ground for all matches. Whitehurst to employ boys, and to pay the club nine pence per day”. A week later the next reference appears “Estimates for printing programmes for the season were submitted by Messrs Elmutt Clifton and Co, the latter being the lowest tender was accepted as was the same firm's estimate for Photo Blocks”.
Until recently, the oldest-known Albion programme was thought to come from September 1907 and a game against Plymouth Argyle. That was until Peter Irvine, author of 'The Albion Programme Collector’s Guide’ and a huge help to me in creating this part of the site, acquired a programme from November 1906 from a game against Southampton.
This is a single sheet, folded to make a four-page programme. The cover carries the team listings, as well as a picture of Henry Kent, Albion’s Centre-Half and captain. Among the adverts, is one for ‘Albion Mixture’ pipe tobacco. ‘It’s the finest smoking mixture yet introduced’.
Inside, the centre pages show the league tables, surrounded by a series of adverts, although there is a fair bit of spare space. Anyone wishing to take space is advised to contact Albion Secretary Mr F Scott Walford.
The Plymouth programme demonstrated that the humble match card had developed into an informative eight page match programme. Revenue potential had been recognised and local advertisements abounded. The Hippodrome featured on the cover along with Willard & Son from Church Road, who were Tailors, Habit Makers, Motor Outfitters, and Phoenix Brewery. There was room for about four and a half pages of often direct editorial such as “Without predjudice (sic) the second goal scored by Hodgkinsons was the most palpable offside we have seen pass the Official for many a day”. Amongst the adverts the centre spread showed the players lineups and ‘Scoring Board Code’ which referred to a board that informed spectators of results of matches being played around the country. A head and shoulders photograph of J.H.Hall (Centre Forward) appeared on an internal page. The programme was now printed by Trill & Sons, 21 Duke Street.