December 2021 Research Update

First of all we would like to wish a Merry Christmas to all of our members. I hope everyone has managed to stay safe and have an enjoyable Christmas and we look forward to seeing everyone in the new year.

Whilst we’re pleased that we were able to hold our Hall of Fame ceremony in November, I think we can all agree it hasn’t been the sort of year any of us would have wanted and we hope for better in 2022! It’s been great to see the form of the side over the past couple of months and also the tremendous support that they have had, in particular from the Yellow Army in organising the excellent away travel. Ian Kyle commented recently on the increased number of younger fans seen at the ground on a match day, bolstered by the good work being done in the Community with the Juniors and Ladies teams….long may it continue

In terms of research updates…
We are working through a large collection of very old photographs from the 1920s and Mike is doing a sterling job of identifying players. We look forward to publishing more of them in the near future.

We’ve also been working with Chablais Sport on a couple more retro kits which are due for release in the next week or so. The first is a white, laced collar, Southport Central shirt from 1888 which I am a particular fan of!

Speaking of Central, the book is coming along well and I’m continuing to discover more information every day which adds to our picture of the first decade. Fingers crossed for no more lock downs and that the libraries remain open!! Thanks also to local historian David Walshe for his assistance in identifying some key locations too!

As always, we would very much like to hear from anyone with a keen interest in Southport’s history and heritage, especially if you have a rare and interesting item to tell us about, memories to share, skills to offer or simply time to spare.

If you have any Port memorabilia, playing kit, documents or other historic items that you would like to tell us about or donate to the archive for display or safe keeping then please get in contact with us.

Do you have a significant item you’d like to donate or a significant item to tell us about? Are you interested in donating financially to the FPA, either as on a one-off or on a regular basis? Would you like to get actively involved? Do you have specific skills that might be useful or would you like to write articles for the website?

We’d love to hear from you!