A journal by one of the founding fathers of football has gone on show in Sheffield town hall for the first time today.

Sir Nathaniel Creswick was the co-founder of Sheffield FC, the oldest football team in the world still playing and he maintained a daily journal. Now, the rare, handwritten item has gone on show as part of the charity Sheffield Home of Football’s exhibition in the town hall.

“In his journal he recorded many things about his life in Sheffield including his love life, his work problems as a solicitor, his sporting interests, and one stunning entry in 1857 which states, ‘I have established a foot ball (sic) club to which all young Sheffield comes and kicks’, explains Nick Partridge, CEO of the charity.

“This recorded the creation of the oldest club still playing and Creswick and Sheffield FC went on to write down the Sheffield Rules of football, which form the basis of the modern game played today,” adds Nick.

“The journal came to light when they were was passed to Sir Nathaniel’s Great, Great Nephew Colonel Geoffrey Norton of Sheffield.”

“He was so amazed at the entry that firmly linked Sheffield with the creation of the ‘Beautiful Game’ that he felt it needed to be saved for posterity and he has now donated them to the Sheffield City Archives,” says Nick.

“The journal will be on display in the Sheffield Town Hall exhibition of Sheffield Home of Football cups and memorabilia.

And it has also now been scanned and is available online to be looked at in its entirety,” adds Nick.

“We are delighted to see this on display for the very first time outside the archives and for people to see the actual entry in Sir Nathaniel’s journal that establishes without doubt Sheffield’s claim to be the crucible in which the world’s favourite game was forged”, concludes Nick.

The exhbition at Sheffield Town Hall is open from 9am-5pm Mondays to Fridays and from 10am-4pm on Saturdays throughout the Summer and online via X912-2 | Sheffield City Archives (preservica.com)

For more information about the work of the charity go to sheffieldhomeoffootball.org or email sheffieldhomeoffootball.org