Moss Street v St Philips Football (1907)

Blackburn
1907-03-30
Silent
2m

Schoolboy footballers fight it out at Ewood Park.

Mitchell & Kenyon's camera captures the fierce physical rivalry between the young players in this Edwardian football match between two Blackburn schoolboy teams. Moss Street were the favourites in this Harry Boyle charity football cup final at Blackburn Rovers' Ewood Park, but the match ended in a 3-3 draw. Two replays followed before Moss Street won 4-0 on their third attempt.

Many of the thousands of spectators who turned out for the match would have worked at the nearby Ewood Park Cotton Mill. The Harry Boyle cup, established in Blackburn in 1897, is one of the oldest school football trophies in the UK. The three finals raised £279, which went to local charities.

Edwardian Football

The beautiful game, Edwardian style, in some of the earliest ever film of League, international and amateur football

For Blackburn-based filmmakers Mitchell & Kenyon, the attraction of football was at least as much the swelling crowds - who they hoped to lure to paid screenings - as the game itself. With only a few hundred feet of film on hand and far less mobile cameras than today's, their cameramen could only hope to sample the action on the pitch; catching a goal was a rare bonus.

The crowds' passion and energy are almost spectacle enough, but these films also survive as priceless football history - preserving, among other trophies, the earliest known footage of Manchester Utd and probably the first 'international' games captured on film.