A Sheffield charity has kicked-off its 2026 football history walks, exploring the city’s contribution to the origins of modern football.
Sheffield Home of Football Charity is running five different guided walks between March and October that aim to promote the locations and stories that shaped football worldwide.
Sheffield FC – who this week announced ‘Reverend and the Makers’ singer and musician Jon McClure as their new chairman – is widely considered to be the world’s oldest football club, while local rivals Hallam FC is home to the first football stadium.
SHOF ran its first walk of the year last weekend, opening with the Historic City Centre Walk that visits where the first-ever knockout football tournament came from, where the first Rules of Football were written and much more.
“As a charity, our aims are primarily to educate,” said SHOF historian and trustee Steve Wood.
“Sheffield is the only city on the planet that has a ready-made open-air football heritage museum fit for taking people from [all] parts of the globe on a walk through the early evolution of the biggest sport on the planet.
“Each walk reveals and makes visible a different part of Sheffield’s once invisible footballing past.”
The Charity has 13 blue plaques highlighting the people and places which have contributed to Sheffield’s unique footballing heritage.
This afternoon, a 60-minute walk will take place, exploring the origins of women’s football, starting and ending at the Crucible Theatre in time for their showing of ‘The Ladies Football Club’ production.
SHOF is then taking walkers to the locations where at least 30 football clubs played between 1857 and 1890 this weekend on its Lost Football Grounds Walk, and will be off to Penistone next Sunday to explore the market town’s influence on the early development of the sport.
“Any other city on the planet would kill for what we have in terms of football heritage that you can actually walk around and talk about,” added Mr Wood. “Sheffield has it and owns it.
“We’re gradually introducing it back into the world through artworks, talks, blue plaques, films, books, digital media and – best of all – a good simple walk and talk.”
The final walk in the rotation tours the S11 area to explore Porterbrook’s football history, visiting the graves of some of Sheffield’s footballing greats and the locations where at least 14 clubs played between 1858 to 1890.